A Low-Cost Three-Axis Force Sensor for Wearable Gait Analysis Systems

Abstract

This paper presents the design, analysis, and fabrication of a capacitive-based three-axis force sensor as the building block of a wearable sensing system to directly measure all the components of three-dimensional (3D) ground reaction forces (GRFs) during walking. The proposed sensor is low-cost and easy to fabricate with high accuracy, which promotes its accessibility and usability for gait analysis in clinical and research settings. The sensor is comprised of three parallel capacitors that enable three-axial force measurement while significantly reducing the complexity of fabrication and maintenance associated with three-axis force sensors. Comprehensive experiments were conducted to rigorously quantify different aspects of the sensor's performance. The static and dynamic errors along the three axes were less than 2.28%, which is well within the acceptable range for the intended application. The force sensor could decouple three-axial forces with a cross-sensitivity of less than 2%. The developed sensor also demonstrated desirable repeatability and hysteresis behaviors with almost no drift over long periods of usage.