Wearable Detection of Trunk Flexions: Capacitive Elastomeric Sensors Compared to Inertial Sensors

Continuous monitoring of flexions of the trunk via wearable sensors could help various types of workers to reduce risks associated with incorrect postures and movements. Stretchable piezo-capacitive elastomeric sensors based on dielectric elastomers have recently been described as a wearable, lightw...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2021-08, Vol.21 (16), p.5453
Hauptverfasser: Frediani, Gabriele, Bocchi, Leonardo, Vannetti, Federica, Zonfrillo, Giovanni, Carpi, Federico
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:Volltext
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Continuous monitoring of flexions of the trunk via wearable sensors could help various types of workers to reduce risks associated with incorrect postures and movements. Stretchable piezo-capacitive elastomeric sensors based on dielectric elastomers have recently been described as a wearable, lightweight and cost-effective technology to monitor human kinematics. Their stretching causes an increase of capacitance, which can be related to angular movements. Here, we describe a wearable wireless system to detect flexions of the trunk, based on such sensors. In particular, we present: (i) a comparison of different calibration strategies for the capacitive sensors, using either an accelerometer or a gyroscope as an inclinometer; (ii) a comparison of the capacitive sensors’ performance with those of the accelerometer and gyroscope; to that aim, the three types of sensors were evaluated relative to stereophotogrammetry. Compared to the gyroscope, the capacitive sensors showed a higher accuracy. Compared to the accelerometer, their performance was lower when used as quasi-static inclinometers but also higher in case of highly dynamic accelerations. This makes the capacitive sensors attractive as a complementary, rather than alternative, technology to inertial sensors.
ISSN:1424-8220
1424-8220
DOI:10.3390/s21165453