Design and characterization of a wearable macrobending fiber optic sensor for human joint angle determination

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2013

Authors

Silva, AS (Author) Other; Catarino, A (Author) Other; Correia, M. V. (Author) FEUP; Frazao, O (Author) FCUP

Journal

Title: Optical Engineering

Vol. 52

Final page: 126106

ISSN: 0091-3286

Publisher: SPIE

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 26 Citations

Scopus - 41 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-008-K5R

DOI: 10.1117/1.oe.52.12.126106

Abstract (EN): The work presented here describes the development and characterization of intensity fiber optic sensor integrated in a specifically designed piece of garment to measure elbow flexion. The sensing head is based on macrobending incorporated in the garment, and the increase of curvature number was studied in order to investigate which scheme provided a good result in terms of sensitivity and repeatability. Results showed the configuration that assured a higher sensitivity (0.644 dBm/deg) and better repeatability was the one with four loops. Ultimately, this sensor can be used for rehabilitation purposes to monitor human joint angles, namely, elbow flexion on stroke survivors while performing the reach functional task, which is the most common upper-limb human gesture. (C) 2013 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 5