Customizable Pressure Sensor Array: Design and Evaluation

Abstract

Pressure senor array is widely used in gait analysis and robotics. To meet the demand on different sizes and reduce the manufacture costs, in this paper, we proposed a design method for customizable pressure sensor array which could be trimmed into different sizes. The customizable pressure sensor array was made of piezo-resistive fabric and flexible circuits, which made it suitable for the sensor array to be trimmed into different sizes. Pressure sensors were uniformly distributed to maintain the resolution of the pressure sensor array when trimmed into different sizes. Wires on the flexible circuits were designed to ensure that all the full/partial sensors remained on the sensor array could be used after trimming the sensor array into a smaller size. To evaluate the design method, we designed insole shaped customizable pressure sensor arrays to analyze gait parameters such as gait cycle and cadence. Spatial and temporal pressure distribution patterns acquired with trimmed and non-trimmed sensor arrays were used for analyzing. Experiment results indicated that the customizable pressure sensor array designed with the method proposed in this paper could be used to acquire spatial and temporal pressure distribution patterns without being influenced by trimming.