Smart bionic morphing leg mannequin for pressure assessment of compression garment

Abstract

Compression garments, exerting appropriate pressure on the surface of needed body zones, have a wide application in medical, athletic, body-shaping, and healthcare fields. The exerted pressure, including the pressure amplitude and the special distribution, plays a significant role on the treatment efficacy. This paper presents a novel solution for pressure evaluation of precise pressure measurement of compression garments based on a smart bionic and morphing leg mannequin with 25 structured-fibre pressure sensors and 4 temperature sensing units. These pressure sensors with a high sensitivity (up to 54.7 pm kPa−1 with an accuracy of ∼0.03 kPa) in the range from 0 to 10 kPa were embedded in the leg mannequin according to the German standard (RAL-GZ 387/1) and anatomical structures of ankles. Such sensor network can provide a precise pressure-mapping rather than a mean pressure obtained from other measurement systems. The fabricated leg mannequin can morph from size 23 (Size M) to 27 (Size L) with an accuracy of 0.125 mm in circumference, reducing the required leg mannequins in routine tests of manufacturing and medical applications. Furthermore, the measured pressure exerted on the fabricated mannequin was well consistent with those exerted on the human leg, showing non-uniform pressure distribution due to the apophysis and local buckles. Therefore, the characteristics of high sensitivity to low-pressure, pressure mapping, bionic, and morphing make the leg mannequins promising to be applied for routine tests in customization of compression garments.