STTR Phase I: SmartRun Monitor for Gait and Form Analytics

这个STTRI期项目将扩大规模并表征一种新的压力传感器技术，该技术有可能创造出一种负担得起的、可接触的鞋垫，可以实时和在现实世界中准确地测量个人的步态(跑步或行走形式)。步态分析在各种设置中都有使用。然而，步态分析在防止受伤、改善机动性和改善患者生活方面的使用受到了阻碍，因为它只能在医疗设施内使用。拟议的新型传感器系统能够收集关于步速和步态/脚步打击的客观数据，从而清楚地了解一个人实际上是如何走出实验室环境的。该设备将使更好的教练数据能够训练运动员状态，以防止每年困扰3200万美国长跑运动员的跑步损伤；对65岁以上美国人的步态和平衡问题进行持续监测和预测，其中约1150万人每年摔倒导致230万人严重受伤；以及临床医生可以与糖尿病足部溃疡发病相关的强制数据，糖尿病足部溃疡每年发生在180万慢性糖尿病患者中。STTRI期项目旨在开发步态监测器，它结合了一种新颖、低成本、坚固耐用和可整合的压力传感技术，可以检测法向和剪切力，并使用加速度计和电子设备来处理和分析这些数据。与现有的商用触觉传感器不同，该技术包括用于信号传输的可伸缩电极和用于剪切和法向应力测量的具有压阻性的离子液体聚合物复合材料。虽然建议的传感器已经小批量制造并在实验室环境中进行了测试，但在进行更接近步态分析产品要求的测试的同时，必须探索材料配方和传感器配置。STTR第一阶段项目的主要目标是调查一系列材料配方对法向和剪切力测量的影响，探索传感器配置如何影响法向和剪切力测量，重点关注信号处理和传感器灵敏度的复杂性，并证明建议的剪切传感器适用于鞋垫应用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This STTR Phase I project will scale up and characterize a new pressure sensor technology that has the potential to create an affordable, accessible shoe insert that accurately measures, stride-for-stride, an individual's gait (running or walking form) in real time and in the real world. Gait analysis is used in a wide variety of settings. However, the use of gait analysis to prevent injury, improve mobility and improve patients' lives has been hampered because it is constrained to use within medical facilities. The proposed novel sensor system has the ability to collect objective data on both pace and gait/foot strike to give a clear picture of how a person actually moves outside of a laboratory setting. The device would enable better coaching data to train athlete form to prevent running injuries which afflict 32 million U.S. distance runners each year; ongoing monitoring and prediction of gait and balance issues in Americans over age 65, about 11.5 million of whom fall each year leading to 2.3 million serious injuries; and force data which clinicians can correlate to the onset of diabetic foot ulcers, which occur in 1.8 million chronic diabetic patients each year. This STTR Phase I project seeks to develop gait monitor that combines a novel, low-cost, robust and conformable pressure sensing technology that can detect both normal and shear forces with an accelerometer and electronics to process and analyze this data. Unlike existing commercial tactile sensors, the technology consists of stretchable electrodes for signal transmission and ionic liquid-based polymeric composite having piezoresistivity for shear and normal stress measurements. While the proposed sensor has been fabricated in small quantities and tested in laboratory settings, exploration of material formulations and sensor configurations must be undertaken alongside testing that more closely approximates gait analysis product requirements. Key goals under the STTR Phase I project are to investigate the impact of a range of material formulations on normal and shear force measurements, explore how sensor configurations affect normal and shear force measurements with a focus on the complexity of signal processing and sensor sensitivity, and prove the suggested shear sensors are suitable for shoe insert applications.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.