Evaluation of wearable KPF goniometers in knee flexion-extension measurement for daily-life applications

Rehabilitation for stroke survivor is an important activity to recover daily-life functional performances. A daily life monitoring system composed of different subsystem was developed within the INTERACTION EU project. Sensing trousers using a couple of IMUs integrated on the thighs and shanks and a textile goniometers in the knee region was designed to detect kinematic asymmetries between affected and unaffected legs in gait/ambulation. In this study we compared the performances of our textile goniometer based on KPF materials with a couple of IMUs for the evaluation of knee flexion-extension. We used a statistical approach (T-student test) to verify that the signal gathered from the goniometer has the same information of the one extracted from the IMUs. These results demonstrate a reliable performance of our sensors, which have the advantage to be more flexible, lighter and less expensive than current wearable technologies.