Wearable Sensory System for Robotic Prosthesis

The paper presents a wearable sensory system aimed at tracking of motion parameters and estimation of kinematic data of the wearer for use in controlling active lowerlimb ortho-prostheses. The sensory system comprises inertial and magnetic measurement units (IMUs) attached to body segments and sensorized insoles worn inside sneaker shoes. Through sensory fusion, the IMUs data is used to produce estimates of segment orientations, while the insoles provide information on vertical ground reaction force amplitude and distribution. The paper outlines the principles of the algorithms and show the evaluation of them. Algorithms use both reference and wearable sensory data to extract information about the subject’s kinematics, movement type and phase and track selected biomechanical stability descriptors. The paper discusses preliminary experimental results of the proposed algorithms.