Dual mode pressure sensing for prosthetic interfaces

Abstract

In this work we present an electronic system to simultaneously measure dynamic and static normal pressure at the interface between prosthetic limbs and the patient's body. Monitoring the contact forces that occur in between prosthesis's sockets and residual limb is crucial to ease their customization process and eventually to reduce the pain and the stress for the amputee. We propose a novel sensing unit design that jointly exploits piezo-electric and piezo-resistive technologies to detect and to discriminate dynamic and static stimuli. A dedicated and digitally configurable electronic interface has been designed to interface the sensing unit with any microcontroller.