Design and analysis of a 6-DOF force/torque sensor for human gait analysis

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a compact and robust 6-DOF force/torque sensor for human gait analysis. The forces and torques exerted on human foot are important information for the gait analysis. Multi-axis force/torque sensor can be installed under human foot the sense the forces and torques. The sensor should have large force range without reducing the accuracy to support the human weight and small size not to disturb the motion of the subject. In this paper, we present a 6-DOF force/torque sensor which has good accuracy, large measuring range, and new compact structure. And it is much cheaper than a commercial one. The proposed design is simulated by FEM software (ANSYS), and it shows good results being applied large forces and moments. This new sensor can be used to sense the center of pressure (CoP) and zero moment point (ZMP) of the human foot for gait analysis.