Stretchable piezoresistive vs. capacitive silicon sensors integrated into ski base layer pants for measuring the knee flexion angle

The knee is the most often injured body part in alpine skiing. The loads on different structures of the knee, and thus the risk of injury, is influenced by the flexion angle of the knee joint. A mechatronic ski binding continuously supplied with information about the knee joint’s flexion angle could...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSports engineering Vol. 23; no. 1
Main Authors Hermann, Aljoscha, Ostarhild, Julius, Mirabito, Yakira, Bauer, Nicole, Senner, Veit
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Springer London 01.12.2020
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering
Body parts
Compression tests
Engineering
Engineering Design
Flexible components
Human subjects
Injury prevention
Joints (anatomy)
Knee
Materials Science
Rehabilitation Medicine
Sensors
Silicon
Skiing
Sports Medicine
Technical Note
Theoretical and Applied Mechanics
Underwear
Winter Sports
Mechatronic ski binding
Knee flexion sensor
Piezoresistive fibre
Technical textile
Capacitive sensor
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Summary:The knee is the most often injured body part in alpine skiing. The loads on different structures of the knee, and thus the risk of injury, is influenced by the flexion angle of the knee joint. A mechatronic ski binding continuously supplied with information about the knee joint’s flexion angle could adjust its release settings to react to the situation appropriately. In this study, a silicon-based piezoresistive sensor fibre and capacitive silicon sensor were compared with respect to their ability to measure the knee flexion angle. Each sensor type was incorporated in base layer compression pants. These sensor-underwear-systems were validated using a flexion test rig and in a human subject test ( n  = 20). The pants with capacitive sensors performed better, as they were more accurate (e.g. mean error 3.4° ± 5.1° of the capacitive sensor vs. 10.6° ± 7.5° of the resistive sensor in the human subject test) and had fewer hysteresis effects. Flexible sensors integrated into compression underwear can provide valuable data of the knee angles for performance measurements in sports or safety systems, and thus may help to reduce knee injuries.
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ISSN:1369-7072
1460-2687
DOI:10.1007/s12283-020-00336-9