Wrist angle measurements using soft sensors

With new technologies appearing, there are many opportunities to innovate in the field of human-machine interfaces. Motion tracking measurements done directly on the human body are an intuitive way to input data from a user, but existing technologies are either confined to an experimental room or must continuously fight against integration drift using sensor fusion. Bulkiness and comfort can also be issues. In this paper, a novel approach is shown enabling absolute wrist angle measurements using three hyperelastic strain sensors placed at specific locations around the wrist. Once calibrated, the device can successfully measure flexion, extension, radial deviation, ulnar deviation, pronation and supination while having a very small impact on the user. As a proof of concept, the wrist sensor is used to control remotely the roll, pitch and yaw of a quad copter.