Foot orthosis strain sensing in hill walking

An embedded measurement system for foot orthosis during gait is proposed. In this paper strain gauge sensors are mounted on a foot orthosis in order to give information about strain in the sagital plane. The ankle angle of the orthosis is fixed. Strain characteristics are therefore changed when walking on slopes. It is investigated if strain information can be used for detection of inclination and estimation of inclination angle. Also walking speed influence is studied. It is shown that strain sensing only gives significant information about up hill walking. At a known walking speed ground angle can be estimated for up hill walking.