Development and Evaluation of a Low-Cost Data Acquisition System using Heterogeneous Sensors

Acquiring the human’s musculoskeletal movements is pivotal in conducting physiotherapeutic studies, rehabilitation exercises and, designing assistive devices to cater mobility impairments. Existing studies are generally more focused on measuring a specific phenomenon and/or lack the diversity needed to cover a range of human activities. In this context, the research presented herein is aimed to develop a low-cost wearable sensory system, having a diverse set of sensors, which can acquire data of healthy and rehabilitated subjects alike during diverse locomotor activities in both indoor and outdoor environments. The system consists of twenty wearable sensors, and two off-the-shelf NI’s myRIO microcontroller boards. The statistical analysis showed no significant difference between and among the subjects for various locomotor activities (P-values < 0.05), hence, showing the system’s reliability and reproducibility. Gait-event identification (i.e., heel contact/toe off) has also been evaluated and showed promising results (overall time difference= ±50ms during level ground and ramp activities).