ETD

• conductive elastomer composite
• gait analysis
• rotational laxity
• wearable system

This present work describes the performance evaluation of a wearable system realized on a textile substrate able to monitor lower limb movements. More precisely, the research focuses on the design and realization of a wearable system for analyzing the knee joint and on the possibility of using a sensing garment in clinical and sport applications. Firstly, a static and dynamic characterization of CE sensor is described. A part of this Thesis is dedicated to the analysis of the excessive rotational laxity of the knee joint. To do this, we realized a particular prototype devoted to monitoring the internal-external angle of the knee. Since the rotation angle is small and its measurement is influenced by soft tissue artifact, we developed a new device that was designed to calibrate the sensing garment and to apply stresses that simulate those applied by clinicians during injury assessment.
Finally, a preliminary pilot study was performed in order to discriminate between healthy subjects with normal walking and pathologic subjects having undergone post-surgery therapy. The patients suffering from venous ulcers had difficulty in walking, depending on the severity of the disease, and usually showed improvements in their walking capability after undergoing surgery.