Fabrication of Soft and Comfortable Pressure-Sensing Shoe Sole for Intuitive Monitoring of Human Quality Gaits

Abstract: The study discusses the design and fabrication of flexible pressure sensors using Ecoflex/Graphene composites. The fabricated sensor is used for the application of intuitive monitoring of human quality gaits and implementation of the soft and comfortable shoe sole for rehabilitation of the patients with foot disorder is also taken into consideration. The sensor is fabricated using molding and casting technique by sandwiching the thin film Ecoflex/Graphene composites between the copper (Cu) electrodes with the dimension of 15 x 15 mm2 with high sensitivity. There are five pressure sensors integrated in the shoe sole, a sensor at the forefoot, three sensors at the midfoot and one sensor at the lower foot (heel). The behavior of the sensor is negative piezoresistive in which the resistance decreases as the pressure increases. The sensors are embedded in a soft and comfortable shoe sole and then integrated with a laptop or mobile application to monitor and analyze human gait in real-time. Furthermore, a dedicated Graphical User Interface (GUI) is designed to read the data. The pressure sensors are integrated with ESP32 microcontroller which wirelessly transmit data to the GUI and smart phones which could be further used in the intuitive monitoring, rehabilitation of the patients with foot disorder or neuromotor diseases.