SMARTWALKER – ROLLING WALKER INSTRUMENTATION AND DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT TO MONITOR, VISUALIZE AND STORE ROLLING WALKER USAGE DATA

Abstract

The Smart Walker project was designed to fill a necessity of monitoring in real time the use of rolling walkers (RW) and study the causes that contribute to the high rate of fallings among its users. The main objectives of the project were to measure the major forces applied by RW users in real time and store it safely for further analysis. The first prototype of the Smart Walker includes the measurement of axial load, torque and gripping force applied on the handle as well as acceleration and rotation angles while it is being used. The axial load was measured using strain gages installed on each leg of the rolling walker allowing the measurement of the overall axial load and its distribution. The torque and gripping force applied to the handles were also measured using strain gage rosettes and Force Sensitive Resistors (FSR) respectively. To measure the acceleration and angles of rotation a 6 (Degrees of Freedom) DOF Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) was implemented. The (Data Acquisition) DAQ system was developed using Arduino boards and Xbee antennas. Arduino boards offer a reliable and cost effective option for DAQ and were successfully implemented in this project. Furthermore, consistent and secure wireless transmission of data was required and achieved using Xbee antennas. A user interface (UI) was developed using LabVIEW that obtained the readings from the Arduino board, showed the measurements graphically in real time and stored the data for further analysis. This work serves as a reference for strain gage measurement, low-cost DAQs, wireless transmission of data using Xbee antennas. It also covers the use of Finite Element Method (FEM) to assist in the design of strain gage systems and aims to close the gap between the Arduino and LabVIEW interaction. The work has been presented so readers can replicate each phase of the project and adapt it to their specific needs.