Foot Acceleration Measured with Accelerometer

This project illustrates an acceleration sensor being placed on a shoe to measure the acceleration of the foot during running, walking, and sport activities.

The design of the device includes a 3-axis accelerometer along with wireless transmitter, an ATmega324P microcontroller, and MAX23 chip for RS232 serial communication. The measured acceleration data is sent by the transmitter together with time values where Matlab is used for viewing the x, y, and z acceleration values. To determine if there are any differences in acceleration that the foot experienced that could have caused or lead to ACL injury, the device compares data obtained during athletic activity with normal activity.

Along with a transmitter, the accelerometer sensor is attached to the foot and attached serially to the computer is the receiver station. The acceleration data from the accelerometer is taken by the sensor where packets of 15 sampled data point are created along with the time they were acquired. The packets are transmitted wirelessly to the receiver. When Matlab requests data over the serial port, the receiver parses the packets and responds.

The accelerometer relates to effects felt by the knee due to foot impact and twisting.

Rest of the project