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Method and System for Measurement of Ground Impedance Under the Shoes for Automatic Terrain Recognition: A Feasibility Study
Date Issued
01-01-2022
Author(s)
Sharma, Shubhanshu
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
Abstract
Reliable automatic terrain recognition is key for numerous applications including robotics, navigation of the visually impaired, and amputees. It is a complex sensing problem and multiple modalities will be needed to improve the accuracy of recognition and reliability. Timely feedback on the type of ground surface can help in safely guiding through their path and support to prevent from slipping and falling. In this paper, a novel method to measure the ground impedance between the shoes of a person or a robot is presented. The feasibility of the scheme in supporting terrain recognition is experimentally studied and presented. Measurement of ground impedance between the shoes needs a special solution as the ground impedance comes in parallel with the relatively low-value body impedance of the person. A novel technique is proposed to bring the body impedance in series with the ground impedance as far as the measurement system is concerned. The sole of the shoe is modified by integrating flexible electrodes and conductive stitches, without affecting the comfort. A suitable electronic interface is developed to obtain the impedance value of the ground across the feet, from these modified shoes. A prototype has been developed and tested in the laboratory and in the field. Experimental results show that different terrains such as concrete, gravel, wet and dry soil, grass, marble, etc. can be distinguished based on the impedance values. The proposed method and system will be very useful in providing additional new and valuable information to the existing terrain detection systems, e.g., vision-based. A fusion of these two will improve the reliability of the automatic terrain recognition as they both provide different and independent information about the terrain.
Volume
2022-October