Development of a Multifunctional Intelligent Elbow Brace (MIEB) Using a Knitted Textile Strain Sensor

Passive smart textiles are the textile structures that can sense stimuli, which may come from mechanical, thermal, electrical, or chemical sources. Textile strain sensors are smart textiles products in which the sensor’s resistance changes with applied strain. This study consists in the development of a textile strain sensor and its application on a Multifunctional Intel- ligent Elbow Brace (MIEB). The hand-knitted sensor was developed using knitting needles. The material used for this sensor was conductive yarn and lycra. The sensor developed was subjected to a stretch recovery test using a universal testing machine,, and the electrical resistance was measured using an electrical multimeter. The sensor developed has good sensing ability against cyclic loading and unloading at a 5%, 20%, 35% strain level. After testing, the sensor was stitched on an elbow brace to develop an MIEB. This study involved the best economical method for measuring the bowling angle of the player using this MIEB without any need for a biomechanical test, which is very expensive. This MIEB can also be used for rehabilitation purposes and for monitoring joint movement.

The authors would like to thank the National Textile University, Pakistan, and Shinshu University, Japan, for providing materials and characterisations for the above research project.