Abstract
Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) is a very common disease that affects millions of people each year; however, there is not an effective way to monitor it. By creating a device that is strapped to an individual’s leg, RLS can be easily monitored. This device measures the amount of vibration a person gives off while uncontrollably shaking their leg. A piezoelectric cantilever beam was selected to monitor these vibrations and a protective housing was designed to comfortably fit around a human leg. The device was fabricated using 3D printing techniques and was tested by machine to ensure its operation. A variable speed Scotch Yoke apparatus with a displacement of 10 mm which oscillates at different rates was used for testing the device. By wiring the developed sensor, and a reference accelerometer to a Data Acquisition Card, comparisons were made between the true movement and the measured voltage of the sensor. The piezoelectric cantilever beam was then strapped on a volunteer to attempt to replicate the results. The experimental results showed a consistent frequency output with the reference one and can be used as a reference for monitoring restless legs syndrome.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Ekbom, K., Ulfberg, J.: Restless legs syndrome. J. Intern. Med. 266, 419–431 (2009)
Earley, C.J.: Restless legs syndrome. N. Engl. J. Med. 348(21), 2103–2109 (2003)
Hammock, M.L., Chortos, A., Tee, B.C., Tok, J.B., Bao, Z.: 25th anniversary article: the evolution of electronic skin (e-skin): a brief history, design considerations, and recent progress. Adv. Mater. 25(42), 5997–6038 (2013)
Giurgiutiu, V.: Structural Health Monitoring with Piezoelectric Wafer Active Sensors. Elsevier, Amsterdam (2005)
Huang, Y., Dong, W., Huang, T., Wang, Y., Xiao, L., Su, Y., Yin, Z.: Self-similar design for stretchable wireless LC strain sensors. Sens. Actuators A 224, 36–42 (2015)
Lipomi, D.J., Vosgueritchian, M., Tee, B.C., Hellstrom, S.L., Lee, J.A., Fox, C.H., Bao, Z.: Skin-like pressure and strain sensors based on transparent elastic films of carbon nanotubes. Nat. Nanotechnol. 6(12), 788 (2011)
Jaffe, B., Cook, J.W.R., Jaffe, H.: Piezoelectric Ceramics. Academic Press Inc., New York (1971)
Sodano, H.A., Inman, D.J., Park, G.: A review of power harvesting from vibration using piezoelectric materials. Shock Vib. Dig. 36(3), 197–206 (2004)
Booth, R., Goldsmith, P.: A wrist-worn piezoelectric sensor array for gesture input. J. Med. Biol. Eng. 38(2), 284–295 (2018)
Mahbub, I., Pullano, S.A., Wang, H., Islam, S.K., Fiorillo, A.S., To, G., Mahfouz, M.R.: A low-power wireless piezoelectric sensor-based respiration monitoring system realized in CMOS process. IEEE Sens. J. 17(6), 1858–1864 (2017)
Curry, E.J., Ke, K., Chorsi, M.T., Wrobel, K.S., Miller, A.N., Patel, A., Kim, I., Feng, J., Yue, L., Wu, Q., Kuo, C.L.: Biodegradable Piezoelectric Force Sensor. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 115, 909 (2018)
Dong, W., Xiao, L., Hu, W., Zhu, C., Huang, Y., Yin, Z.: Wearable human–machine interface based on PVDF piezoelectric sensor. Trans. Inst. Meas. Control 39(4), 398–403 (2017)
Acknowledgements
We thank Thomas Kunkel for assistance in 3D printing of the prototype housing.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Bower, K., Colon, R., Karnyski, C., Minkel, J., Rashidi, R. (2019). Piezoelectric-Based Monitoring of Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS). In: Deng, K., Yu, Z., Patnaik, S., Wang, J. (eds) Recent Developments in Mechatronics and Intelligent Robotics. ICMIR 2018. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 856. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00214-5_114
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00214-5_114
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-00213-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-00214-5
eBook Packages: Intelligent Technologies and RoboticsIntelligent Technologies and Robotics (R0)