Study on wireless data transmission for dynamometer walker system

Abstract

Functional electric stimulation (FES) is one of good rehabilitation tools in helping paraplegic patients to regain their abilities to walk. FES-assisted paraplegic walking efficiency can be quantitatively evaluated by analyzing the handle reaction vector (HRV). For this purpose, a dynamometer walker system was recently developed. In the system, a cable was used to transmit sensing data from the walker to a PC for calculating HRV. The cable may interfere the moving of the walker to result in inconvenience or a failure of paraplegic walking, even new hurts to the paraplegic patients. To avoid this problem, a wireless data transmission system is proposed in this paper, which mainly uses two CRM2400 modules for wireless data sending and receiving, respectively. The system structure, the interface circuit between a micro controller unit (MCU) and CRM2400 module, the communication protocol, and the software design are given in this paper. The system is implemented based on these designs and works steadily. ©2009 IEEE.