Depiction of how the smart insole estimates #D GRFs by using an AI model.
A team of researchers in the United Kingdom has developed a smart insole system that can accurately measure the body’s interaction with the ground, opening new possibilities in sports science and healthcare by estimating ground reaction forces (GRFs). The TG0 Smart Insole captures fine-grained movement information such as the pressure distribution under different parts of the foot, while the built-in inertial measurement unit (IMU) provides precise motion tracking.
“This combination makes it an exceptionally versatile data acquisition platform, not only for supporting research but also for practical applications in healthcare, rehabilitation, and sports science,” said Liucheng Guo, PhD, the project lead and CTO of TG0.
Leveraging the advanced TG0 Smart Insole with an innovative artificial intelligence (AI) method, their method demonstrated high accuracy with an error rate as low as 4.16%. Specifically, the team designed and implemented an experimental setup involving various movement protocols.
What sets this study apart is that the team also created a publicly available dataset that combines sensor data from insoles with gold standard force plate readings. This dataset is the first of its kind dataset includes multi-modal sensor data from smart insoles with force plate readings and could accelerate research in biomechanics and wearable technologies.
