Using Freescale's low g accelerometers

Introduction

Rehabilitation engineering is the systematic application of engineering sciences to design, develop, adapt, test, evaluate, apply and distribute technological solutions to problems confronted by individuals with disabilities. Determining precise joint angles is extremely important to rehabilitation and biomedical engineers as well as physiotherapists and ergonomics specialists. The angle data is essential for identifying abnormal patterns and characterizing impairments, disabilities and handicaps. Disabled patients, such as those suffering from hemiplegia (half the body is paralyzed) or hemiparesis (half the body is weakened but not paralyzed), may experience limited speed and amplitude in some body movements. For such cases, an electrogoniometer is a useful tool for measuring joint angles, such as those for elbows or knees, to determine the extent of the disability. The electrogoniometer is an electronic device that uses angle sensors, such as potentiometers, strain gauges and, more recently, accelerometers to record such measurements.

Commonly-used technology

The most common electrogoniometers employ one of the following three sensor schemes:

Potentiometers: A potentiometric element is attached to a joint's rotation point. The potentiometer's electrical resistance can be used to determine the angle between the joints. These types of electrogoniometers are somewhat bulky and restrict patient movement. The instrument's precision can also be compromised due to its inability to follow any changes in the joint's axis of rotation.

Strain gauges: Also known as flexible electrogoniometers, a strain gauge is a flexible spring with plastic end blocks on each end. The strain gauge mechanism is housed inside the spring, which changes its electrical resistance proportionally to the change in angle between the plastic end blocks' longitudinal axes. Strain gauges are lightweight, portable, easily applied, do not restrict movements nor interfere in patient activities and adapt well to different body segments. These are currently the most popular electrogoniometers.

Optoelectronic systems: These are video systems that use one or more video cameras to track bright markers placed at various locations on the patient's body. These markers are either infrared (IR), light emitting diodes (LEDs) or solid shapes of reflective tape. The system keeps track of the vertical and horizontal coordinates of each marker, and computer software processes this information to determine the angle on the body segments of interest. Although optoelectronic systems offer good precision, their calibration procedures and data analysis are time-consuming.

Using accelerometers to measure angles

For electrogoniometer applications, Freescale offers a wide variety of accelerometers that offer the following features:

Low g, medium g and high g, ranging from 1.5 to 12g measurement capability One, two or three axis measurements, allowing greater application flexibility Either analog or digital (IC/SPI) output signal format Fast response time, low current consumption, low voltage operation and a standby mode, all in a small profile package to detect fall, tilt, motion, positioning, shock or vibration The Freescale MMA1260 (Z-sensing axis) low g accelerometer is a good choice and behaves as illustrated in Figure 4 .

Comparing Figures 4 and 5, when the accelerometer is in a static horizontal position, or zero degrees angle (a), its horizontal axis is exposed to the earth's gravity acceleration, registering a positive 1g, and the analog output voltage is at its maximum value. If it rotates 90 degrees in either negative (b) or positive (c) directions, the acceleration on its axis will be 0g, and the analog output value will be in its intermediate range value. If it rotates 180 degrees (d), negative gravity acceleration will register -1g, and its output analog signal will be at its minimum value. By using this behavior and simple linearization techniques, a simple 8-bit microcontroller (MCU), such as Freescale's MC9S08JM (S08JM) device with USB functionality, can be used with an accelerometer to measure one-dimension angles between any surface and the horizontal plane. In this case, an analog-to-digital controller (ADC) channel was used to convert the analog signal and process it as digital angle information. However, the need for an ADC is eliminated if an accelerometer with I2C or SPI output is used instead. Furthermore, this method can be extended to measure angles in two and three dimensions using Freescale's MMA7455L 3-axis digital output accelerometer, for example. By doing this, instead of measuring the relative angle between two segments, it's possible to create a three-dimensional representation of the segment being measured, allowing more information to be gathered.

S08JM family of MCUs

The S08JM family, which is part of the low-cost, high-performance HCS08 family of 8-bit MCUs, extends Freescale's entry-level USB portfolio with one of the industry's most cost-effective USB control solutions. Featuring on-chip USB 2.0 full-speed device support, the S08JM family provides an economical, quick and easy way to standardize serial communications in industrial and consumer applications. All MCUs in the family use the enhanced HCS08 core and are available with a variety of modules, memory sizes, memory types and package types. T he S08JM8 MCU is a good, cost-effective choice for this application because it has all the peripherals necessary to implement electrogoniometer functionality. These include ADC, I2C/SPI and USB communications. More information about this and other 8-bit MCUs can be found at www.freescale.com/8bit.

Implementation

Figure 6 is a prototype of an accelerometer-enabled electrogoniometer. Essentially, the prototype was constructed on a platform (A) to study the accelerometer's (B) angle behavior using segments controlled by stepper motors (C) and a microcontrolled circuit. The joint angle is simulated by the stepper motors controlling the movement of the segments connected to the accelerometers' axes. These accelerometers (MMA1260) send the electrogoniometer (D) an analog signal proportional to the angle of each segment. The electrogoniometer then converts the analog signals to digital signals using simple ADC conversions and extracts angle information by using simple linearization techniques. This information is then sent to a computer and an LCD display via USB communication. A) Angle measurement platform B) Accelerometers C) Stepper Motors D) Electrogoniometer

A block diagram of the system (Figure 7) illustrates the use of Freescale's low g accelerometers as the angle sensors, sending the angle of each segment to the central processing unit via analog or digital serial communication, depending on the accelerometer used. The central processing unit, an S08JM MCU which acquires the angles from the accelerometers, makes all necessary calculations and sends this information to an LCD. USB communication can also be used to send the data to a printer or to be stored for further clinical analysis.

Conclusions

Using the methodology and techniques described in this article, it is possible to implement precise, low-cost angle measurement systems for electrogoniometers or other applications used to measure static angles. The article focuses on how to implement single-axis measurements, but the same methodology can be used for two- and three-axis measurements. Multiple-axis measurements using Freescale's accelerometers can provide the data necessary for a complete three-dimensional representation of any segment. It is important to note that this method is very useful for all static angle measurements for such clinical cases as hemiplegia or hemiparesis, where patients present movement limitations. In these cases, the electrogoniometer is very useful for measuring, monitoring and recording patient performance and treatment results. The method, however, is not recommended for many sports medicine cases where high-speed body movements may induce measurement errors for all acceleration forces other than earth's gravity. Nonetheless, for clinical measurement studies of movement impaired patients, accelerometer-enabled electrogoniometers are highly efficient, cost-effective monitoring tools.

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