Amitrano, Federica (2022) Project, Development and Experimental Setting of Wearable E-Textile Systems for Remote Health Monitoring. [Tesi di dottorato]

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Abstract

Wearable devices are electronic systems that, due to their characteristics, can be worn and used to detect, analyse and transmit vital signs. The interest of the clinical field in wearable systems thus arises from the opportunity to follow and monitor the patient for long periods of time and in any environment, according to the principles of telemedicine and overcoming the limitations of the ambulatory approach. The current trend shifts the focus from the general concept of wearable technology to the more specific concept of Electronic Textiles. E-Textiles are textiles that integrate electronic components and represent an ideal solution for the realisation of sensors in direct contact with the body, ensuring comfort and ease of use at the same time. The development of e-textile devices for medical applications therefore represents an interesting challenge to face up in the near future, while large companies, that are active in the sector, are already engaged in the development of wearable systems to be placed on the market. This work presents the design and development of several devices based on e-textile technology that can be applied to the medical field, according to the typical patterns of remote monitoring and telemedicine systems. The prototype devices realised are: a smart T-shirt, smart socks and a sensorised ankle-foot orthosis. The smart T-shirt integrates textile electrodes for measuring ECG and EMG signals and a wearable sensor for detecting trunk accelerations. The smart socks integrate sensors capable of detecting foot plantar pressures and angular velocities of the lower limbs while walking. These devices have also been tested on patients to verify their performance, using gold standard systems employed in clinical settings as a reference. The ankle-foot orthosis uses similar textile pressure sensors, EMG electrodes and accelerometers, in order to show how e-textile solutions can be applied to different areas of medicine for different purposes. In the end, it was tested a commercially available medical system based on textile technologies, with the aim of providing support to the manufacturing company in the validation and engineering of the device.

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