2016 – 2019

This project, which received funding from the Enabling Innovation project (an EU Regional Development Fund funded program) was to develop an innovative textile pressure sensor to monitor the pressure at the skin-seat interface for wheelchair users, with the aim of preventing the formation of pressure ulcers. The pressure sensor took the form of a knitted spacer structure with knitted electrodes incorporated on the upper and lower layers. The middle layer contains either a dielectric or resistive material; as pressure is applied the middle layer compresses, and the capacitance or resistance over the sensor changes. The novelty of this sensor was that it was knit in a single production step using computerised flat-bed knitting.

Details of this innovation are available in the following articles:

‘A Knitted Multi-Junction Pressure Sensor That Uses Electrical Resistance to Determine the Applied Pressure: Development and Characterization‘

‘The characterization of a pressure sensor constructed from a knitted spacer structure‘