Mechanical modeling of bend sensors exploited to measure human joint movements

Flexibility, lightness, wearability and cheapness are the most important features for a successful adoption of bend sensors, being they fundamental elements to realize systems able to convert static positions and movements into electrical signals. Even though these sensors have been employed for many different applications, the focal aspect of their mechanical modeling is still not adequately considered. For such a reason the aim of this paper is to fill a lack concerning the method of bend sensors mechanical characterization and modeling. The results have been exploited to realize an instrumented glove able to measure finger joints movements.