DEVELOPMENT OF AN AFFORDABLE WIRELESS FORCE PLATFORM

• Main Author: Azels, William
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Subjects: Teknik (Rekayasa, enjinering dan kegiatan berkaitan)
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/52167
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Force Platform is a useful instrument in biomechanics to measure walking motion, balance and jump height. In Indonesia, there are currently no company that produce force platforms, and the force platform prices offered by foreign producers such as AMTI or Kistler are still quite expensive. The ITB Biomechanics Team is currently developing a force platform with a lower price. Previously the force platform has been successfully developed with a 3-axis load cell so that it can measure in 3-directions. However, the data acquisition that is designed is still difficult to use and requires a wired connection from the data acquisition to the computer. The purpose of this research is to design a data acquisition system that uses a wireless network so that the force platform and computer do not need to be connected by a cable of limited length, and can measure the ground reaction force, the center of pressure and the free moment of the force platform after performing the calibration process. A new data acquisition, using the previously used hardware, NI9237, is used to pick up a signal from the loadcell, which will then be sent to a computer via a wireless network so that the signal can be processed using an application that was created with the help of LabVIEW, software made by National Instrument. The data obtained from this application can be processed again using MATLAB to get the desired graphic. The application was successfully created and used to retrieve ground reaction force data, center of pressure and free moment after performing the calibration process. Thus, this force platform can be used for the required biomechanical analysis.