Evaluating the Performance of a Modified Skin Temperature Sensor for Lower Limb Prostheses: An Experimental Comparison

TL;DR

This study compares a modified thermistor with a standard one for real-time skin temperature monitoring in lower limb prostheses, aiming to improve comfort and early detection of skin issues in outdoor environments.

Contribution

The paper introduces a modified thermistor design and evaluates its performance against standard sensors for prosthetic skin temperature monitoring.

Findings

Some modified thermistors showed improved temperature recording.

Modified thermistors have potential for comfortable, real-time skin temperature monitoring.

Challenges and improvement areas for outdoor thermistor use are identified.

Abstract

Current rehabilitation of lower limb prostheses has significant challenges, especially with skin conditions, irritation and discomfort. Understanding the skin temperature and having comfortable wearable sensors that would monitor skin temperature in a real-time outdoor environment would be useful. The system would help the user and orthopedic technician to provide feedback and changes that might be required in the prosthesis. Hence in this paper, a series of experiments are conducted in order to understand and characterize the system behavior and compare a general thermistor and a modified thermistor as a potential method of temperature measurement for outdoor usage of prostheses. The paper goes on to compare the different modified thermistors behavior with their regular counterpart and highlights the challenges and improvement areas needed for such a modified thermistor for outdoor temperature monitoring in a prosthetic system. Initial results show that some of the modified thermistors showed better temperature recording compared to the rest. Finally, such modified thermistors can be a potential alternative for comfortable temperature measurement embedded in the prosthesis system. Such a system can provide valuable insights into temperature distribution and an early warning system for skin problems