Enhanced Hardware Design of Force Platform
S.M.N.A. Senanayake, Senior Member, IEEE , M. M. Danushka R. Marasinghe Student Member,
M Chandrapal, M. H. Tung, IEEE, N. J. M. Kumar Student Member, IEEE, Yulius ,D. Gouwanda
Abstract— Force platform is a platform used to quantify the
ground reaction forces exerted on it. It is widely for gait
analysis, rehabilitation, anomalies detection, etc. This paper
presents the design and construction of two similar platforms.
The design focuses on improvement of the existing force
platform developed at Monash University Sunway Campus.
Each platform has a dimension of 480mm x 540mm x 15mm
and consists of 144 force sensitive resistor (FSR). These two
force platforms can be combined into one to provide a larger
movement area for test subjects. Furthermore, several
experiments are conducted to monitor the force distribution on
human feet in several activities.
I. INTRODUCTION
T HE subject of biomechanics is growing as athletes turn
to science and technology to improve their
performances. Force platform is one of the technologies
used by athletes to evaluate their performances in various
sports events such as running and jumping. Other than
sports, force platforms are also used in various fields such as
gait analysis, orthopedics, prosthetics, anomalies detection,
and other general industrial uses.
By analyzing the ground reaction forces and the
movement pattern of an athlete on the platform, it is possible
to determine the appropriate flooring, footwear and supports
needed for a particular type of sport. Besides that, these
data may prevent crucial injuries and help to improve the
quality of a particular type of sport.
Due to its vast applications, Srinivasan et al, developed a
pressures sensitive floor that consists of numerous sensor
mats capable of independently gathering and transmitting
pressure information [1]. Paradiso et al, designed and
developed a magic carpet that uses piezoelectric wires as its
sensing elements [2]. In Monash University Sunway
Campus, force platforms were constructed using Force
Sensitive Resistor (FSR) as its sensing elements [3], [4].
Manuscript received November 12, 2007. This work was supported in
part by Monash University Sunway Campus, Malaysia
D. Gouwanda is with the Monash University Sunway Campus, Bandar
Sunway 46150, Malaysia (e-mail: darwin_gouwanda@yahoo.com).
S. M. A. Senanayake is with Monash University Sunway Campus,
Bandar Sunway 46150, Malaysia (e-mail:
senanayake.namal@eng.monash.edu.my)
M. Chandrapal is with the Monash University Sunway Campus, Bandar
Sunway 46150, Malaysia (e-mail: mcha34@student.monash.edu).
M. H. Tung is with the Monash University Sunway Campus, Bandar
Sunway 46150, Malaysia (e-mail: mhtun2@student.monash.edu).
M. M. D. R. Marasinghe is with the Monash University Sunway
Campus, Bandar Sunway 46150, Malaysia (e-mail:
dmar1@student.monash.edu).
N. J. M. Kumar is with the Monash University Sunway Campus, Bandar
Sunway 46150, Malaysia (e-mail: jmnad1@student.monash.edu)
Yulius is with the Monash University Sunway Campus, Bandar Sunway
46150, Malaysia (e-mail: yyul6@student.monash.edu).
These force platforms are able to provide quantitative and
qualitative analysis on force exerted by a human on the floor
during walking, running, and jumping. They are able to
provide valuable information on how the ground reaction
forces are distributed over the human feet during walking,
running and jumping.
Despite its merits in analyzing the ground reaction forces
of human feet during various activities, previous designs
possess several drawbacks in their hardware architectures.
By referring to the shortcomings of previous designs, a
newly improvised force platform system is presented in this
paper. In addition, this system will have better features in
term of the flexibility, portability, rigidity as well as its
sensing capability.
II. DRAWBACKS IN PREVIOUS DESIGNS
As mentioned earlier, previous force platforms possess
several limitations in their hardware designs. One of the
limitations is its base material. In previous designs, yoga mat
and wooden board are used as base materials. Yoga mat is
too soft and does not imitate the real-life flooring hence lead
to less reliable readings [3]. While wooden board is harder
than yoga mat, but it is fragile. Intensive activities
performed on top of the force platforms may lead to the
cracking of the platforms [4].
Another drawback of previous designs is the use of
individual wires to connect the sensing elements. This
caused the board to be extremely bulky and introduced
unnecessary complications [3], [4] .
Lastly, the final drawback of previous designs is the
design layout of the signal conditioning circuit. In the first
design, conventional breadboard and wires are used to
connect various components in the circuit [3]. This design,
as shown in Fig. 1, is very hard to troubleshoot and the error
ratio is significantly high. Thereby, to improve the aesthetic
of the circuit and ease future troubleshooting, customized
Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) are made in the second design
[4]. However, this design is not viable as it introduced
enormous jumper in the circuitry.
 Fig. 1. One of the signal conditioning circuits developed in previous work
[3] Fig. 3. A 3D model of the second layer.

III. ENHANCED HARDWARE ARCHITECTURE
In order to improve the previous design, SolidWorks is
implemented in the earliest stage of the design process.
SolidWorks is a 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD)
software that employs a parametric, feature-based approach
to create models and assemblies. Before any fabrications and
assemblies, a 3D model of the complete force platforms is
formed initially. Through this initial design, errors in the
design stage are reduced to minimum. A complete design of
the force platform is shown in Fig. 2
C. Third Layer
As mentioned earlier, previous designs utilized individual
wires to connect each sensor. Even though it was simpler,
this method was error prone and difficult to troubleshoot.
For this reason, in the latest design, a customized Printed
Circuit Board (PCB) is made as the third layer. This layer
provides the connection between the sensors and the signal
conditioning circuit. In addition, a soft padding has been
placed on the bottom to protect electrical circuitry.

Fig. 4. The third layer of the force platform before etching process

D. Bottom Layer
Fig. 2. A 3D model of the complete force platform
The bottom layer functions as a cover to hold all the
Through several corrections in the design stage, the final layers together and ensure the stability and rigidity of the
model of the force platform consists of four layers where platform. It is fashioned from the same material as the top
each layer has its own properties and purposes. layer and the second layer: an acrylic board with a
dimension of 40cm x 54cm and thickness of 3mm.
A. Top Layer Furthermore, this layer has an additional soft padding layer
This layer is made of acrylics board that has dimension of attached to the bottom side. The main purpose of this
540 mm x 480 mm with thickness of 3 mm. On this layer padding is to prevent the board from sliding while a subject
there are 144 holes with 20mm diameter drilled through the is performing his activities on the force platform.
acrylic board to expose the sensitive surface of the sensor.
Exposing the sensitive surfaces enable the sensor to come
into direct contact with the applied force. Additionally, there
are also 54, M4 countersunk screw holes that spread evenly
across the layers to hinder the whole platform from sagging
or bulging.
B. Second Layer
The second layer of the platform is designed to house the
FSR sensors. Therefore, there are 144 holes with 12 mm
Fig. 5. A 3D model of the bottom layer
diameters drilled to place FSR connectors. In housing the
sensor, there are two aspects needed to be considered
carefully: firstly the FSR’s have to be in alignment with the
holes in the layer above, secondly the FSR connectors have
to match with the copper clad board in the layer below. To
accommodate these considerations, similar to previous layer,
there are 54 holes with 4 mm diameter spread evenly across
it.

Fig. 6. Completed force platform
IV. SIGNAL CONDITIONING CIRCUIT
The signal conditioning circuit is mainly responsible for
collecting and transmitting the signals received from the
sensing elements to data acquisition device, LabJack. It
contains numerous operational amplifiers and multiplexers.
In this circuit, row and column selection method is
introduced to switch readings among the 144 sensing
elements. A row selector switches the analog signals
received from the sensing elements in row manner.
Afterward, six outputs from the row selection circuits are
multiplexed by using a single multiplexer, which is called a
column selector. A general overview of this circuit is shown
in Fig. 7.
Fig. 7. An overview of the signal conditioning circuitry
Finally based on the electrical design, customized PCBs
are made. PCB developed in this work is considered as one
of the major improvement. In this design, the total amounts
of electrical jumpers and connectors have been reduced
significantly. Furthermore, the circuit board layout has been
fully optimized to ease future maintenance and
troubleshooting procedures. These improvements have
considerably reduced the overall cost required to produce
the signal conditioning circuits too.
Fig. 8. Signal conditioning circuit
V. LABJACK AND DATA ACQUISITION SOFTWARE
LabJack is a USB/Ethernet based measurement and
automation devices. It has 14 analog inputs (12- to 16-bit), 2
analog outputs (12-bit), 23 digital I/O, 2 counters, and 6
timers. 8 of the digital I/O can be configured to be up to 6
timers and 2 counters. In this work, LabJack is used to
sample the analog signals from the sensing elements and to
transmit them to a workstation i.e. computer for further
processing.
In the workstation, LabJack is coupled with LabVIEW to
provide quantitative and qualitative analysis of human gait.
LabVIEW is a graphical programming language that uses
icons instead of lines of text to create applications.
Using LabVIEW, an interactive and user friendly program
is developed. This program prompts the user to key in
relevant information such as subject’s weight and height,
number of samples, and the activity to be performed i.e.
static, walking, running or jumping. Subsequently, it scans
the force platforms, samples the analog signals received and
display them interactively in the software interface.
VI. ACTIVITIES ON THE FORCE PLATFORMS
Activities performed on the force platforms include static
(initial position of the subject), walking, running and
jumping. The platform is capable of analyzing the force
intensity, ground reaction forces and instantaneous (also
maximum) force during walking, running and jumping. The
experiment results, which are acquired in real time, enable
close monitoring of test subject’s gait. Additionally, results
obtained from the previous experiment can be review
interactively in the following session.
VII. CONCLUSION
Enhanced hardware architecture of the force platform has
been successfully developed. It solved the limitations of the
previous design and improved the rigidity, flexibility,
portability and sensing capability. Furthermore, the design
layout of the signal conditioning circuit has been fully
optimized to reduce the overall cost and ease the future
troubleshooting procedures. Finally, several experiments
were conducted to monitor and record force distribution on
human feet in static, walking, running and jumping.
Furthermore, the results are satisfactory and have proven
that the overall system is considerably reliable and accurate.
REFERENCES
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