As the technique of wearable robot has been developed to be used in everyday life, sensing of obstacles is one of the most important factors. When applying gait assist device such as wearable
robots, it is important to measure the exact distance between toes and obstacles while walking. In this paper, a new system which can detect the distance of obstacles in gait is introduced.
The proposed system consists of two kinds of sensors; foot pressure sensors for detecting if the foot is in contact with the ground, and ToF (Time-of-Flight) sensors to measure the frontal distance between the foot and the obstacle. With the integrated sensor system, it is possible to measure the exact distance in mid-stance phase. Real-time monitoring and data logging software has been developed for experimental validation and demonstration and the experimental results of the propose method are also introduced.