Selectable Gain Amplifier for Inductive Sensor used

to measure Human Motion

Gustavo Theodoro Laskoski, Sergio Francisco Pichorim, and Paulo Jose Abatti
Graduate School of Electrical Engineering and Applied Computer Sciences (CPGEI)
Federal University of Technology - Parana (UTFPR)
Curitiba, Brazil

AbstractHuman motion measurement is an important tool

in medical applications. This work describes a selectable gain
amplifier for an inductive based sensor used to measure human
limbs angle. Preliminary tests show that sensor response errors
are less than 2%.
Index TermsBiomedical instrumentation, Human motion
measurement, Inductive sensor.

In this work an improvement of goniometers response,

provided by a selectable gain amplifier (SGA) to read signal
in reception unit, is presented. Experimental setup is showed,
and results are discursed.

I. I NTRODUCTION

Figure 1 shows a graphical representation of this sensor, that

has two coils arranged in the same plane. An AC signal applied
in transmitter coil (T X) induces a voltage in receiver coil
(RX). Thus, the distance (d) can be determined by measuring
the amplitude of received signal.

Human motion characteristics are of great interest for clinical purposes [1]. Scientific and technological advances have
improved methods and equipaments that are applied in human
motion measurements. The most common techniques are visual observation and image processing. Visual observation is a
subjective method which makes it difficult to achieve a reliable
diagnosis and image processing requires more sophisticated
equipments [2, 3].
Another common technique in human motion analysis is
the direct application of specific devices that allow reading
kinematic parameters. Such devices can provide information
about linear or angular values. In general, linear values are
obtained by using accelerometers which measure acceleration
in a specific direction and permit to obtain other kinematic
parameters like velocity and position. Unfortunately, such
systems usually present a low sensitivity to slow motion and
external accelerations can interfere in the final readout [4, 5, 6].
On the other hand, angular measurements are usually obtained
by using goniometers that can be formed by two arms and a
protactor (known as universal goniometer), or it can formed by
a flexible rod coated by a plastic and employs a strain gauge
as transducer [7]. Althoght simple, both universal and flexible
goniometers have presented problems due misalignments between articulation axis and goniometers axis. As a solution to
this problem, equipaments which combine accelerometers and
gyroscopes have been developed, but they still have presented
problems thar are common in systems that employ inertial
sensors [5, 6].
Recently, a goniometer with inductive sensors has been
developed where the coupling between two coils has been
used to measure distance by an AC signal applied in one coil
and measuring the induced voltage in second coil. Combining
distance value with other geometric parameters it is possible
to measure angles. However, previous works [8, 9] presented
errors due to low signal/noise ratio of received signal.

II. M ATERIALS AND M ETHODS

A. The sensor with constant gain

Fig. 1: Graphical representation of the sensor

Pichorim and Abatti [10] describe a simplified method to
determine magnetic flux density (B) and mutual inductance
(M ) in a magnetic link. Assuming that the used coils are
coplanar and separation distance (d) is gratter than transmitter
coil radius (a), the magnetic flux density can be expressed by
0 .i.a2 .n1
,
(1)
4d3
where 0 is magnetic permeability of the medium and n1 is
number of turns of TX coil. The theoretical value of mutual
inductance (M ) can be obtained by the product of area inside
the coil and magnetic flux density [10], yielding
B=

n2 .B..b2
0 ..a2 .b2 .n1 .n2
=
,
(2)
i
4d3
where n2 is number of turns of receiver coil and b is receiver
coil radius. Figure 2 shows the circuit used to measure M . The
transmitter unit has an AC signal generator, and a LC circuit.
The receiver unit presented a coil and an amplifier circuit with
constant gain.

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M=

Fig. 2: Circuit that allows relating mutual inductance and

distance with constant gain.

In this arrangement, due to high impedance of operacional

amplifier, the current in RX is zero. So, it can be demonstrated
that M is measured by
M=

L1 .V
,
A.Vg

(3)

where Vg is voltage of generator, L1 the inductance of

transmitter coil and A is voltage gain of amplifier circuit. The
practical value of d is determined by measuring the voltage
(V ) in receiver unit. Combining (2) and (3) and isolating d,
yielding
s
d=

.A.Vg .0 .a2 .b2 .n1 .n2

.
4.L1 .V

(4)

B. Receiver Unit with a Selectable Gain Amplifier

According to equation (4), the distance d is inversely
proportional to the cube root of received voltage (V ). As a
consequence, the derivative of voltage in relation to distance
(V d) is high for short distances and near zero to long
distance values where signal presents low amplitudes. Thus,
the response of this sensor can be improved by multiplying
received voltage with a controlled gain value (A) in equation
(4), resulting the derivative (A.V d). For short distances
the gain can be small. In contrast, the gain should be greater
for long distances, increasing the resolution of sensor. Figure 3
shows the receiver unit with a selectable gain amplifier (SGA).
The circuit has four non-inverter amplifiers with four outputs
(V1 , V2 , V3 , and V4 ) in a cascade model, i. e., the gain of one
stage depends of previous stages except for the first one.

Fig. 3: Receiver Unit with a Selectable Gain Amplifier. It is

formed by four non-inverter amplifiers in a cascade model.
This circuit was adopted because it permits using small
gains in each stage, and works with high frequencies. The
behavior of this system is described by following equations

d1 = f (A1 , V1 ) |Vg ,L1 ,a,b,n1 ,n2 =const., ,

(5)

d2 = f (A2 , V2 ) |Vg ,L1 ,a,b,n1 ,n2 =const., ,

(6)

d3 = f (A3 , V3 ) |Vg ,L1 ,a,b,n1 ,n2 =const.,

(7)

d4 = f (A4 , V4 ) |Vg ,L1 ,a,b,n1 ,n2 =const..

(8)

where equations (5), (6), (7), and (8) are functions that
correspond to equation (4) distinguished according gains (A1 ,
A2 , A3 , and A4 ) and output voltages (V1 , V2 , V3 , and V4 ) with
Vg , L1 , a, b, n1 , and n2 constants. The distance d is obtained
by solving one of the above equations (5), (6), (7), or (8).
The adequated equation is selected restricting V1 , V2 , V3 , and
V4 in a region of interest with minimum (V ) and maximum
(V+ ) limits due the output range voltage that each operacional
amplifier supports. Thus, distance (d) is determined by the
following system

d = d4 if V V4 V+

d = d3 if V V3 V+ and V4 > V+
(9)
d = d2 if V V2 V+ and V3 > V+

d = d1 if V V1 V+ and V2 > V+
where the equation to determine d is selected according to
output level voltage. If an output voltage (Vn ) is lower than
V , the next output voltage (Vn+1 ) will be selected where n
labels the outputs of the SGA. In contrast, if an output voltage
(Vn ) is higher than V+ the previous output voltage (Vn1 ) will
be used. If all output voltages (Vn ) are not in the region of
interest, distance d is out of measuring range.
III. T ESTS AND R ESULTS
Figure 4 shows a picture of experiment that consists in compare distances inferred between coils with distances obtained
by measuring output voltages of the SGA circuit according to
equation (9).

Fig. 4: Picture of experiment that consists in measuring voltage

of received signal with a variation of 1 cm between coils in
the distance range from 2 to 27 cm.
The transmitter unit has a LC circuit tuned in 47 kHz
with a capacitor (C1 ) about 1.26 F and a transmitter coil

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(L1 ) with a circular form, 14 turns in a wire AWG 24, and

inductance about 6.72 H. The receiver unit has a receiver
coil and an integrated circuit (TLV2374) which contains four
operacional amplifiers. The receiver coil has a circular form
with 71 turns (distribuided in 3 layers) in a wire AWG 30,
and inductance about 175 H. Both coils have 25 mm in
diameter. An exponentially damped sinusoidal with maximum
peak to peak value of 9 V was applied in transmitter coil and
maximum peak to peak voltage in receiver unit was read with
a scope using AC coupling to avoid DC levels in final readout
due to operacional amplifier offsets.
In the first test, three operacional amplifiers (with gains
of 11, 121, 1331 in first, second and third SGA stages
respectively) were used to validate this technique. Figure 5
presents theoretical and practical values using three stages.

Based on this, a second test was done with same conditions

of first test, but with different gains and using some procedures
to minimize errors. First, it was decided that only signals with
distances about six times greater than transmitter coil radius
(in this case, 7.5 cm) would be measured. In a recent work
[9], it was shown that short distances are not important in
some biomedical applications, e. g., goniometry. The second
procedure was restricted output voltage range between 0.5 and
4.0 V because some significant erros were found (greater than
10%) to voltage levels that were outside this range.
The first stage has a gain about 21 dB (A1 = 11) and it was
used only to increase the received signal amplitude for other
stages (the maximum gain voltage of TLV2374 in 25 dB in
47 kHz). Other gains were determined isolating A in equation
(4), yielding
An =

Fig. 5: Theoretical (lines) and practical (dots) responses to

the first test. Theoretical response was obtained according
equation (9) using three stages and output range from 0 to
5 V.
Figure 6 shows standard desviation to distances from 4 to
28 cm. The values of 2 and 3 cm are not shown because it
presented voltages higher than 5 V. Furthermore, it was verified great discrepancies in short distances because according
to Pichorim and Abatti [10], the theoretical model is valid
only when distances between coils are gratter than transmitter
coil radius. Moreover, there are some significant errors next
to 16 cm due discontinuity of function between second and
third stages.

4.d3 .L1 .V
.Vg .0 .a2 .b2 .n1 .n2

(10)

where An is gain of one stage (A1 , A2 , A3 or A4 ) in function

of distance and received voltage. Thus, using equation (10) to
a desirable received voltage of 4 V in 7.5 cm, a total gain (A2 )
of 121 is necessary in second SGA stage. After determine A2 ,
it is possible to find the distance that has a received voltage
of 0.5 V by using equation (4). In this case, (A2 = 121) the
distance is about 12 cm. Thus, the second SGA stage works
in a distance range from 7.5 to 12 cm, and it is possible to
determine the desirable gain for the next stage that must works
in distance greater than 12 cm. The third gain SGA stage (A3 )
was determined to a desirable received voltage of 4 V in 11
cm (it was chosen 11 cm instead of 12 cm to supports some
possible variations in some parameters of the system, e. g.,
supply voltage or generator voltage). So, it is necessary a total
gain about of 380 in third SGA stage according to equation
(10). As a consequence, the distance that presents a received
voltage of 0.5 V is about 18 cm. Thus, the SGA works from
7.5 to 18 cm with three stages (A1 , A2 , and A3 ). Besides
that, a fourth gain SGA stage (A4 ) was used to increase the
distance range of sensor by using equation (10) to determine
a voltage of 4 V in 17 cm, resulting in a total gain of 1185
and a voltage 0.5 V in 26 cm of distance between the coils.
Table 1 shows a description about distance range of each SGA
stage.
TABLE I: Distance range operation of each SGA state.
SGA stage
2nd
3rd
4th

Minimum value of
distance
7.5cm
11.0cm
17.0cm

Maximum value of
distance
12cm
18cm
26cm

Figure 7 shows theoretical and practical responses using

four stages with gains of 11, 121, 380, and 1185. The values
were obtained from 8 to 26 cm and samples were taken with
a variation of 1 cm.
Fig. 6: Standard desviation in function of distance from 4 to
28 cm in the first test

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Fig. 7: Theoretical (lines) and practical (dots) responses to

the second test. Theoretical response was obtained according
equation (9) using four stages and output from 0.5 to 4 V.

preventing a direct comparison between them. However, it

is possible to see an improvement in behavior of sensor
which does not present an increase of errors proportional with
distance as presented in previous works [8, 9]. Especially in
the second test that presented small errors ( = 1.75%) to
distance range from 8 to 26 cm. Moreover, the SGA outputs
were restricted from 0.5 to 4 V allowing to interface with
simple analog to digital converters.
Future works can be developed to improve resolution and
convert received signal in digital form with an automatic
selection of SGA output allowing to interface with a computer.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported in part by CNPq (Brazilian
Council for Scientific and Technological Development).

Figure 8 shows standard desviation to distances from 8 to

26 cm. It was found a maximum standard desviation in 24 cm
( = 1.75%).

Fig. 8: Standard desviation in function of distance from 8 to

26 cm in the second experiment.
IV. D ISCUSSION AND C ONCLUSION
The response of an inductive sensor used to measure
distances was improved using a selectable gain amplifier in
receiver unit. It is possible to see a decreasing of errors by
comparing results of this work with others two works that
employed a receiver unit with constant gain (references 8 and
9). Table 2 shows a comparision between 1st and 2nd tests
of this work with tests done in previous works, presenting
distance range operation and maximum standard desviations
in each test.

R EFERENCES
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Goniometer based to computer, Engineering in Medicine and Biology
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IEEE, v 4, pp 3290-3293, 2003.
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Frere, Development of a Computed Device for Shoulder Goniometry,
Latin American Congress on Biomedical Engineering. Joao Pessoa (in
Portuguese), 2004.
[4] S. Kurata, M. Makikawa, H. Kobayashi, R. Tokue, and A. Takahashi,
Joint Motion Monitoring by Accelerometers set at both near sides
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Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, v 47, n 4, pp 10201022, 1998.
[8] G. T. Laskoski and S. F. Pichorim, Development of a Telemetric
Goniometer with Inductive Sensor for Medical Applications, XXI
Brazilian Congress on Biomedical Engineering, pp 922-925 (in Portuguese), 2008.
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TABLE II: Comparision between tests using a SGA unit (1st

and 2nd tests) with tests that used constant gain.
Test
1st test
2nd test
ref erence [8]

Distance range
8.0 to 28 cm
8.0 to 26 cm
3.0 to 23.8 cm

ref erence [9]

6.0 to 25.6 cm

Maximum standard desviations

5.36% in 16 cm
1.75% in 24 cm
3.57% in 20.65 cm
5.7% in 23 cm
13.04% in 23.8 cm
5.88% in 22.6 cm
12.05% in 24.5 cm
17.61% in 25.6 cm

It is important to point out that tests from other works have

different conditions (e. g. coils, frequency, and supply voltage)

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