GonioPi: Towards Developing a Scalable, Versatile, Reliable and Accurate Handheld-Wearable Digital Goniometer

Abstract

Range of Motion (ROM)Testing is an important physical examination performed in physical therapy used in assessing the ROM of a patient's joint. The most commonly used instrument for ROM Testing is the universal goniometer. The most common cause for unreliable and inaccurate joint angle ROM measurements is measurement errors. Multiple studies have been done to mitigate measurement errors in clinical goniometry by designing and developing wearable digital goniometers using sensor technology. This study aims to design and develop a handheld-wearable digital goniometer called the GonioPi that is versatile, scalable, reliable and accurate when using the MPU-6050 IMU sensor and Raspberry Pi Pico as the main components. The results showed that the GonioPi is versatile and scalable as it is able to support multiple ROM Tests using multiple different positions on people with varying heights, weights, and BMI categories. The results also showed that the GonioPi is reliable and accurate as it was able to record joint angle ROM measurements of less than 5 degrees and 10 degrees which are the accepted standard values for reliability and accuracy, respectively.