MAKING REVOLUTIONARY SMART MATERIALS TO BRING FORCE SENSING TO APPLICATIONS PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT IMPOSSIBLE.
Axioforce is a sensor company based on a smart materials breakthrough made by Drs. Cory Berkland and Jonathan Miller at the University of Kansas. The two were working on a DoE sponsored project developing cushions that leverage magnetic fields to sense compression, and ended up developing a revolutionary soft 3D force sensing technology.
Since discovery, Drs. Berkland and Miller spun the technology out of the University into a start up company, Axioforce, and have developed several devices with the technology including soft robotic fingertips, portable 3D force plates, and smart shoe insoles.
Axioforce has 10 employees with a broad base of scientific expertise ranging from space plasma physics to chemical engineering and exercise physiology.
Axioforce’s first commercial product is a line of portable 3D force plates. Force plates are platforms that are used for measuring forces produced by the body during movement, such as walking, jumping, or sport movements. Generally, 3D force plates are heavy, immobile, and inconvenient to use, however Axioforce’s sensor technology allows for 3D force plates that are significantly more cost effective, portable, and convenient than is possible with legacy 3D load cells.
This advantage makes Axioforce force plates an attractive option for sport performance analysis and monitoring in baseball, golf, and other sports. The sensor technology has applications far and wide, from replacing legacy strain gauge technology in load cell construction, to wearable athlete monitoring tools.
However, “The long-term mission of Axioforce is to develop smart shoe insoles as a medical gait monitoring tool for diagnosing gait abnormalities and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s,” says Jonathan Miller, CTO of Axioforce.
“We think our sensors can help doctors spot issues in aging patients much earlier than they can with the current standard of care.”
Axioforce is currently working on several NIH sponsored projects to develop the smart shoe insoles, called Axiostride, into an automated gait screening and monitoring tool. Axiostride will help doctors and patients work together to identify and intervene with gait issues and keep aging Americans from losing their mobility and independent lifestyle.
Axioforce is also exploring partnerships with companies for many other product verticals. These verticals robotic fingertips, load cells, and smart prosthetic liners. In 5-10 years, many new soft 3D force sensing products on the market from a variety of companies may be powered by Axioforce’s smart material technology.
