Abstract: Barefoot slips contribute to over 37% of recurrent fall-related injuries across all age groups. To study slip risk across a wide range of flooring conditions, slip meters with barefoot surrogates (i.e., sensors, as per ASTM standard nomenclature) such as animal skins and rubbers have been used to date, which exhibit biomechanical and frictional properties widely different from the barefoot human skin. Development of a surrogate which can accurately simulate the human heel skin properties would be immensely beneficial for realistic assessment of barefoot slipping risk. A novel surrogate was developed using 3D scanning and printing, and biomimetics, which precisely simulates the biomechanical and frictional properties of the barefoot human heel skin. Mechanical slip testing was conducted with this surrogate on three common bathroom floorings and with six different contaminants. Coefficient of Friction (COF) results similar to human slipping experiments, high repeatability and reproducibility across wet and oily flooring conditions, were confirmed through experiments with the developed heel skin surrogate. The heel skin surrogate would be an indispensable model for accurate estimation of barefoot risk against slips and falls in bathrooms, bathtubs, and swimming pools.

Key words:  , Barefoot, Surrogate, Slip, Fall, Bathroom, Bathtub