Survey of Motion Tracking Methods Based on Inertial Sensors: A Focus on Upper Limb Human Motion

Survey of Motion Tracking Methods Based on Inertial Sensors: A Focus on Upper Limb Human Motion
Alessandro Filippeschi, Norbert Schmitz, Markus Miezal, Gabriele Bleser, Emanuele Ruffaldi, Didier Stricker
Article

Abstract:: Motion tracking based on commercial inertial measurements units (IMUs) has been widely studied in the latter years as it is a cost-effective enabling technology for those applications in which motion tracking based on optical technologies is unsuitable. This measurement method has a high impact in human performance assessment and human-robot interaction. IMU motion tracking systems are indeed self-contained and wearable, allowing for long-lasting tracking of the user motion in situated environments. After a survey on IMU-based human tracking, five techniques for motion reconstruction were selected and compared to reconstruct a human arm motion. IMU based estimation was matched against motion tracking based on the Vicon marker-based motion tracking system considered as ground truth. Results show that all but one of the selected models perform similarly (about 35 mm average position estimation error).

Keywords:: kinematics; sensor fusion; motion tracking; inertial measurements units