Using Step Size and Lower Limb Segment Orientation from Multiple Low-Cost Wearable Inertial/Magnetic Sensors for Pedestrian Navigation
Date
2019-07-17
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Abstract
This paper demonstrates the use of multiple low-cost inertial/magnetic sensors as a pedestrian navigation system for indoor positioning. This research looks at the problem of pedestrian navigation in a practical manner by investigating dead-reckoning methods using low-cost sensors. This work uses the estimated sensor orientation angles to compute the step size from the kinematics of a skeletal model. The orientations of limbs are represented by the tilt angles estimated from the inertial measurements, especially the pitch angle. In addition, different step size estimation methods are compared. A sensor data logging system is developed in order to record all motion data from every limb segment using a single platform and similar types of sensors. A skeletal model of five segments is chosen to model the forward kinematics of the lower limbs. A treadmill walk experiment with an optical motion capture system is conducted for algorithm evaluation. The mean error of the estimated orientation angles of the limbs is less than 6 degrees. The results show that the step length mean error is 3.2 cm, the left stride length mean error is 12.5 cm, and the right stride length mean error is 9 cm. The expected positioning error is less than 5% of the total distance travelled.
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Keywords
wearable sensors, step length, stride length, wearable multi-sensor system, forward kinematics, pitch angle, skeletal model, step size
Citation
Tjhai, C., & O'Keefe, K. P. G. (2019). Using Step Size and Lower Limb Segment Orientation from Multiple Low-Cost Wearable Inertial/Magnetic Sensors for Pedestrian Navigation. "Sensors, 19", 3140. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s19143140