Automatic pairing of inertial sensors to lower limb segments – a plug-and-play approach

• Published in: Current directions in biomedical engineering Vol. 2; no. 1; pp. 715 - 718
• Main Authors: Graurock, David, Schauer, Thomas, Seel, Thomas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: De Gruyter 01.09.2016
• Subjects: automatic calibration; inertial sensor networks; realtime gait analysis; sensor-to-segment pairing; wireless inertial measurement units
• ISSN: 2364-5504; 2364-5504
• DOI: 10.1515/cdbme-2016-0155

Inertial sensor networks enable realtime gait analysis for a multitude of applications. The usability of inertial measurement units (IMUs), however, is limited by several restrictions, e.g. a fixed and known sensor placement. To enhance the usability of inertial sensor networks in every-day live, we propose a method that automatically determines which sensor is attached to which segment of the lower limbs. The presented method exhibits a low computational workload, and it uses only the raw IMU data of 3 s of walking. Analyzing data from over 500 trials with healthy subjects and Parkinson’s patients yields a correct-pairing success rate of 99.8% after 3 s and 100% after 5 s.