Magnetometer-free motion tracking of one-dimensional joints by exploiting kinematic constraints

Abstract

Inertial measurement units play an important role in human motion tracking since they provide a more flexible, low cost alternative to optical motion capture systems. However, in indoor environments the inhomogeneous magnetic field makes conventional sensor fusion approaches inapplicable. In connected multi-body systems, kinematic constraints between the individual segments can be exploited to enable a magnetometer-free, long-term stable and real-time capable orientation estimation. In this paper, we introduce a method for systems with one-dimensional joints that can be applied to different joints in the human body like the knee, the humeroradial joint or the proximal/distal interphalangeal joints of the hand.