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Exploring Inertial Sensor Fusion Methods for Direct Ergonomic Assessments

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Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies (BIOSTEC 2020)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 1400))

Abstract

The industrial site, particularly assembly lines, encompass repetitive labour processes which are considered an ergonomic risk factor for the onset of musculoskeletal disorders. Direct assessments methods promote faster ergonomic feedback, supporting the development of sustainable working conditions. This work presents an upper-body motion tracker framework using inertial sensors to provide direct measurements for ergonomics research. An experimental assessment performed by 14 subjects was completed in order to evaluate the joint angle reconstruction of the proposed method while using the measures of an optical motion capture system as reference. This study investigated the results of three distinct complementary sensor fusion techniques, namely the quaternion-based complementary filter, the Mahony filter and the Madgwick filter. Furthermore, foreseeing the possibility of magnetic disturbance in industrial environments, a comparison was conducted between methods that use magnetic data, i.e. 9-axis, and other inertial-based approaches that do not require magnetic information, i.e. 6-axis. A quantitative analysis was performed using two metrics, the cumulative distribution function and the root-mean-square error, hence, providing an evaluation for the different sensor fusion approaches. The overall results suggest that the 9-axis Madgwick filter although noisier presents a more accurate angular reconstruction.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Associação Fraunhofer Portugal Research, Rua Alfredo Allen 455/461, 4200-135, Porto, Portugal

    Sara Santos, Duarte Folgado & Hugo Gamboa

  2. Laboratório de Instrumentação, Engenharia Biomédica e Física da Radiação (LIBPhys-UNL), Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, FCT, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516, Caparica, Portugal

    João Rodrigues, Nafiseh Mollaei & Hugo Gamboa

  3. Volkswagen Autoeuropa, Quinta da Marquesa, 2954-024, Quinta do Anjo, Portugal

    Carlos Fujão

Authors
  1. Sara Santos
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  2. Duarte Folgado
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  3. João Rodrigues
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  4. Nafiseh Mollaei
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  5. Carlos Fujão
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  6. Hugo Gamboa
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sara Santos .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Xuesong Ye

  2. Fraunhofer Portugal Research Center for Assistive Information and Communication Solutions, Porto, Portugal

    Filipe Soares

  3. Nice Sophia Antipolis University, Nice Cedex 2, France

    Elisabetta De Maria

  4. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Pedro Gómez Vilda

  5. University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

    Federico Cabitza

  6. Instituto de Telecomunicações, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Ana Fred

  7. Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Caparica, Portugal

    Hugo Gamboa

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Santos, S., Folgado, D., Rodrigues, J., Mollaei, N., Fujão, C., Gamboa, H. (2021). Exploring Inertial Sensor Fusion Methods for Direct Ergonomic Assessments. In: Ye, X., et al. Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies. BIOSTEC 2020. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1400. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72379-8_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72379-8_14

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-72378-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-72379-8

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