title: Accuracy of inertial motion sensors in static, quasistatic, and complex dynamic motion.
abstract: Inertial motion sensors (IMSs) combine three sensors to produce a reportedly stable and accurate orientation estimate in three dimensions. Although accuracy has been reported within the range of 2 deg of error by manufacturers, the sensors are rarely tested in the challenging motion present in human motion. Their accuracy was tested in static, quasistatic, and dynamic situations against gold-standard Vicon camera data. It was found that static and quasistatic rms error was even less than manufacturers' technical specifications. Quasistatic rms error was minimal at 0.3 deg (+/-0.15 deg SD) on the roll axis, 0.29 deg (+/-0.20 deg SD) on the pitch axis, and 0.73 deg (+/-0.81 deg SD) on the yaw axis. The dynamic rms error was between 1.9 deg and 3.5 deg on the main axes of motion but it increased considerably on off-axis during planar pendulum motion. Complex arm motion in the forward reaching plane proved to be a greater challenge for the sensors to track but results are arguably better than previously reported studies considering the large range of motion used.
authors.affiliation: Laurentian University, Sudbury, Canada.
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Godwin
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Agnew
authors.forename: Joan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stevenson
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D009038:Motion; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular / Q000502:physiology*