title: Assessing the Performance of Sensor Fusion Methods: Application to Magnetic-Inertial-Based Human Body Tracking.
abstract: Information from complementary and redundant sensors are often combined within sensor fusion algorithms to obtain a single accurate observation of the system at hand. However, measurements from each sensor are characterized by uncertainties. When multiple data are fused, it is often unclear how all these uncertainties interact and influence the overall performance of the sensor fusion algorithm. To address this issue, a benchmarking procedure is presented, where simulated and real data are combined in different scenarios in order to quantify how each sensor's uncertainties influence the accuracy of the final result. The proposed procedure was applied to the estimation of the pelvis orientation using a waist-worn magnetic-inertial measurement unit. Ground-truth data were obtained from a stereophotogrammetric system and used to obtain simulated data. Two Kalman-based sensor fusion algorithms were submitted to the proposed benchmarking procedure. For the considered application, gyroscope uncertainties proved to be the main error source in orientation estimation accuracy for both tested algorithms. Moreover, although different performances were obtained using simulated data, these differences became negligible when real data were considered. The outcome of this evaluation may be useful both to improve the design of new sensor fusion methods and to drive the algorithm tuning process.
authors.affiliation: The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Piazza Martiri della Libertà 33, 56125 Pisa, Italy. g.ligorio@sssup.it.
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ligorio
authors.affiliation: Department of Movement, Human and Health Sciences, Interuniversity Centre of Bioengineering of the Human Neuromusculoskeletal System, University of Rome "Foro Italico", Piazza Lauro de Bosis 15, 00135 Roma, Italy. elena.bergamini@uniroma4.it.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bergamini
authors.affiliation: Department of Movement, Human and Health Sciences, Interuniversity Centre of Bioengineering of the Human Neuromusculoskeletal System, University of Rome "Foro Italico", Piazza Lauro de Bosis 15, 00135 Roma, Italy. ilaria.pasciuto@uniroma4.it.
authors.forename: Ilaria
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Pasciuto
authors.affiliation: Department of Movement, Human and Health Sciences, Interuniversity Centre of Bioengineering of the Human Neuromusculoskeletal System, University of Rome "Foro Italico", Piazza Lauro de Bosis 15, 00135 Roma, Italy. giuseppe.vannozzi@uniroma4.it.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vannozzi
authors.affiliation: Department of Movement, Human and Health Sciences, Interuniversity Centre of Bioengineering of the Human Neuromusculoskeletal System, University of Rome "Foro Italico", Piazza Lauro de Bosis 15, 00135 Roma, Italy. aurelio.cappozzo@uniroma4.it.
authors.forename: Aurelio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cappozzo
authors.affiliation: The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Piazza Martiri della Libertà 33, 56125 Pisa, Italy. angelo.sabatini@sssup.it.
authors.forename: Angelo Maria
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Sabatini
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D018594:Human Body; D006801:Humans; D060526:Magnetic Fields; D010388:Pelvis / Q000502:physiology*; D010780:Photogrammetry / Q000295:instrumentation*
keywords: algorithm benchmarking; human motion tracking; inertial-magnetic sensors; locomotion; orientation; sensor fusion
references.citation: Sensors (Basel). 2014;14(10):18625-49
references.pmid: 25302810
references.citation: Sensors (Basel). 2015;15(12):32031-44
references.pmid: 26703603
references.citation: Sensors (Basel). 2011;11(2):1489-525
references.pmid: 22319365
references.citation: J Biomech. 2013 Oct 18;46(15):2745-51
references.pmid: 24016678
references.citation: IEEE J Biomed Health Inform. 2016 Jul;20(4):1088-99
references.pmid: 25966489
references.citation: IEEE Int Conf Rehabil Robot. 2011;2011:5975346
references.pmid: 22275550
references.citation: J Biomech. 2012 Aug 31;45(13):2297-300
references.pmid: 22784650