Body-worn IMU array reveals effects of load on performance in an outdoor obstacle course
Name
journal.pone.0214008.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
3.33 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
e0f4bcc04c72640d57d6b7b33a0c508f
Author(s)
Vitali, Rachel V
Cain, Stephen M
Ojeda, Lauro V
Potter, Michael V
Zaferiou, Antonia M
Davidson, Steven P
Coyne, Megan E
Hancock, Clifford L
Mendoza, Alyssa
Stirling, Leia A
Date Issued
2019
Journal
PLoS ONE
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Copyright © This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. This study introduces a new method to understand how added load affects human performance across a broad range of athletic tasks (ten obstacles) embedded in an outdoor obstacle course. The method employs an array of wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs) to wirelessly record the movements of major body segments to derive obstacle-specific metrics of performance. The effects of load are demonstrated on (N = 22) participants who each complete the obstacle course under four conditions including unloaded (twice) and with loads of 15% and 30% of their body weight (a total of 88 trials across the group of participants). The IMU-derived performance metrics reveal marked degradations in performance with increasing load across eight of the ten obstacles. Overall, this study demonstrates the significant potential in using this wearable technology to evaluate human performance across multiple tasks and, simultaneously, the adverse effects of body-borne loads on performance. The study addresses a major need of military organizations worldwide that frequently employ standardized obstacle courses to understand how added loads influence warfighter performance. Importantly, the findings and conclusions drawn from IMU data would not be possible using traditional timing metrics used to evaluate task performance.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Medical Engineering & Science
Terms of Use
Creative Commons CC0
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
10.1371/journal.pone.0214008
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0214008
