IMU-based estimation of human lower body kinematics and applications to extravehicular operations

Abstract

The use of body-worn inertial measurement units (IMUs) as an alternative to traditional human optical motion capture (OMC) techniques has gained increasing attention over the last twenty years. In contrast to traditional OMC, IMUs are less intrusive and allow measurements to be taken in the environment of interest--not just a contrived laboratory space. The primary goal of this work is to advance human-IMU kinematic modeling and estimation techniques through increasing the accuracy of IMU-derived human skeletal joint angles while minimizing the required calibration necessary to use an IMU-based human mocap system. A secondary goal of this work is to demonstrate practical application of an IMU-based mocap system to a specific domain of interest: space suit design and operations. In this domain, IMUs offer a tractable approach to understanding suited or unsuited human kinematics in the field. The capture of these kinematics in relevant environments allow engineers to better design and maintain space suits as well as model the operational paradigms which enable the future of human extraplanetary spaceflight.