Force and motion capture system based on distributed micro-accelerometers, gyros, force and tactile sensing

Motion capture is a powerful tool used in a large range of applications towards human movement analysis. Although it is a well-established technique, its main limitation is the lack of dynamic information such as forces and torques during the motion capture. In this paper, we present a novel approach for human wearable dynamic (WearDY) motion capture for the simultaneous estimation of whole-body forces along with the motion. Our conceptual framework encompasses traditional passive markers based methods, inertial and contact force sensor modalities and harnesses a probabilistic computa- tional framework for estimating dynamic quantities originally proposed in the domain of humanoid robot control. We present experimental analysis of our framework on subjects performing a two degrees-of-freedom bowing task and we estimate the motion and dynamic quantities. The results demonstrate the validity of the proposed method. We discuss the implications of our proposal towards the design of a novel wearable force and motion capture suit and its applications.