SMART SENSOR SHORTS
- A RESEARCH PROJECT
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
The project aims at developing a system that is able to identify and monitor hip-related muscle stress. To do this, a team of multiple universities around the Netherlands is developing a pair of smart sensor tights that can measure movements of the lower limbs, process the data and transmit it to a computer or device. Based on individual biomechanical models, a software tool will be developed, which enables the medical and technical staff to monitor the hip-related muscle stress of 10-20 players simultaneously during isolated actions as well as game-based training to guide the training process and signal overload.
The research I personally performed for the project focuses on the positioning of the sensors (IMUs) that will be used in the tights. The result should take into account considerations of comfort and risk, use scenario's, technical requirements of the system and effects of Soft Tissue Artefact. To study this, the project was split into two parts. The second part (effects of Soft Tissue Artifact) was elaborated into a scientific paper and presented at the ECSS 2019 conference in Prague.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1.
Which locations per zone of the lower limbs are most safe and comfortable to attach IMUs to motion tracking tights, for the use of soccer for professional athletes?
2.
Which concept marker locations on the lower limbs show least amount of optoelectronic marker displacement caused by Soft Tissue Artefacts during soccer-specific movements?
METHODS
1.
For Research 1, video material of professional trainings were observed. User actions were isolated and counted over an amount of time. Also, a questionnaire was held with the Dutch national football team under 19.
For Research 2, the remaining concept locations that derived from research 1 were tested using VICON optoelectronic motion tracking. The shift of markers on different locations were accurately measured during acceleration and deceleration trials.
2.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATION
The research for part 2 of this project, titled 'Location optimisation for IMUs in the design of motion tracking soccer tights based on Soft Tissue Artefact analysis' was accepted by the ECSS conference and I was invited to give a poster presentation at the conference 2019 in Prague. Currently, the results are used by the team to further develop the sensor tights.