Measurement of joint moments using wearable sensors

Abstract

Advanced rehabilitation requires a measurement system that quantitatively analyzes the actions of each individual. Joint moment is an indice used to quantitatively evaluate an individual's actions. Conventionally, force plates and highspeed cameras have been used to analyze joint moments. However, these devices need to be fixed in a laboratory, which limits the measurable motions and measurement range. Further, these sensors are expensive. Hence, it is difficult to use them in medical or nursing care facilities. Therefore, this study aimed to estimate joint moments using inexpensive and wearable sensors. This paper proposes a practical joint moments estimation system using inertial measurement units, which is a wearable sensor. The proposed method uses wearable sensors to measure continuous motion without limitation. It is also cheaper than conventional systems. The effectiveness of the proposed system was verified by comparison with the method using force sensors.