Development and Evaluation of a Low-Drift Inertial Sensor-Based System for Analysis of Alpine Skiing Performance

Abstract

In skiing it is important to know how the skier accelerates and inclines the skis during the turn to avoid injuries and improve technique. The purpose of this pilot study with three participants was to develop and evaluate a compact, wireless, and low-cost system for detecting the inclination and acceleration of skis in the field based on inertial measurement units (IMU). To that end, a commercial IMU board was placed on each ski behind the skier boot. With the use of an attitude and heading reference system algorithm included in the sensor board, the orientation and attitude data of the skis were obtained (roll, pitch, and yaw) by IMU sensor data fusion. Results demonstrate that the proposed IMU-based system can provide reliable low-drifted data up to 11 min of continuous usage in the worst case. Inertial angle data from the IMU-based system were compared with the data collected by a video-based 3D-kinematic reference system to evaluate its operation in terms of data correlation and system performance. Correlation coefficients between 0.889 (roll) and 0.991 (yaw) were obtained. Mean biases from −1.13° (roll) to 0.44° (yaw) and 95% limits of agreements from 2.87° (yaw) to 6.27° (roll) were calculated for the 1-min trials. Although low mean biases were achieved, some limitations arose in the system precision for pitch and roll estimations that could be due to the low sampling rate allowed by the sensor data fusion algorithm and the initial zeroing of the gyroscope.

Model of Deep Information Environmental Factors on the Development of ICE and Snow Sports

“…The youth group is fundamental. Carvajal [16] analysed the participation of the masses in winter sports in different regions and found that outdoor winter sports were dominated by young people and people above the middle class, with more men than women. Schools organised the main outdoor exercises of students in winter.…”

Translational Applications of Wearable Sensors in Education: Implementation and Efficacy

“…The utilization of wearables, as previously outlined, allows individuals to emotionally connect with the technology and product due to personal interest [10], which is seen as key to the adoption of new technologies [21]. Sports using wearables include snowboarding [20], athletics and the biomechanics of running [22], cross-country skiing [23] and team-based sports [24]. Of these, running, walking, and jumping, which are the primary means of locomotion and enablers for many physical activities, were seen as the most natural 'first base' for technol-ogy translation into an educational tool such as the STEMfit software package [25].…”

Inertial Sensor Technologies—Their Role in Equine Gait Analysis, a Review

“…IMU-based systems have been extensively characterized in relation to human motion analyses and have gained applicability in numerous fields, including posturography [ 36 , 37 , 38 ], sports [ 39 , 40 , 41 ], and clinical practice [ 42 , 43 , 44 ]. While the use of IMU systems in equine science is less documented, we hypothesize that they represent practical tools for equine clinicians and researchers alike.…”