Extended Application of Inertial Measurement Units in Biomechanics: From Activity Recognition to Force Estimation

Abstract

Abnormal posture or movement is generally the indicator of musculoskeletal injuries or diseases. Mechanical forces dominate the injury and recovery processes of musculoskeletal tissue. Using kinematic data collected from wearable sensors (notably IMUs) as input, activity recognition and musculoskeletal force (typically represented by ground reaction force, joint force/torque, and muscle activity/force) estimation approaches based on machine learning models have demonstrated their superior accuracy. The purpose of the present study is to summarize recent achievements in the application of IMUs in biomechanics, with an emphasis on activity recognition and mechanical force estimation. The methodology adopted in such applications, including data pre-processing, noise suppression, classification models, force/torque estimation models, and the corresponding application effects, are reviewed. The extent of the applications of IMUs in daily activity assessment, posture assessment, disease diagnosis, rehabilitation, and exoskeleton control strategy development are illustrated and discussed. More importantly, the technical feasibility and application opportunities of musculoskeletal force prediction using IMU-based wearable devices are indicated and highlighted. With the development and application of novel adaptive networks and deep learning models, the accurate estimation of musculoskeletal forces can become a research field worthy of further attention.

Recent Advances in Wearable Healthcare Devices: From Material to Application

“…Additionally, wearable IMUs are used to monitor the safety behaviors of scaffolding workers [188], enhance human location with Wi-Fi sensing [189,190], count exercise repetition [191], and assessment of knee moments [192]. More applications of IMUs can be found in these reviews [193][194][195][196][197][198][199].…”

The Potential Role of Wearable Inertial Sensors in Laboring Women with Walking Epidural Analgesia

“…These sensors are thus typically combined into inertial measurement units (IMUs) and are found in fitness trackers and smartwatches for monitoring a user’s physical activity, balance, and real-time orientation. By processing data from these sensors, wearable devices can provide valuable insights into user movements, enabling applications ranging from sport movement analysis to augmented reality experiences or medical monitoring [ 1 ].…”

“…Inertial-based motion capture systems are increasingly considered a viable alternative to traditional optoelectronic-based human motion capture [ 3 ]. These sensors also enable the use of feature extraction techniques such as Fourier transform or wavelet analysis, and machine learning algorithms can also be employed for activity recognition or anomaly detection in motion [ 1 , 4 ].…”