Modeling and Measurement of a Pedestrian’s Center-of-Mass Trajectory

Abstract

This paper presents the measurement and model updating of a pedestrian's center of mass trajectory. A mathematical model proposed by the authors [1] is updated using the actual trajectory of a pedestrian. The mathematical model is based on the principle that a human's control capability tries to maintain balance with respect to the pedestrian's center of mass (CoM), independently of the surface type. In this research, the human is considered as a mass point concentrated at CoM. The parameters of the models are updated using experimental identification of the human walking trajectory on a rigid surface. The proposed measurement technique applies infrared emitter and a depth sensor, which enable skeletal tracking of the pedestrian walking on rigid or flexible structures. Experiments were performed using a mobile platform with the time-of-flight commercial camera Microsoft Kinect for Windows 2.0. The velocity of the mobile platform is set to maintain a one meter separation from the pedestrian in order to provide high resolution. The results allow identification of the human's trajectory and its relation to the walking surface's behavior.