Simultaneous Floating-Base Estimation of Human Kinematics and Joint Torques

Abstract

The paper presents a stochastic methodology for the simultaneous floating-base estimation of the human whole-body kinematics and dynamics (i.e., joint torques, internal and external forces). The paper builds upon our former work where a fixed-base formulation had been developed for the human estimation problem. The presented approach is validated by presenting experimental results of a health subject equipped with a wearable motion tracking system and a pair of shoes sensorized with force/torque sensors while performing different motion tasks, e.g., walking on a treadmill. The results show that joint torque estimates obtained by using floating-base and fixed-base approaches match satisfactorily, thus validating the present approach.

A Novel Sensorised Insole for Sensing Feet Pressure Distributions

“…The vertical contact force f z [N] and the moments m x , m y [Nm] have been here estimated by means of a probabilisticbased estimation tool. The Maximum-A-Posteriori (MAP) tool allows for the online monitoring and simultaneous estimation of the human kinematics and dynamics [20,21]. The MAP estimation has been computed by considering two different sensor readings, i.e., the FT sensors (configuration C F T,M AP ) and the insoles (configuration C I,M AP ).…”

Online Non-Collocated Estimation of Payload and Articular Stress for Real-Time Human Ergonomy Assessment

“…A stochastic formulation of the inverse dynamics estimation problem for a whole-body fixed-base human model was first investigated in [38] [25] and later extended to a floating base human model in our recent work [24]. The central idea of the stochastic human dynamics estimation approach is to define a dynamic variables vector d that is composed of accelerations and kinetic quantities, i.e., the external forces and torques (wrenches) acting on the human subject.…”

“…Articular stress or joint stress is an important aspect of ergonomy to ensure safe working conditions. Realtime human joint torques estimation is considered in the problem of whole-body human inverse dynamics which has been investigated through different approaches considering different sensor modalities [22] [23] [24] [25]. Furthermore, incorporating ergonomic optimization during physical collaboration tasks such as manipulating a heavy object is another emerging research direction [26] [27].…”

“…Instead, we make use of the force-torque measurements available from the sensors at a different contact location, and this process of non-collocated wrench estimation becomes evident in Section III-A. More importantly, we present the problem formulation as an extension of the stochastic human inverse dynamics method [24] through a two-step approach where the estimation of external wrenches on the links is decoupled from the estimation of internal wrenches exchanged through the joints of the human that results in articular stress. The first step deals with the centroidal dynamics-based noncollocated wrench estimation, followed by the whole-body human dynamics estimation as the second step.…”

EEG activity during balance platform test in humans

“…Nonetheless, extant literature has investigated the utility of EEG through the examination of evoked potentials associated with balance perturbation [Hulsdunker, 2015;Solis-Escalante, 2019]. The mechanical aspects of this problem have been studied well and even implemented in practical applications in robotic solutions [Collins, 2005;Latella, 2019] quite well. However, the simultaneous whole-body estimation of the human kinematics and dynamics, such as joint torques and internal forces for controlling the movement, mechanisms that include processing information in the higher nervous system in response to non-standard stimuli (respectively, excluding fast spinal reflexes to typical perturbations) are not well understood and leave areas for further research.…”