Bioinspired dynamic inclination measurement using inertial sensors

Abstract

Biologically, the vestibular feedback is critical to the ability of human body to balance in different conditions. This balancing ability inspires analysis of the reference equilibrium position in dynamic environments. The research proposes and experimentally validates the concept of equilibrium for the human body modeled as an inverted pendulum, which is instrumental in explaining why we align the body along the surface normal when standing on a surface but not on an incline, and tend to lean backward or forward on non-static surfaces e.g. accelerating or decelerating bus. This equilibrium position—the dynamic equilibrium axis—is dependent only on the acceleration of surface of contact (e.g. gravity) and acts as the reference to the orientation measurements. The research also draws design inspiration from the two human ears—symmetry and plurality of inertial sensors. The vestibular dynamic inclinometer and planar vestibular dynamic inclinometer consist of multiple (two or four) symmetrically placed accelerometers and a gyroscope. The sensors measure the angular acceleration and absolute orientation, not the change in orientation, from the reference equilibrium position and are successful in separating gravity from motion for objects moving on ground. The measurement algorithm is an analytical solution that is not time-recursive, independent of body dynamics and devoid of integration errors. The experimental results for the two sensor combinations validate the theoretically (kinematics) derived analytical solution of the measurement algorithm.