Tutor for Inertial Sensor Fusion

This course is concerned with inertial sensor technologies and sensor fusion methods for motion tracking of aerial/ground/water vehicles, robotic systems and human body segments.

Participants will become familiar with the design and application of methods and algorithms for sensor fusion and analysis of inertial measurement data. This includes methods to estimate the orientation and position of moving objects in three-dimensional space as well as methods for calculating joint angles or segmenting human motion. Since most of the considered applications are feedback-controlled systems, the course focuses on real-time-capable algorithms. The methods will be applied to application data during designated computer exercises that are integrated into the course. Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Basic principles of gyroscopes, accelerometers and magnetometers
• Error characteristics of MEMS-based inertial measurement units
• Application: Gait phase detection by foot-worn inertial sensors
• Quaternions and other representations of 3D rotations
• Orientation estimation from inertial measurement data
• Application: Position tracking/retrieval of an unmanned aerial vehicle
• Joint angle estimation from inertial measurement data
• Application: Real-time motion tracking of a robotic actuator
• Kalman filtering methods for linear and nonlinear systems
• Probabilistic sensor fusion and Bayesian state estimation
• Identification of kinematic parameters from inertial measurement data
• Application: Human body motion tracking by wearable inertial sensors