Sensitivity of Sensor Locations in a Wearable IMU-based Human Activity Recognition System
Abstract Background: The advent of Inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors has significantly extended the application domain of Human Activity Recognition (HAR) systems to healthcare, tele-rehabilitation & daily life monitoring. IMU’s are categorized as body-worn sensors and therefore their output signals and the HAR performance naturally depends on their exact location on the body segments. Objectives: This research aims to introduce a methodology to investigate the effects of misplacing the sensors on the performance of the HAR systems. Methods: The properly placed sensors and their misplaced variations were modeled on a human body kinematic model. The model was then actuated using measured motions from human subjects. The model was then used to run a sensitivity analysis. Results: The results indicated that the transverse misplacement of the sensors on the left arm and right thigh and the rotation of the left thigh sensor significantly decrease the rate of activity recognition. It was also shown that the longitudinal displacements of the sensors (along the body segments) have minor impacts on the HAR performance. A Monte Carlo simulation indicated that if the sensitive sensors are mounted with extra care, the performance can be maintained at a higher than 95% level.Conclusions: Accurate mounting of the IMU’s on the body impacts the performance of the HAR. Particularly, the transverse position and rotation of the IMU’s are more sensitive. The users of such systems need to be informed about the more sensitive sensors and directions to maintain an acceptable performance for the HAR.