An Orientation Measuring System Suitable for Routine Uses Made by the Fusion of a 3D Gyroscope and a Magnetic Tracker

Many studies have shown the efficacy of orientation and three-dimensional joint angle measurement for patient evaluation or rehabilitation purposes. But currently, the use of these systems for routine practice is questionable. The commercially available devices are generally too expensive and complicated-to-use. This study proposed the fusion between two affordable types of orientation measuring systems, which used separately couldn´t satisfy the health professionals´ needs. One was a portable magnetic tracker limited in accuracy, sampling frequency and possibly distorted. The other was triplets of gyroscopes limited by their bias, which generates orientation drift after integration. The fusion algorithm presented here relay on two cascaded complementary Kalman filters to estimate the bias of the gyroscopes and to provide accurate and high frequency orientation even during distortion periods. This system was assessed during treadmill walking and reported good performances.