Improved Cycling Navigation Using Inertial Sensors Measurements From Portable Devices With Arbitrary Orientation

A portable device is expected to be used unconstrained and in any orientation. Enabling navigation in such scenarios, although a hard problem, will consequently enable a lot of applications. For sports like cycling, the capability to obtain a meaningful navigation solution using a portable device in any orientation and without any constraints is beneficial for both normal consumers and athletes. Monitoring and tracking human motion using measurements from motion sensors is attractive because of their reasonable cost, size, and weight, in addition to mainstream availability on portable devices. This paper proposes an enhanced cycling navigation solution for portable devices with motion sensors using a novel technique for obtaining time-varying misalignments between the sensors´ frame and bicycle frame. This technique utilizes the acceleration and angular rate measured by the motion sensors in the device at any possible position on a human body, and in any arbitrary orientation, without requirements to have the portable device tethered in a certain orientation. Careful manual mounting of motion sensors within the platform or bicycle is no longer required for providing continuous position, velocity, and orientation information, making the solution user friendly. The system proposed aims to provide an easy-to-use navigation and monitoring system on portable devices while cycling. The improved navigation solution enables the use of motion constraints and updates without requiring any constraints on the device´s location and orientation. The experimental results demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed system.