An experimental characterization of human torso motion

Abstract

The torso plays an important role in the human-like operation of humanoids. In this paper, a method is proposed to analyze the behavior of the human torso by using inertial and magnetic sensing tools. Experiments are conducted to characterize the motion performance of the human torso during daily routine operations. Furthermore, the forces acting on the human body during these operations are evaluated to design and validate the performance of a humanoid robot.

Key words： experimental biomechanics; human torso; analysis; inertial sensor; characterization

Acknowledgments

Part of this work was conducted at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, where the first author spent a period of the study in 2014. The authors would like to thank Qilong Yuan, Albert Causo, Vo Truong Giang, and all RRC 2 laboratory staff members of Nanyang University who helped during the experiments. The authors would also like to thank computer science engineer Giorgio Iacoboni who helped the authors to test and optimize the acquisition software.

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