Evaluation of the validity of IMU sensors measuring wrist angular velocity by comparison with an optical motion tracking system

Abstract: There is a need for objective methods for wrist angular velocity measurements for accurate risk assessments because there is a high frequency of musculoskeletal disorder in workers. The goal of this project was to validate the accuracy of inertial measurement unit sensors to measure the angular velocity. More specifically, the purpose of this master thesis project was to apply an alternative algorithm to compute the markers velocity, other than the one from the optical system that Jenny Wingqvist, and Josephine Lantz used. The project used an experimental data of 10 participants from the previous project done by Jenny Wingqvist and Josephine Lantz. To validate the accuracy, the data of angular velocity of the sensors was compared with the data of angular velocity of markers. The lowest mean value of the root mean square differences value was 23.5 degrees/s during flexion and deviation standard movements at 40 BPM (Beats Per Minute) and the maximum value was 110.5 degrees/s at 140 BPM. The mean value of the correlation coefficients between markers and sensors angular velocities in standard movements of flexion and deviation were 0.85, 0.88, and 0.89 at 40 BPM, 90 BPM, and 140 BPM, respectively. The smallest and the largest mean value of the absolute difference in 50th percentile was found in 40 BPM (19.4±11.3), and 140 BPM (51.2±28.5) respectively. The decorrelation coefficient between the subjects 50th percentile of the angular velocity was 0.91 for the standard movements. The upper limit of agreement for the standard movements was 78.36 degrees/s, while the lower limit of agreement was -13.76 degrees/s.  The results show that the error was too large, so there is a need of further research to measure the wrist angular velocity using IMU sensors.