Feasibility of using depth cameras for evaluating human - exoskeleton interaction

Published

October 14, 2022

Author(s)

Soocheol Yoon, Ya-Shian Li-Baboud, Ann Virts, Roger V. Bostelman, Milli Shah

Abstract

With increased use of exoskeletons in a variety of fields such as industry, military, and health care, there is a need for measurement standards to understand the effects of exoskeletons on human motion. Optical tracking systems are the current gold standard for tracking human motion, but are expensive, require markers, and constrain the tests to a specified area where the cameras can provide sufficient coverage. This study describes the feasibility of using lower cost, portable, markerless depth camera systems for measuring human and exoskeleton 3-dimensional (3D) joint position and angles. In particular, a human performing a variety of industrial tasks while wearing three different exoskeletons will be tracked by both an optical tracking system with modified skeletal models and a depth camera body tracking system. The data from these systems will be compared and conclusions regarding the potential use of depth cameras for exoskeleton evaluation will be discussed.

Proceedings Title

Proceedings of the 2022 HFES 66th International Annual Meeting

Conference Dates

October 10-14, 2022

Conference Location

Atlanta, GA, US

Conference Title

HFES 2022 The 66th International Annual Meeting

Pub Type

Conferences

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1177/1071181322661190

Local Download

Keywords

industrial exoskeleton, exoskeleton performance measurement, depth camera body tracking system, optical tracking system

Citation

Yoon, S. , Li-Baboud, Y. , Virts, A. , Bostelman, R. and Shah, M. (2022), Feasibility of using depth cameras for evaluating human - exoskeleton interaction, Proceedings of the 2022 HFES 66th International Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, US, [online], https://doi.org/10.1177/1071181322661190, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=934307 (Accessed October 10, 2025)