A Custom Base Station for Collecting and Processing Data of Research-Grade Motion Sensor Units

In studies of human biomechanics utilizing inertial sensors, motion sensor units of type Xsens are recognized as the state-of-the-art. However, the requirement to use them with a personal computer for collecting and processing data could be a limiting factor. In the present work, we demonstrate a simple solution to using up to four Xsens MTx units with a custom portable base station. The base station is capable of obtaining data from Xsens MTx units, processing the data and saving them to an SD card. Thus, it allows the use of the units outside laboratory settings without the need of a personal computer, the capability to directly use onboard custom algorithms to process the data of several units in real time, and interconnectivity with external systems for synchronized collection of multimodal data. We demonstrate these benefits by two examples: synchronized collection of data from an Xsens MTx unit and a Footscan® plantar pressure plate, and knee angle measurement using two Xsens MTx units that we validated by synchronized recording of goniometric data.