Speaker：Professor I-Ming Chen, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Time：13:30 - 15:30  May 12th, 2011
Venue：F210, Mechanical Building A

Topic:  
SLAC: 3D Localization of Human Based on Kinetic Human Movement Capture 
ABSTRACT: We introduces a method called SLAC (Simultaneous Localization And Capture) to track the spatial location of a human using wearable inertia sensors without additional external assistive global sensing device (e.g., camera, ultrasound, IR, etc.) The method uses multiple wearable inertia sensors to determine the orientation of the body segments and lower limb joint motions. At the same time, based on human kinematics and locomotion phase detection, the spatial position and trajectory of a reference point on the body can be determined. Preliminary experimental study has shown that the position error of SLAC can be controlled within 10 to 15 cm for a person to walk around a 2.8m by 3m rectangle on the floor and climb up and down stairs about 4m in length and 2m in height (or about 2% error of the total distance travelled). A benchmark study on the accuracy of SLAC was carried out using the camera-based Motion Analysis? system. The localization data obtained from SLAC tally well with that from the commercial system. The positioning accuracy obtained from SLAC is at least an order of magnitude less than the GPS. Since the sensors can be worn on the human at any time and any place, this method has no restriction to indoor and outdoor applications and is complimentary to GPS applications.

About Speaker：
Prof. I-Ming Chen received the B. S. degree from National Taiwan University in 1986, and M. S. and Ph. D. degrees from California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA in 1989 and 1994 respectively. He has been with the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore since 1995. He is currently Director of Intelligent Systems Center in NTU, a partnership between Singapore Technology Engineering Ltd. and NTU. He was JSPS Visiting Scholar in Kyoto University, Japan in 1999, Visiting Scholar in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of MIT in 2004, and Fellow of Singapore-MIT Alliance under Manufacturing Systems and Technology (MST) Program from 2003 to 2007.  He was also Adjunct Professor of Xian Jiao Tong University, China from 2002 to 2007. His research interests are in wearable sensors, human-robot interaction, reconfigurable automation, parallel kinematics machines (PKM), biomorphic underwater robots, and smart material based actuators. Dr. Chen has published more than 230 papers in refereed international journals and conferences as well as book chapters. He is now serving on the editorial boards of IEEE Transactions on Robotics, Mechanism and Machine Theory, and Robotica, and also Associate Editor-in-Chief of Frontier of Mechanical Engineering (Springer-Verlag). He also serves on a number of professional organizations, including the Chairman of IFToMM Technical Committee on Robotics & Mechatronics (2010-2013) and Chairman of IEEE Robotics and Automation Singapore Chapter. He was General Chairman of 2009 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM2009) in Singapore. He is a Fellow of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and a Senior Member of IEEE.