Validated low-cost standardized VICON configuration as a practical approach to estimating the minimal accuracy of a specific setup

Abstract

Motion Capture (MoCap) is rapidly growing in the sports, biomechanics, healthcare, and medicine segments, where accuracy is crucial. Current research studies are concurrently confirming that the accuracy can be determined only for the specific analyzed configuration and thus recommending performing your own accuracy verification on your specific setup. However, it is often hard to perform since it requires significant effort, time, knowledge of statistical data analysis and often equipment and tools that are not commonly available. This paper deals with this by creating a standardized setup with carefully evaluated accuracy, substituting the on-site validation process (in case of using such a setup) or providing the worst-case accuracy (when a more advanced setup is used). The setup is designed to be low-cost, easily reproducible and cover a wide range of applications - thus VICON setup with five VERO v1.3 cameras is used. The accuracy was evaluated using the robotic manipulator EPSON C3, determining that the absolute positioning accuracy of such a standardized setup is 0.65 mm on average (SD = 0.48, with maximal error of 2.47 mm) and rotation accuracy 0.40° (SD = 0.35, with maximal error of 2.0°), which is negligible considering the experimental diameter of 1.4 m and full angular span. The major source of error was specific to particular spatial and rotational positions; other systematic and other random errors were noticeably smaller. If the standardized setup is used and all its requirements are met, a similar accuracy as validated above can be expected without the need to explicitly validate the specific configuration, which is time-consuming and resource-intensive.