A Drone-mounted Depth Camera-based Motion Capture System for Sports Performance Analysis

Video is the most used tool for sport performance analysis as it provides a common reference point for the coach and the athlete. The problem with video is that it is a subjective tool. To overcome this, motion capture systems can used to get an objective 3D model of a person's posture and motion, but only in laboratory settings. Unfortunately, many activities, such as most outdoor sports, cannot be captured in a lab without compromising the activity. In this paper, we propose to use an aerial drone system equipped with depth cameras, AI-based marker-less motion capture software to perform automatic skeleton tracking and real-time sports performance analysis of athletes. We experiment with off-the-shelf drone systems, miniaturized depth cameras, and commercially available skeleton tracking software to build a system for analyzing sports-related performance of athletes in their real settings. To make this a fully working system, we have conducted a few initial experiments and identified many issues that still needs to be addressed.