Self-contained optical-inertial motion capturing for assembly planning in digital factory

In assembly activities, performing assembly planning is a crucial issue for the human-centered manufacturing. The challenges involve in retrieving and utilizing the real-time data about human-based work activities in a shop floor. Instead of the simulation-based assembly planning, the marker-based motion capture system can acquire realistic motion data of workers in assembling sites, but this method is inclined to corrupt due to the occlusion and is troublesome to be installed within the shop floor. Therefore, based on the complement of the optical and inertial sensor, this paper presents a self-contained motion capture method for assembly planning in real shop floor. It can provide a real-time and portable motion capturing for workers, avoiding the failure of traditional outside-in motion capture system due to occlusions or incorrect installations. What is more, the portable motion capture method can run on consumer mobile devices, providing a convenient and low-cost way to perceive the workers' motion in shop floor, which is significant for extensive applications in assembly verification and planning for digital factories. Finally, experiments are carried out to demonstrate the accuracy and feasibility of the proposed motion capture method for assembly activities.