Shin-INS: A Shin-Mounted IMU-Based Inertial Navigation System for Pedestrian

Pedestrian dead reckoning (PDR), relying on an inertial measurement unit (IMU), plays a crucial role in the pedestrian positioning system. However, existing step model-based methods suffer from low positioning accuracy, and foot-mounted inertial navigation systems (Foot-INS) require specialized shoe, limiting their application to ordinary users. To address these issues, this article introduces a shin-mounted inertial navigation system (Shin-INS) for pedestrians, leveraging an IMU. First, a novel static state detector is proposed, enabling precise detection of the foot-ground contact state by projecting IMU observations to the ankle using lever-arm compensation. Additionally, the zero position increment update (ZPIU) is employed to effectively mitigate velocity errors within the INS, thereby achieving accurate estimation of the user’s position. Through tests conducted on both normal and abnormal walking scenarios, the results demonstrate that Shin-INS significantly enhances system installation convenience while achieving comparable positioning performance compared to Foot-INS.