Study on Mounting Position of IMU for Better Accuracy of ZUPT-Aided Pedestrian Inertial Navigation

We present a study on the effect of mounting position of IMU to a foot on the navigation accuracy of ZUPT-aided pedestrian inertial navigation. In this study, we compared two IMU mounting positions, forefoot and heel, in terms of the length of the stance phase, velocity uncertainty, and the shock level during the stance phase. Circular Error Probable (CEP) of localization was experimentally demonstrated to be reduced by about 50%, when mounting the IMU on the forefoot rather than behind the heel. The conclusion was demonstrated by investigating different walking paces, types of floors (hard floor, grass lawn, and sand), trajectories (upstairs and downstairs), and gait patterns produced by different persons. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first attempt to investigate the velocity uncertainty during the stance phase in pedestrian navigation, a critical characteristic of ZUPT-aided algorithms.