Real-time open-source wireless system for sensor fusion with GNSS systems.

Engineering of Sport 15 - Proceedings from the 15th International Conference on the Engineering of Sport (ISEA 2024)

In the competitive world of elite sports, athletes continuously strive to gain competitive advantages. One key factor contributing to success is optimizing technique and training through informed decisions. The development of sensor technology enables us to investigate those incremental improvements, and as the technology continues to evolve, our ability to analyze and comprehend them expands significantly. Wireless connectivity using Bluetooth and Zigbee to collect data unobtrusively without hindering movement has been proven to work great for measuring athlete performance. Combining multiple sensors in a wireless network, though a method of fusing multi-sensor data, can be achieved by using GPS timestamps, compensating for the delay. Studies with Real-Time athlete Monitoring with small sensor nodes to transmit data are often presented with unacceptable high delay [2]. Real-time streaming of sensor data would be beneficial [3] but currently, few existing wireless technologies are able to satisfy the requirements of low delay and high bit-rate. By capturing precise data on forces, acceleration, and other relevant metricsfrom equipment, coaches, and athletes are enabled to make informed decisions regarding training adjustments and performance optimization. This study introduces a versatile wireless sensor system, specifically designed for real-time performance monitoring in sports. The system is constructed from off-the-shelf components, ultimately creating a modular, open-source [4], sensor logging system with pin-point accuracy with identified sensor-specific delay to timestamp. For synchronizing with GNSS data, we need to know the system delay, as well as the delay between the timestamp set using the network time protocol (NTP) on our system and the GNSS timestamp. This paper focuses on the system delay as the first step.