Experimental validation of smartphones for measuring human-induced loads

摘要

The rapid technology developments in smartphones have created a significant opportunity for their use in structural live load measurements. This paper presents extensive experiments conducted in two stages to investigate this opportunity. Shaking table tests were carried out in the first stage using selected popular smartphones to measure the sinusoidal waves of various frequencies, the sinusoidal sweeping, and earthquake waves. Comparison between smartphone measurements and real inputs showed that the smartphones used in this study gave reliable measurements for harmonic waves in both time and frequency domains For complex waves, smartphone measurements should be used with caution. In the second stage, three-dimensional motion capture technology was employed to explore the capacity of smartphones for measuring the movement of individuals in walking, bouncing and jumping activities. In these tests, reflective markers were attached to the test subject. The markers' trajectories were recorded by the motion capture system and were taken as references. The smartphone measurements agreed well with the references when the phone was properly fixed. Encouraged by these experimental validation results, smartphones were attached to moving participants of this study. The phones measured the acceleration near the center-of-mass of his or her body. The human-induced loads were then reconstructed by the acceleration measurements in conjunction with a biomechanical model. Satisfactory agreement between the reconstructed forces and that measured by a force plate was observed in several instances, clearly demonstrating the capability of smartphones to accurately assist in obtaining human-induced load measurements.