ASTRA Glove: A Wearable Tracking Device for “Accurate Sensing and Tracking of Realtime Articulations”

Abstract

Precise tracking of hand movements is essential for applications in robotics, virtual reality, rehabilitation, and human-computer interaction. Wearable devices, such as gloves equipped with inertial measurement units (IMUs), have emerged as a promising solution for capturing detailed hand kinematics. This article introduces ASTRA Glove, an advanced wearable kinematic tracking device that can precisely sense hand movements in real-time. The system consists of 16 IMUs to measure 23 degrees of freedom (DoF) for hand motions. A new Kalman filter-based six-DoF sensor fusion algorithm (SFA) has been developed to provide high levels of precision as well as real-time performance, all while being easy to integrate into practical applications. One feature of this glove is a fast and simple calibration methodology, which allows for accurate tracking of hand movements. In addition, it is affordable, comfortable, lightweight, sturdy, and easy to wear for prolonged periods. It addresses the typical IMU drift problems with a drift reduction technique that substantially enhances its stability and reliability. In addition, a real-time simulator has been created that allows users to visualize the motions of the hands and displays joint positions with high accuracy. The experimental results indicate that ASTRA Glove can achieve higher accuracy than other systems with joint angle errors below 1° and fingertip position error of 1.47 mm in different hand movement tasks.