An important performance determinant in wheelchair sports is the power exchanged between the athlete-wheelchair combination and the environment, in short, mechanical power. Inertial measurement units (IMUs) might be used to estimate the exchanged mechanical power during wheelchair sports practice. However, to validly apply IMUs for mechanical power assessment in wheelchair sports, a well-founded and unambiguous theoretical framework is required that follows the dynamics of manual wheelchair propulsion. Therefore, this research has two goals. First, to present a theoretical framework that supports the use of IMUs to estimate power output via power balance equations. Second, to demonstrate the use of the IMU-based power estimates during wheelchair propulsion based on experimental data. Mechanical power during straight-line wheelchair propulsion on a treadmill was estimated using a wheel mounted IMU and was subsequently compared to optical motion capture data serving as a reference. IMU-based power was calculated from rolling resistance (estimated from drag tests) and change in kinetic energy (estimated using wheelchair velocity and wheelchair acceleration). The results reveal no significant difference between reference power values and the proposed IMU-based power (1.8% mean difference, N.S.). As the estimated rolling resistance shows a 0.9–1.7% underestimation, over time, IMU-based power will be slightly underestimated as well. To conclude, the theoretical framework and the resulting IMU model seems to provide acceptable estimates of mechanical power during straight-line wheelchair propulsion in wheelchair (sports) practice, and it is an important first step towards feasible power estimations in all wheelchair sports situations.

中文翻译：

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从理论到实践：使用惯性测量装置监测轮椅场地和球场运动中的机械功率输出

轮椅运动中决定性能的一个重要因素是运动员-轮椅组合与环境之间交换的功率，简而言之，就是机械功率。惯性测量单元 (IMU) 可用于估计轮椅运动练习期间交换的机械功率。然而，为了有效地将 IMU 用于轮椅运动中的机械功率评估，需要一个遵循手动轮椅推进动力学的基础良好且明确的理论框架。因此，这项研究有两个目标。首先，提出一个理论框架，支持使用 IMU 通过功率平衡方程估计功率输出。其次，根据实验数据演示在轮椅推进过程中使用基于 IMU 的功率估计。使用安装在轮子上的 IMU 估算轮椅在跑步机上直线推进期间的机械功率，然后与作为参考的光学运动捕捉数据进行比较。基于 IMU 的功率是根据滚动阻力（根据阻力测试估计）和动能变化（使用轮椅速度和轮椅加速度估计）计算得出的。结果显示参考功率值与建议的基于 IMU 的功率之间没有显着差异（1.8% 平均差，NS）。由于估计的滚动阻力显示出 0.9-1.7% 的低估，随着时间的推移，基于 IMU 的功率也会被略微低估。总而言之，理论框架和由此产生的 IMU 模型似乎为轮椅（运动）实践中直线轮椅推进期间的机械功率提供了可接受的估计，并且这是在所有轮椅运动情况下实现可行功率估计的重要第一步。