Product details

ProMove-mini is replaced by ProMove-V, please see more details in the News.

ProMove-mini IMU is a highly-scalable, ultra-synchronized wireless networked inertial and orientation sensor. Using the latest MEMS sensor technology available, ProMove-mini is specifically designed for fine-grained, high-throughput motion capture.

ProMove-mini features a complete set of 3-D digital sensors, offering 10 DOF sensor data: acceleration, turn rate (gyroscope), magnetic field intensity (compass), high-g acceleration and barometric pressure. Full 3-D orientation information, expressed as quaternions, is also made available to the user.

A network comprises tens of devices that sample and transmit motion and orientation information at high data rates in a fully synchronized manner. The synchronization accuracy is less than 100 ns. The number of nodes in the network scales with the sampling rates, e.g. a network can have 39 nodes that sample at 200 Hz, or 19 nodes that sample at 500 Hz, or 9 nodes that sample at 1 kHz.

The sensor data is transmitted using the low-power 2.4 GHz wireless radio to a central node, Inertia Gateway, which connects to the computer through USB. Alternatively, ProMove-mini can be equipped with a Dual-Mode Bluetooth module for direct communication to PCs, smartphones and tablets. The sensor data can be stored on the on-board microSD card and retrieved later over USB or wirelessly.

ProMove-mini is carefully designed for good ergonomics. The curved design makes mounting and wearing on body parts comfortable, without affecting stability in case of surface mounting.

The Inertia Studio software enables real-time visualization of sensor data, as well as over-the-air reconfiguration of the sensors and wireless parameters. All data retrieved by the Inertia Studio software is logged for post-analysis.

Inertia Studio software for motion capture

For integrating the motion capture data coming from ProMove-mini with custom software, C++ and Java SDK packages are available on our download page.

System configurations

BASIC System Configuration:

  • Network of standard ProMove-mini nodes
  • BASIC Inertia Gateway
  • Inertia Studio

How does it work?

The computer running Inertia Studio software connects using USB to the Basic Inertia Gateway. The Gateway manages the high-speed wireless network, composed of synchronized ProMove-mini nodes that sample the on-board sensors.

The sampled data is transmitted to the Gateway and from the Gateway to the computer. Inertia Studio stores the sampled data and pre-computed orientation in log files on the computer. Each sample in the log files has a timestamp associated, which precisely identifies the moment the sample was taken.

What’s the price?

ADVANCED System Configuration:

  • Network of standard ProMove MINI nodes
  • ADVANCED Inertia Gateway
  • Inertia Studio

How does it work?

The computer running Inertia Studio software connects using USB to the Advanced Inertia Gateway. The Gateway manages the high-speed wireless network, composed of synchronized ProMove-mini nodes that sample the on-board sensors.

The Gateway can also synchronize the wireless network to external systems, such as cameras. The synchronization signal can be issued by the external system or by the Gateway. The synchronization signal can be a trigger for synchronization at the beginning of an experiment, or it can be a periodic clock signal for precise synchronization of sampling instances.

Inertia Studio stores the sampled data, pre-computed orientation and trigger events in log files on the computer. Each sample in the log files has a timestamp associated, which precisely identifies the moment the sample was taken.

What’s the price?

CUSTOM System Configuration:

  • Network of standard ProMove MINI nodes
  • ADVANCED Inertia Gateway
  • Inertia Studio

How does it work?

The CUSTOM configuration has the same hardware as the ADVANCED configuration and can be used in the same way regarding sampling and synchronization; the difference is how the user chooses to use the system for its custom application, namely:

  • The Advanced Inertia Gateway can be connected using Ethernet to the computer, which allows a better predictability of the end-to-end delay than USB.
  • The Advanced Inertia Gateway can be powered using the AC adapter, providing more flexibility in the physical positioning of the Gateway.
  • Users can build their own data acquisition software using the C++ and Java SDK packages provided on our website;
  • Inertia Studio can still be used for configuration of parameters if the Advanced Inertia Gateway is connected using USB to the computer; the Ethernet connection is to be used only for data collection with custom software.

What’s the price?

BLUETOOTH System Configuration:

  • ProMove-mini node with Bluetooth
  • Inertia Studio

How does it work?

The ProMove-mini sensor node with Bluetooth (standard or BLE) can connect directly to a Bluetooth-enabled device, either a computer with Inertia Studio or an Android Smartphone running a custom application. This is a point-to-point connection with only one ProMove-mini node. The user can build its custom application using the Java SDK for Android provided on our website.

What’s the price?

Key Features

  • Highly scalable: up to 39 wireless devices in a wireless network
  • Extremely synchronized: groundbreaking network-wide synchronization accuracy (< 100 ns)
  • High throughput: real-time wireless up to 1 kHz per sensor axis
  • 10 DOF sensor data: acceleration, turn rate (gyroscope), magnetic field intensity (compass), high-g acceleration and barometric pressure
  • Low-power RF transceiver in the 2.4 GHz license-free band
  • Inertia Studio for real-time visualization and configuration control of sensing and wireless parameters
  • Integrated micro-USB interface
  • On-board SD card for data storage
  • Internal rechargeable battery
  • Optional Dual-Mode Bluetooth module
  • Miniaturized form-factor

Applications

  • Multi-person, multi-object 3-D motion tracking
  • Biomechanics
  • Ambient assisted living
  • Sports
  • Activity monitoring and recognition
  • Virtual reality and gaming
  • Inertial navigation
  • Vibration monitoring

Use cases

Indoor Positioning System for Firefighters During a rescue, firefighters need to navigate through dangerous environments with potentially very limited visibility due to smoke. Satellite-based position technology (GNSS) allows rescue workers to operate efficiently in many outdoor emergency scenarios, but indoors the GNSS signals penetrate [...]
Wireless Equine Gait Analysis Every horse has its own natural movement characteristics, such as stride duration, speed and stride length. Traditionally, scientists had been able to evaluate the movement of horses visually. But the human eye is only capable of registering images with a [...]
Read more ProMove MINI wireless IMU use cases »

Datasheets

User Manuals

Inertia Studio

For Windows

For Linux

For macOS

Firmware

ProMove-mini

Inertia Gateway

SDK

Sample Code

  • Simple IDP Parser (1.3) (26-09-2019) | example source code for reading and parsing ProMove-mini sensor data with a fixed configuration, without using Inertia Studio or Inertia SDK
  • Matlab® script (31-10-2016) | example Matlab® script for plotting Inertia CSV files