Shoulder Glenohumeral Elevation Estimation based on Upper Arm Orientation

In this paper, the shoulder glenohumeral displacement during the movement of the upper arm is studied. Four modeling approaches were examined and compared to estimate the humeral head elevation (vertical displacement) and translation (horizontal displacement). A biomechanics-inspired method was used firstly to model the glenohumeral displacement in which a least squares method was implemented for parameter identification. Then, three Gaussian process regression models were used in which the following variable sets were employed: i) shoulder adduction/abduction angle, ii) combination of shoulder adduction/abduction and flexion/extension angles, iii) overall upper arm orientation in the form of quaternions. In order to test the respective performances of these four models, we collected motion capture data and compared the models' representative capabilities. As a result, Gaussian process regression that considered the overall upper arm orientation outperformed the other modeling approaches; however, it should be noted that the other methods also provided accuracy levels that may be sufficient depending on task requirements.