The IART System for Race Walking: Experience with World-Class Olympic Race Walkers

Abstract

Race walking is a discipline in which the best chronometric performance is constrained by infringements. Currently, the judgment and training of race walkers is entrusted to subjective observations made by judges. In this paper, with the objective of supporting coaching and judging, we present a wearable inertial sensor system (IART) for the evaluation of performances and infringements in race walking. The system is composed of an inertial sensor positioned close to the center of mass of the subject and a management unit designed for coaches and judges. IART allows: (i) a step sequence classification according to the competition rules; (ii) a customized assessment of elite race walkers based on key performance and infringement indices. The system is experimentally validated in field conditions by nine world-class Olympic race walkers. The results show that IART improves the current evaluation of step sequences and offers a meaningful support for the overall evaluation of the technical gesture.

Keywords

• race walking
• wearable inertial sensor
• training
• judgments
• biomechanics
• elite athlete