Communication and Professional Networks

National 3D motion capture best practice resources

Welcome to the National 3D motion capture collaborative project that provides practitioners working in biomechanics across the National Institute Network (NIN) and in National Sporting Organisations (NSOs) with up-to-date, highly-replicable, standardised 3D motion capture resources.

The project will support the increasing need to share expertise and standardise protocols, to improve practice and optimise workflows.

3D motion capture system setup

A guide to setting up your cameras, calibrating your testing space and operating your Vicon system.

Participant setup

There are different combinations of the UWA marker set that you can use, these are stepped through here along with some of our top tips and tricks to assist you marking up a participant.

Quick start checklist

A list of work through steps to help guide you through collecting 3D motion capture data.

Brief model processing run sheet

Once you have collected the data you will be required to process and model that data – here you will find steps to walk you through that process.

UWA model background

A deep dive into the developments and processes that have led to the current UWA marker set and modelling procedures.

Resources and Model Files

A link to our NIN and NSO Biomechanics resources including UWA modelling files, a space to share resources, learnings, and chat with colleagues.

3D motion capture documentation

The main 3D motion capture documentation complied by Logemas and UWA can assist in answering some of these considerations, specifically the “Prepare your System for Capture” section.

3D motion capture documentation

Further Resources and Reading

Where possible direct links to full-text or online resources have been provided. Where links are not available, try your institutions licenced full-text databases.

Research Papers

Cappozzo, A. (1984). Gait analysis methodology. Human movement science, 3(1-2), 27-50. https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-9457(84)90004-6
Cappozzo, A., Catani, F., Della Croce, U., & Leardini, A. (1995). Position and orientation in space of bones during movement: anatomical frame definition and determination. Clinical biomechanics, 10(4), 171-178. https://doi.org/10.1016/0268-0033(95)91394-T
Chao, E. Y. (1980). Justification of triaxial goniometer for the measurement of joint rotation. Journal of Biomechanics, 13(12), 989-1006. https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9290(80)90044-5
Della Croce, U., Cappozzo, A., & Kerrigan, D. C. (1999). Pelvis and lower limb anatomical landmark calibration precision and its propagation to bone geometry and joint angles. Medical & biological engineering & computing, 37(2), 155-161. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02513282
Della Croce, U., Cappozzo, A., Kerrigan, C., & Lucchetti, L. (1997). Bone position and orientation errors: pelvis and lower limb anatomical landmark identification reliability. Gait & Posture, 2(5), 156-157. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0966-6362(97)83382-6
Ehrig, R. M., Taylor, W. R., Duda, G. N., & Heller, M. O. (2006). A survey of formal methods for determining the centre of rotation of ball joints. Journal of Biomechanics, 39 2798–2809.
Ehrig, R. M., Taylor, W. R., Duda, G. N., & Heller, M. O. (2007). A survey of formal methods for determining functional joint axes. Journal of Biomechanics, 40(10), 2150-2157.
Erdemir, A., & Piazza, S. J. (1999). Simulation-based design of a pointer for accurate determination of anatomical landmarks. Proceedings of the American Society of Biomechanics. Pittsburgh, PA. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0021-9290(01)00052-5
Leardini, A., Cappozzo, A., Catani, F., Toksvig-Larsen, S., Petitto, A., Sforza, V., Cassanelli, G., & Giannini, S. (1999). Validation of a functional method for the estimation of hip joint centre location. Journal of biomechanics, 32(1), 99-103. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0021-9290(98)00148-1
Lu, T. W., & O’connor, J. J. (1999). Bone position estimation from skin marker co-ordinates using global optimisation with joint constraints. Journal of biomechanics, 32(2), 129-134. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0021-9290(98)00158-4
Lucchetti, L., Cappozzo, A., Cappello, A., & Della Croce, U. (1998). Skin movement artefact assessment and compensation in the estimation of knee-joint kinematics. Journal of biomechanics, 31(11), 977-984. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0021-9290(98)00083-9
McGibbon, C. A., Riley, P. O., & Krebs, D. E. (1997). Comparison of hip center estimation using in-vivo and ex-vivo measurements from the same subject. Clinical Biomechanics, 12(7-8), 491-495. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0268-0033(97)00058-2
Merriaux, P., Dupuis, Y., Boutteau, R., Vasseur, P., & Savatier, X. (2017). A study of vicon system positioning performance. Sensors, 17(7), 1591. https://doi.org/10.3390/s17071591
Ounpuu, S., Gage, J. R., & Davis, R. B. (1991). Three-dimensional lower extremity joint kinetics in normal pediatric gait. Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics, 11(3), 341-349.
Piazza, S. J., Erdemir, A., Okita, N., & Cavanagh, P. R. (2004). Assessment of the functional method of hip joint center location subject to reduced range of hip motion. Journal of biomechanics, 37(3), 349-356. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0021-9290(03)00288-4
Schwartz, M. H., & Rozumalski, A. (2005). A new method for estimating joint parameters from motion data. Journal of biomechanics, 38(1), 107-116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2004.03.009
Woltring, H. J. (1991). Representation and calculation of 3-D joint movement. Human Movement Science, 10(5), 603-616. https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-9457(91)90048-3
Woltring, H. J., Long, K., Osterbauer, P. J., & Fuhr, A. W. (1994). Instantaneous helical axis estimation from 3-D video data in neck kinematics for whiplash diagnostics. Journal of biomechanics, 27(12), 1415-1432. https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9290(94)90192-9

UWA Specific Articles

Alderson, J., Campbell, A., Chin, A., Lloyd, D., & Elliott, B. (2008). Advances in upper limb modelling: implications for testing cricket bowling actions. In ISBS-Conference Proceedings Archive. https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/cpa/article/view/2016
Alderson, J., Campbell, A., Chin, A., Lloyd, D., & Elliott, B. (2008). Advances in upper limb modelling: implications for testing cricket bowling actions. In Kwon, Y., Shim, J., J. K. Shim, & I. Shin (Eds.), Scientific Proceedings of XXVI International Conference on Biomechanics in Sports (Seoul, Korea ed., Vol. 1, pp. 173-177). Korean Society of Sports Biomechanics & Department of Physical Education, Seoul National University, Korea. https://ojs.ub.unikonstanz.de/cpa/article/view/2016
Besier, T. F., Sturnieks, D. L., Alderson, J. A., & Lloyd, D. G. (2003). Repeatability of gait data using a functional hip joint centre and a mean helical knee axis. Journal of biomechanics, 36(8), 1159-1168. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0021-9290(03)00087-3
Campbell, A., Lloyd, D., Alderson, J., & Elliott, B. (2008). MRI validation of a new regression model for glenohumeral centre of rotation estimation. Journal of Biomechanics, (41), S165. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0021-9290(08)70165-9
Campbell, A. C., Alderson, J. A., Lloyd, D. G., & Elliott, B. C. (2009). Effects of different technical coordinate system definitions on the three dimensional representation of the glenohumeral joint centre. Medical & biological engineering & computing, 47(5), 543-550. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-009-0467-7
Campbell, A. C., Lloyd, D. G., Alderson, J. A., & Elliott, B. C. (2009). MRI development and validation of two new predictive methods of glenohumeral joint centre location identification and comparison with established techniques. Journal of biomechanics, 42(10), 1527-1532. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2009.03.039
Chin, A., Elliott, B., Alderson, J., Lloyd, D., & Foster, D. (2009). The off-break and “doosra”: Kinematic variations of elite and sub-elite bowlers in creating ball spin in cricket bowling. Sports Biomechanics, 8(3), 187-198. https://doi.org/10.1080/14763140903229476
Chin, A., Lloyd, D., Alderson, J., Elliott, B., & Mills, P. (2010). A marker-based mean finite helical axis model to determine elbow rotation axes and kinematics in vivo. Journal of Applied Biomechanics, 26(3), 305-315. https://doi.org/10.1123/jab.26.3.305
Crewe, H., Campbell, A., Elliott, B., & Alderson, J. (2013). Kinetic sensitivity of a new lumbo-pelvic model to variation in segment parameter input. Journal of applied biomechanics, 29(3), 354-359. https://doi.org/10.1123/jab.29.3.354
Donnelly, C. J., Weir, G., Jackson, C., Alderson, J., Rafeeuddin, R., Sharir, R., Vanrenterghem, J., & Robinson, M. A. (2021). The inter-laboratory equivalence for lower limb kinematics and kinetics during unplanned sidestepping. Sports Biomechanics, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1080/14763141.2020.1860254
Elliott, B., & Alderson, J. (2007). Laboratory versus field testing in cricket bowling: A review of current and past practice in modelling techniques. Sports Biomechanics, 6(1), 99-108. https://doi.org/10.1080/14763140601058623
Elliott, B. C., Alderson, J. A., & Denver, E. R. (2007). System and modelling errors in motion analysis: Implications for the measurement of the elbow angle in cricket bowling. Journal of Biomechanics, 40(12), 2679-2685. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2006.12.012
Lloyd, D. G., Alderson, J., & Elliott, B. C. (2000). An upper limb kinematic model for the examination of cricket bowling: A case study of Mutiah Muralitharan. Journal of sports sciences, 18(12), 975-982. https://doi.org/10.1080/026404100446775
Lloyd, D., Reid, S., Elliott, B., & Alderson, J. (2005). Murali's doosra: technology and the law in cricket. Sport Health, 23(3). https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/INFORMIT.478874029139895
Middleton, K., Campbell, A., Alderson, J., Chin, A., & Elliott, B. (2009) The effect of altering the helical endpoint technical reference frame on elbow angle in cricket bowling. In XXI Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kane-Middleton/publication/263810914_The_effect_of_altering_the_helical_endpoint_technical_reference_frame_on_elbow_angle_in_cricket_bowling/links/54f65d130cf2ca5efefdffe6/The-effect-of-altering-the-helical-endpoint-technical-reference-frame-on-elbow-angle-in-cricket-bowling.pdf
Reid, S., Elliott, C., Alderson, J., Lloyd, D., & Elliott, B. (2010). Repeatability of upper limb kinematics for children with and without cerebral palsy. Gait & posture, 32(1), 10-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaitpost.2010.02.015
Wells, D., Alderson, J., Middleton, K., & Donnelly, C. (2012). Assessing the accuracy of inverse kinematics in opensim to estimate elbow flexion-extension during cricket bowling: maintaining the rigid linked assumption. In ISBS-Conference Proceedings Archive. https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/cpa/article/view/5267
Wells, D., Alderson, J., Middleton, K., Elliott, B., & Donnelly, C. J. (2013). The repeatability of upper limb models: anatomical landmarks vs. cluster/functional marker sets. In XXIV Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics. https://media.isbweb.org/images/conferences/isb-congresses/2013/oral/cb-upper-limb.01.pdf
Wells, D. J. M., Alderson, J. A., Dunne, J., Elliott, B. C., & Donnelly, C. J. (2017). Prescribing joint co-ordinates during model preparation to improve inverse kinematic estimates of elbow joint angles. Journal of biomechanics, 51, 111-117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2016.11.057
Wells, D., Donnelly, C., Dunne, J., Elliott, B., & Anderson, J. (2015). Marker Registration for Inverse Kinematic Models of the Upper Limb: Important Considerations for the Sport Scientist. In ISBS-Conference Proceedings Archive. https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/cpa/article/view/6337
Wells, D. J. M., Donnelly, C. J., Elliott, B. C., Middleton, K. J., & Alderson, J. A. (2018). The inter-tester repeatability of a model for analysing elbow flexion-extension during overhead sporting movements. Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing, 56(10), 1853-1860. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-018-1820-5
Zhang, Y., Lloyd, D. G., Campbell, A. C., & Alderson, J. A. (2011). Can the effect of soft tissue artifact be eliminated in upper-arm internal-external rotation?. Journal of applied biomechanics, 27(3), 258-265. https://doi.org/10.1123/jab.27.3.258

UWA PhD Theses

UWA PhD Thesis

Anatomical and functional based upper limb models: methods for kinematic analysis of cricket spin bowling - Aaron Chin
Outcomes of an upper limb eccentric strength-training programme for adolescents with cerebral palsy - Siobhan Reid
Identification of the glenohumeral joint rotation centre: an MRI validation study – Amity Campbell
Mechanical strategies for the development of ball release velocity in cricket fast bowling: the interaction, variation and simulation of execution and outcome parameters – Kane Middleton
Lumbo-pelvic loading in adolescent fast bowlers: a prospective injury investigation – Helen Bayne
Upper limb kinetic models for dynamic overhead motion: from direct and inverse solutions to wearable sensors – Denny Wells
The biomechanics of bowing, upper limb loads and playing posture in professional violinists – Sarah Ward
Anatomical versus numerical based lower limb models: their use in the assessment of patellofemoral pain in female runners – Jacqueline Alderson
Chapter Three: Model Development & Repeatability Testing

Contact

For further information please contact: professionalnetworks@ausport.gov.au

An Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), University of Western Australia (UWA) & Logemas collaborative project for the high performance sport system. Consultation across the National Biomechanics Network throughout 2020 and 2021 has led to the development of these resources.

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