I am a physical therapist who specializes in hippotherapy - using horseback riding as a therapy tool to work on balance, strengthening, coordination, etc… Our goal is to conduct clinical research investigating postural control and relationships in inertial measurements between horse and rider for children with disabilities who participate in hippotherapy.
What IMU system might meet this goal? Is there any way our clinic could see a demonstration of the given system in action?
When it comes down to it, I think your project can be summarized as studying human reaction characteristics in response to changes in unpredictable accelerations and perhaps the related unexpected changes in bodily support like seating. The part about a horse isn’t really important; the very same research is performed very obviously in the critical field of roller coaster and waterpark design but also lesser pursuits such as airline passenger comfort, personal watercraft (jetski) safety, public transit route planning, mattresses design, all sorts of nooks and crannies.
The point is that kinesiology is a very mature field of study and it’s dramatically to your advantage to adapt duplicate research and techniques from earlier players.
And hippotherapists gonna hippotherapy so it’s probably best to approach the problem as someway, somehow being solved by a horse. When it’s all said and done, I think you’re going to have to get baseline measurements using standard PT devices. It’s (He’s? Sorry, Trigger.) too unpredictable and unreliable a platform for reliable measurements that can be taken more easily … like virtually anywhere else that isn’t a kayak, climbing wall, snowboard, or other sports therapy situation.
I’d get the baseline measurements conventionally, perform the therapy, remeasure, and analyze.