Mid-Range Data Acquisition Units UsingGPS and Accelerometers 2018-01-0513

In the 2016 SAE publication “Data Acquisition using Smart Phone Applications,” Neale et al., evaluated the accuracy of basic fitness applications in tracking position and elevation using the GPS and accelerometer technology contained within the smart phone itself [1]. This paper further develops the research by evaluating mid-level applications. Mid-level applications are defined as ones that use a phone’s internal accelerometer and record data at 1 Hz or greater. The application can also utilize add-on devices, such as a Bluetooth enabled GPS antenna, which reports at a higher sample rate (10 Hz) than the phone by itself. These mid-level applications are still relatively easy to use, lightweight and affordable [2], [3], [4], but have the potential for higher data sample rates for the accelerometer (due to the software) and GPS signal (due to the hardware). In this paper, Harry’s Lap Timer™ was evaluated as a smart phone mid-level application. Used in conjunction with the external antenna Sky Pro GPS, the speed, acceleration and position recorded by Harry’s Lap Timer™ tracking technology is compared to a well-known and validated data acquisition unit. The speed, position, and acceleration data of Harry’s Lap Timer™ was compared to the VBOX 20 Hz VB20SL3 with a RLVB IMU 03 3-axis accelerometer. The research presented here demonstrates that mid-level tracking software like Harry’s Lap Timer™ collects comparable data at a sample rate between 1-10 Hz for many testing situations.