Scalable centimetric tracking system for team sports

Abstract

Maintaining players performance during training or competition is fundamental in modern team sports. Parallel to the classical laboratory-based assessment, recent technological developments have made it possible to develop wearable sensors that can monitor real-time players performance without hindering them and avoid complex setup procedures. This paper presents the preliminary investigation of a flexible, lightweight, and easy to reconfigure tracking system for sports players that can be used both indoor and outdoor. The system is based on COTS components and exploits both UWB positioning and inertial sensors data fusion to real-time track players performances. Thanks to the R-TDOA link approach and Bluetooth data sharing, energy efficiency is ensured in a very compact form factor. Results highlight the feasibility of the solution by assessing battery autonomy and the accuracy of the tracking infrastructure.