Static pose reconstruction with an instrumented bouldering wall

This paper describes the design and construction of an instrumented bouldering wall, and a technique for estimating poses by optimizing an objective function involving contact forces. We describe the design and calibration of the wall, which can capture the contact forces and torques during climbing while motion capture (MoCap) records the climber pose, and present a solution for identifying static poses for a given set of holds and forces. We show results of our calibration process and static poses estimated for different measured forces. To estimate poses from forces, we use optimization and start with an inexpensive objective to guide the solver toward the optimal solution. When good candidates are encountered, the full objective function is evaluated with a physics-based simulation to determine physical plausibility while meeting additional constraints. Comparison between our reconstructed poses and MoCap show that our objective function is a good model for human posture.