Motion capture at LEMSC: from iron man to structural engineering

The LEMSC technology platform has recently expanded its experimental setup with a new eight-camera motion capture system from Vicon.

Known for bringing characters to life in movies and video games or to study the human body, motion capture is now being used at the Institute of Mechanics, Materials and Civil Engineering - iMMC - to track and analyze the 3D movement of civil engineering structures.

Unlike traditional sensors such as LVDTs or lasers, which capture only local, 1D data, this system can track hundreds of reflective markers simultaneously, delivering a complete 3D view of structural behavior — from bending and torsion to cracking and vibration modes.

It has already been used to measure the deformation of an offshore wind turbine foundation, the cracking of a 10-ton concrete wall, and the behavior of tensegrity and reciprocal structures — all in real time, with a precision finer than half a human hair across a 200 m³ volume.

This new system acquired by the LEMSC combines high accuracy, real-time results, and simple setup to enhance experimental research in our institute.