Xsens Technologies B.V. (or Xsens) is a supplier of 3D

motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robo ...

products, wearable sensors and

inertial sensors An inertial measurement unit (IMU) is an electronic device that measures and reports a body's specific force, angular rate, and sometimes the orientation of the body, using a combination of accelerometers, gyroscopes, and sometimes magnetometer ...

based upon miniature

MEMS Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), also written as micro-electro-mechanical systems (or microelectronic and microelectromechanical systems) and the related micromechatronics and microsystems constitute the technology of microscopic devices, ...

inertial sensor technology. The company has created intellectual property in the field of multi-sensor

data fusion Data fusion is the process of integrating multiple data sources to produce more consistent, accurate, and useful information than that provided by any individual data source. Data fusion processes are often categorized as low, intermediate, or hig ...

algorithms, combining

inertial sensor An inertial measurement unit (IMU) is an electronic device that measures and reports a body's specific force, angular rate, and sometimes the orientation of the body, using a combination of accelerometers, gyroscopes, and sometimes magnetometer ...

s with aiding technologies such as

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...

Motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robo ...

and biomechanical modeling. Xsens is part of Movella, a new company formed by combining mCube, Xsens, and Kinduct. Movella provide devices for sensing, capturing, and analyzing motion and states of being. Xsens has offices in

Enschede Enschede (; known as in the local Twents dialect) is a municipality and city in the eastern Netherlands in the province of Overijssel and in the Twente region. The eastern parts of the urban area reaches the border of the German city of Gronau ...

(headquarter,

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

and

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

History

The company was founded in 2000 by Casper Peeters and Per Slycke, both

University of Twente The University of Twente (Dutch: ''Universiteit Twente''; , abbr. ) is a public technical university located in Enschede, Netherlands. The university has been placed in the top 170 universities in the world by multiple central ranking tables. ...

graduates. Following work in measurement of the performance of athletes, they specialized in sensor technologies and sensor fusion algorithms. The company developed

Inertial measurement unit An inertial measurement unit (IMU) is an electronic device that measures and reports a body's specific force, angular rate, and sometimes the orientation of the body, using a combination of accelerometers, gyroscopes, and sometimes magnetometer ...

s or

AHRS An attitude and heading reference system (AHRS) consists of sensors on three axes that provide attitude information for aircraft, including roll, pitch, and yaw. These are sometimes referred to as MARG (Magnetic, Angular Rate, and Gravity) sens ...

(MTi-series and MTx) and human movement measurement systems (a complete wireless system MTw Awinda, the successor of the Xbus Kit). In 2007 Xsens introduced an inertial motion capture system called "Moven" (renamed to Xsens MVN in 2009). In 2008, Xsens acquired Utellus, a spin-off from telecom company Ericsson's EuroLab, specializing in applications of ultra wide band RF technology. In 2009 Xsens introduced the MVN BIOMECH system, a motion capture system for 3D human

kinematics Kinematics is a subfield of physics, developed in classical mechanics, that describes the Motion (physics), motion of points, Physical object, bodies (objects), and systems of bodies (groups of objects) without considering the forces that cause ...

used in fields such as ergonomics, sports science and rehabilitation. In 2014 Xsens was acquired by

Fairchild Semiconductor Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. was an American semiconductor company based in San Jose, California. Founded in 1957 as a division of Fairchild Camera and Instrument, it became a pioneer in the manufacturing of transistors and of int ...

, and becoming part of

ON Semiconductor onsemi (stylized in lowercase; legally ON Semiconductor Corporation; formerly ON Semiconductor until August 5, 2021) is an American semiconductor supplier company, based in Phoenix, Arizona and ranked #483 on the 2022 ''Fortune'' 500 based on it ...

in 2016. In 2015 Xsens introduced a new inertial sensor module by the name of the MTi 1-series and in 2019 the latest series of inertial sensor modules was introduced, called the MTi 600-series. In 2017 both Xsens MVN and MVN BIOMECH were renamed to Xsens MVN Animate and Xsens MVN Analyze. In Nov 2017, mCube acquired Xsens from ON Semiconductor. In January 2020 Xsens launched Xsens DOT development platform for the analysis and reporting of human kinematics. In September 2021 mCube announced it is rebranding as Movella. Movella products serve four primary markets: entertainment, sports, health, and industrial. The new brand encapsulates the value and technologies from mCube, Xsens, and Kinduct.

Products

Xsens product range from

s to inertial

Motion Capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robo ...

. * MTi 1-serie * MTi-7 * MTi 10-series * MTi 600-series * MTi 100-series * MTi-G-710 * MTw Awinda * Xsens MVN Analyze * Xsens MVN Animate * Xsens DOT

Software

Xsens develops proprietary software for their own

s and

products. * MT Software Suite for all MTi sensors * MT Software Suite for MTw Awinda * MVN Animate motion capture software for 3D Character Animation * MVN Analyze motion capture software for Human Motion Measurement

Inertial sensor applications

Typically Xsens inertial sensor technology is used for orientation, attitude- and positioning data. The technology is integrated by fleet operators, robotics integrators, digital mapping companies, drone developers, Vehicle-testing, Autonomous Vehicles, Warehouse & Logistics (AGV/AMR), Maritime/offshore (ROVs/AUVs/USVs/floating platforms), Aerospace, Heavy-Industry (harbor/construction/mining) and Agriculture (UGVs/robots).

Projects

Xsens participates in research projects like AnDy, a project funded by the European Union within the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme endowing robots with the ability to control physical collaboration through intentional interaction. Xsens also participates in AWESCO, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Initial Training Network funded by the European Union within the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme and by the Swiss federal government. The project aims to address the key challenges of airborne wind energy technologies with the aim of supporting the commercialization in Europe. Since 2014, Xsens is a full partner of KNEEMO Initial Training Network (ITN) for knee osteoarthritis research funded through the European Commission’s Framework 7 Programme. As an industrial partner, its role is to develop methods to estimate knee joint loading using inertial motion capture. Other projects are MC Impulse, focusing on sensor data processing and MILEPOST, on

indoor navigation An indoor positioning system (IPS) is a network of devices used to locate people or objects where GPS and other satellite technologies lack precision or fail entirely, such as inside multistory buildings, airports, alleys, parking garages, and und ...

Productions

Xsens products are widely known for use in film, game, live entertainment and advertising. Known productions that were created with the help of Xsens products are: * The Umbrella Academy * The Mandalorian * Stranger Things 3 * WestWorld season 3 * Avengers: Infinity war * Black Panther * Thor: Ragnarok * Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice * Ant-Man * FIFA 16 * Love Has No Labels * Ted 1 and 2 * Just Cause 3

References

{{Software companies of the Netherlands Electronics companies of the Netherlands Software companies of the Netherlands Motion capture