Fifteen Years of Progress at Zero Velocity: A Review

Fifteen years have passed since the publication of Foxlin’s seminal paper “Pedestrian tracking with shoe-mounted inertial sensors”. In addition to popularizing the zero-velocity update, Foxlin also hinted that the optimal parameter tuning of the zero-velocity detector is dependent on, for example, the user’s gait speed. As demonstrated by the recent influx of related studies, the question of how to properly design a robust zero-velocity detector is still an open research question. In this review, we first recount the history of foot-mounted inertial navigation and characterize the main sources of error, thereby motivating the need for a robust solution. Following this, we systematically analyze current approaches to robust zero-velocity detection, while categorizing public code and data. The article concludes with a discussion on commercialization along with guidance for future research.