Getting started with TimeSeries¶

The TimeSeries class is the basis of most Kinetic Toolkit’s modules and is the only “new” class that users have to learn.

The three roles of the TimeSeries class are to:

1. organize multidimensional data in time;

2. deal with events;

3. associate metadata to data.

This class is largely inspired by Matlab’s timeseries and tscollection. To better understand the role and capabilities of the TimeSeries class, we will begin by opening some columns of a csv file as a Pandas DataFrame. This file contains forces and moments applied on an instrumented wheelchair wheel during the propulsion of a manual wheelchair.

[1]:

import kineticstoolkit.lab as ktk
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np

[2]:

# Read some columns
usecols=[18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23],
names=['Fx', 'Fy', 'Fz', 'Mx', 'My', 'Mz'],
nrows=5000)

# Assign time to the DataFrame's index, where the sampling rate is 240 Hz.
df.index = np.arange(df.shape[0]) / 240
df

[2]:

Fx Fy Fz Mx My Mz
0.000000 1.27 -0.89 -0.20 -0.03 0.05 -0.03
0.004167 0.49 -0.83 -0.51 0.02 -0.01 -0.13
0.008333 0.00 -0.78 -0.51 0.04 -0.07 -0.18
0.012500 -0.13 -0.93 -0.41 0.03 -0.16 -0.18
0.016667 -0.02 -0.89 0.00 0.01 -0.21 -0.13
... ... ... ... ... ... ...
20.812500 0.87 -1.73 0.00 0.08 -0.07 -0.03
20.816667 0.68 -2.38 0.20 0.07 -0.05 0.08
20.820833 0.39 -2.72 0.20 0.02 0.00 0.10
20.825000 0.32 -2.51 0.41 0.04 0.05 0.08
20.829167 0.39 -1.54 0.82 0.08 0.06 -0.10

5000 rows × 6 columns

Now, we can convert this DataFrame to a TimeSeries:

[3]:

ts = ktk.TimeSeries.from_dataframe(df)
ts

[3]:

TimeSeries with attributes:
data: <dict with 6 entries>,
data_info: <dict with 0 entries>,
events: <list of 0 items>,
time: <array of shape (5000,)>,
time_info: <dict with 1 entries>


Properties¶

time and data¶

The time property is the time vector, which tells at which time correspond each of the samples.

[4]:

ts.time

[4]:

array([ 0.        ,  0.00416667,  0.00833333, ..., 20.82083333,
20.825     , 20.82916667])


The data property contains the TimeSeries’ data in a dictionary. Each of the 6 DataFrame’s columns now corresponds to a data key.

[5]:

ts.data

[5]:

{
'Fx': <array of shape (5000,)>,
'Fy': <array of shape (5000,)>,
'Fz': <array of shape (5000,)>,
'Mx': <array of shape (5000,)>,
'My': <array of shape (5000,)>,
'Mz': <array of shape (5000,)>
}


Multidimensional data¶

In reality, Fx, Fy and Fz are components of a single entity which is a force vector. Similarly, Mx, My and Mz are components of a single entity which is a moment vector. As such, a TimeSeries could easily hold two 5000x3 arrays instead of six different vectors. Its convention is that time corresponds to the first dimension.

It is possible to transfer multidimensional data back and forth between TimeSeries and pandas DataFrames, by using indices in square brackets in the DataFrames’ column titles. For example, if, instead of naming the columns as ['Fx', 'Fy', 'Fz', 'Mx', 'My', 'Mz'], we name those as ['Forces[0]', 'Forces[1]', 'Forces[2]', 'Moments[0]', 'Moments[1]', 'Moments[2]'], then converting this DataFrame to a TimeSeries gives:

[6]:

df.columns = ['Forces[0]', 'Forces[1]', 'Forces[2]', 'Moments[0]', 'Moments[1]', 'Moments[2]']
ts = ktk.TimeSeries.from_dataframe(df)
ts.data

[6]:

{
'Forces': <array of shape (5000, 3)>,
'Moments': <array of shape (5000, 3)>
}


Instead of being separated into 6 separate components, the three components of both the forces and moments are now grouped in two Nx3 arrays, which may simplify subsequent data processing. For example, dealing with series of rigid transformation matrices is not harder than simple vectors.

time_info and data_info¶

The time_info property associates metadata to the time vector. It is a dictionary where each key is the name of one metadata. By default, time_info includes the Unit metadata, which corresponds to s. Any other metadata can be added by adding new keys in time_info.

[7]:

ts.time_info

[7]:

{
'Unit': 's'
}


Similarly, the data_info property associates metadata to data. This property is a dictionary of dictionaries, where the first key corresponds to the data key, and the second key is the metadata.

The TimeSeries.add_data_info() method eases the management of data_info.

[8]:

ts.add_data_info('Forces', 'Unit', 'N')


Unless explicitly mentioned, metadata is not used for calculation. It is rather a way to clarify the data by adding information to it. Some ktk functions however read those metadata: for example, the TimeSeries.plot() method looks for Unit information and print it on the y axis.

[9]:

ts.plot()


events¶

In the figure above, we see that the TimeSeries has cyclic information that could be characterized by events. A first spike was generated at about 4 seconds: this event corresponds to a synchronization signal that we generated by gently impacting the instrumented pushrim. Then, we see a series of pushes and recoveries. For now, we will add these events in the TimeSeries by hand using TimeSeries.add_event(). It is also possible to add events interactively using TimeSeries.ui_add_event().

[10]:

ts.add_event(4.35, 'sync')


These events are now added to the TimeSeries’ list of events:

[11]:

ts.events

[11]:

[[4.35, 'sync'],
[8.56, 'push'],
[9.93, 'recovery'],
[10.5, 'push'],
[11.12, 'recovery'],
[11.78, 'push'],
[12.33, 'recovery'],
[13.39, 'push'],
[13.88, 'recovery'],
[14.86, 'push'],
[15.3, 'recovery']]


If we plot again the TimeSeries, we can see the added events.

[12]:

ts.plot()


Using events to synchronize TimeSeries¶

Let’s see how we can make use of these events. First, the sync event can be used to set the zero-time, in the case where, for example, this wheel must be synchronized with another wheel, or with another instrument that also has a synchronization event. The TimeSeries.sync_event() shifts the TimeSeries’ time and events time so that the sync event becomes the new “zero-time”.

[13]:

ts.sync_event('sync')
ts.plot()


Using events to extract sub-TimeSeries¶

The TimeSeries class comes with a myriad of methods such as TimeSeries.get_ts_after_event(), TimeSeries.get_ts_between_events(), etc. For example, if we want to analyze data of the four first pushes and get rid of any other data, we could extract a new TimeSeries that contains only these data:

[14]:

# Extract data push event 0 up to push event 4.
ts2 = ts.get_ts_between_events('push', 'push', 0, 4, inclusive=True)

# Remove the events that are not contained into the new time range.
ts2.trim_events()

ts2.plot()


Subsetting and merging timeseries¶

We can use the TimeSeries.get_subset() method to extract some signals from a TimeSeries. For example, if we only want to keep force information and get rid of the moments:

[15]:

ts3 = ts2.get_subset(['Forces'])

ts3.data

[15]:

{
'Forces': <array of shape (1514, 3)>
}

[16]:

ts3.plot()


For more information, please refer to the API reference for the TimeSeries class.