Impulse Radio-Ultra Wideband Communications for Localisation and Tracking of Human Body and Limbs Movement for Healthcare Applications

Accurate and precise motion tracking of limbs and human subjects has technological importance in various healthcare applications. The use of Impulse Radio Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology due its inherent properties is of recent interest for high accuracy localisation. This paper presents experimental investigations and analysis of indoor human body localisation and tracking of limb movements in 3D based on IR-UWB technology using compact and cost-effective body worn antennas. The body–centric wireless channel characterisation has been analysed in detail using parameters such as path loss magnitude, number of multipath components, RMS delay spread, signal amplitude and Kurtosis with the main focus to differentiate between line-of-sight (LOS) and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) situations. Fidelity of the received signal is also calculated for different activities and antenna positions to study the pulse preserving nature of the UWB antenna when it is placed on the human body. The results reported in this paper have high localisation accuracy with 90 % in the range of 0.5 to 2.5 cm using simple and cost-effective techniques which is comparable to the results obtained by the standard optical motion capture system.