Localization of Wearable Ultrawideband Antennas for Motion Capture Applications

This letter presents a study of human body localization using ultrawideband (UWB) technology. Various base-station configurations, time of arrival, and first peak detection algorithms are used to estimate the position of the body-worn antennas. Localization error as small as 1-2 cm has been achieved using eight base stations, which is comparable to the measurement accuracy obtained by a complex optical motion capture system to determine the absolute displacement error. The localization error obtained is better by a third in comparison to common commercial system based on UWB technology. The results demonstrate that cuboid-shape configuration with four base stations gives slightly low average percentage error (2%-3%) in comparison to Y-shape (4%). However, the Y-shape configuration is more compact and provides setting-up simplicity, which makes it convenient for various applications ranging from healthcare monitoring to entertainment technologies either laboratory-based or in-home.