UWB Monitoring System for AAL Applications

Abstract

Independent living of elderly persons in their homes requires support that can be provided with modern assistive technologies. Monitoring of elderly persons behaviour delivers valuable information that can be used for diagnosis and detection of health problems as well as triggering alerts in emergency situations. The paper includes a description of the ultra wideband system developed within Networked InfrasTructure for Innovative home Care Solutions (NITICS) Active and Assisted Living (AAL) project. The system can be used as a component of AAL platforms. It delivers data on users localization and has a fall detector functionality. The system also provides access to raw measurement results from Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) sensors embedded in the device worn by the monitored person. These data can be used in solutions intended for elderly person’s behaviour investigation. The system was investigated under laboratory conditions as well as in home environment. The detailed system description and results of performed tests are included in the article.

UWB/BLE Tracking System for Elderly People Monitoring

“…The appearance of the IEEE802.15.4a standard and availability of the compliant chips from Decawave increased interest in the UWB-based localization. An exemplary solution exploiting this technology, allowing for obtaining submeter accuracy, is presented in Reference [28].…”

Improving Accuracy and Reliability of Bluetooth Low-Energy-Based Localization Systems Using Proximity Sensors

“…The Time Difference of Arrival method consists of localizing the user based on the difference of times, at which the anchors receive signals transmitted from the tag [10]. Typically, the only transmitting devices in this method are the tags, which helps to organize the transmission and allows to achieve higher system capacities when compared to ToA.…”

“…The main problem with implementing TDoA is the requirement to achieve accurate and reliable anchor synchronization. In commercial systems, it is usually done by transmitting synchronization signals to the anchors with cables [11] but can also be achieved wirelessly by adding another reference anchor to the system infrastructure [10].…”

“…As in simulations, the experiment consisted of walking along two test paths and localizing the user using BLE-based and hybrid algorithms. Localization results were compared with the results obtained using a TDOA-based UWB positioning system developed at WUT during one of the earlier projects [10]. The layout of the apartment and places where the infrastructure elements were placed is presented in Figure 11.…”

“…The UWB-based localization system used as reference consisted of nine anchors, which were placed in the same places as the BLE-based infrastructure. In the system, the user was localized three times per second using an EKF-based algorithm utilizing TDOA measurement results [10].…”