A Full-Body Wireless Wearable UWB-Based Human Motion Capture and Gait Analysis System

Gait analysis is the systematic study of human walking. Clinical gait analysis, also termed as quantitative gait analysis, provides a detailed clinical introduction to understanding and treating walking disorders. Modern gait analysis is facilitated through the use of specialized equipment. Currently, accurate gait analysis requires dedicated laboratories with complex settings and highly skilled operators. Wearable locomotion tracking systems are available, but they are not sufficiently accurate for clinical gait analysis. On the other hand, wireless healthcare is evolving. Ultra wideband (UWB) is one technology that has the potential for accurate ranging and positioning in dense, multi-path environments. In particular, impulse radio UWB (IR-UWB) is suitable for low-power implementation, which makes it an attractive candidate for wearable and battery-powered health-monitoring systems. The goal of this chapter is to propose and investigate an accurate, full-body, wireless, wearable human locomotion tracking system using UWB radios, with specific application to clinical gait analysis.