A wearable wireless ultrasonic sensor network for human arm motion tracking

This paper introduces a novel method for arm flexion/extension angles measurement using wireless ultrasonic sensor network. The approach uses unscented Kalman filter and D-H kinematical chain model to retrieve the joint angles. This method was experimentally validated by calculating the 2-dimensional wrist displacements from one mobile, placed on the point of subject´s wrist, and four anchors. The performance of the proposed ultrasonic motion analysis system was bench-marked by commercial camera motion capture system. The experimental results demonstrate that a favorable performance of the proposed system in the estimation of upper limb motion. The proposed system is wireless, easy to wear, to use and much cheaper than current camera system. Thus, it has the potential to become a new and useful tool for routine clinical assessment of human motion.