Hello, I’m trying to make a wearable device for tracking a person. This will require a belt, housing one DWM3001CDK, a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, a BNO085 IMU, 8-16 VG1040003D LRAs from Vybronics, a PCB to drive the LRAs, a power bank and various wires. I was wondering how the presence of the other components would affect the accuracy of the ranging measurements between the worn UWB module and anchor modules placed around the measurement area. I know that metal affects accuracy, but if it’s from other components is it such an issue if they’re housed close to the UWB module?
Will the other components impact accuracy? Maybe, it depends where they are relative to the antenna. You certainly don’t want to put another PCB right up against the module.
Anything close to the antenna will detune it and so reduce the signal levels. For anything conductive this effect will be far stronger but even plastic will have a small impact if right next to the antenna. This is more a yield issue than an accuracy one but weaker signals will have a slight impact on accuracy.
A bigger issue is that the persons body will block the signals. This means you could well end up picking up reflections rather than the direct signal for anchors in that direction. This will result in significant range errors.
Even if you don’t get reflections or are able to filter them out you will still only be getting good range measurements from the side that isn’t blocked, this will result in a poor geometry which will reduce the position accuracy.