Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Inventive Research in Computing Applications (ICIRCA-2021)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP21N67-ART; ISBN: 978-0-7381-4627-0
Implementation of IoT and UAV Based WBAN
for healthcare applications
*1 J. Vijitha Ananthi
1 2
Research Scholar, Department of Biomedical
Engineering, Karunya Institute of Technology
and Sciences, Coimbatore, India.
2021 Third International Conference on Inventive Research in Computing Applications (ICIRCA) | 978-1-6654-3877-3/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ICIRCA51532.2021.9545052
1*
vijithaananthi@karunya.edu.in;
vijithaananthij@gmail.com
Abstract:
Recently, Wireless Body Area Networks
(WBAN) have been increasingly significant in
healthcare applications. It is derived from the
wireless sensor network with biomedical
sensors. The Internet of Things (IoT) has a
huge impact on how medical data is received
and transmitted to the right systems in
healthcare applications. Security, fastest
delivery, and energy consumption are major
concerns in wireless body area networks. This
research work focuses on the rapid data
transmission between the patient and doctor
using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV).
There are five sensors that are analyzed as
Heart rate monitoring sensor, Temperature
sensor, Human motion sensor, Oximeter
sensor, and Blood pressure sensor. For the
fastest delivery, the sensed medical data was
delivered utilizing unmanned aerial vehicles.
This helps the patients in critical/emergencies
to communicate the medical information to the
doctor safely and securely. The experimental
result examines various sensors attached to the
Arduino IDE. The obtained results will be
transmitted to the patients using unmanned
aerial vehicles. These techniques help to
improve the fastest communication for
emergency condition patients.
Keywords: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles;
Internet of Things; Wireless body area
networks; Healthcare Applications.
I. Introduction
A remote patient monitoring system is
crucial, as it allows patients to check their
health at any time and from anywhere in the
globe using wireless body area networks and
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2
P. Subha Hency Jose
Associate Professor, Department of
Biomedical Engineering, Karunya Institute of
Technology and Sciences, Coimbatore, India.
2
hency20002000@karunya.edu
the internet of things. Doctors can access the
patient’s health condition with the help of
current technology. In this covid 19 situation,
no one can leave the house for their basic
needs. In case of a medical emergency, doctors
can check the patients remotely and provide an
immediate solution for the patient’s health
condition. A wireless sensor network is made
up of several sensor nodes that continuously
monitor the environment. Wireless body area
network has a different biological sensor and it
is applied in the patient’s body. The biological
sensor nodes gather information from the
patient and send it to the central control nodes.
The controller node transmits the collected
information of the patients to Personal Digital
Assistant (PDA) devices using Bluetooth or
ZigBee technology. Figure 1 depicts the
WBAN architecture, which includes sensors
embedded in the human body and will transfer
sensor data to a Personal Device Assistant
(PDA) through Bluetooth.
Figure 1. WBAN Architecture
Internet of things helps to exchange
vast data when it is embedded with sensors
and actuators. The Internet of Things connects
objects such as embedded sensors to a
computing system to allow for efficient
communication. It aids in the transmission of
patient data in different technical areas of
healthcare systems. This helps to increase the
37
 Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Inventive Research in Computing Applications (ICIRCA-2021)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP21N67-ART; ISBN: 978-0-7381-4627-0
storage level, wide coverage range, and
immediate action from doctors.
Figure 2: IoT based WBAN
Figure 2 shows that the integration of WBAN
and IoT. The sensed patient’s information will
be transmitted to the doctors through the
internet.
II. Related work
Dhanvijay et. al [1] suggested the IoT
healthcare communication systems for the
improvement of secure communication using a
secure aware mobility management protocol.
This approach generates a pairwise key
generation algorithm based on an advanced
encryption standard scheme. The overall
transmission delay and handover delay were
examined in the results section. When
compared to the existing approach, the
proposed system improves secure
communication and reduces delay. Şen et. al
[2] proposed the WBAN based geographical
routing algorithm for IoT-based surveillance
systems for healthcare applications. It helps to
prevent the spreading of coronavirus. In the
results section, the delivery rate and drop rate
were compared and assessed using the AODV
routing technique. Izza et. al [3] discussed the
IoT-based RFID authentication scheme to
avoid security and privacy issues in wireless
body area networks. Here, the ECG encryption
scheme is utilized for secure communication.
Kaschel et al. [4] described how a healthcare
IoT monitoring system receives data from
patients. The collected information is
transmitted remotely and securely using the H-
IoT system. Yoo et. al [5] presented an IoT-
based health big data processing approach for
the medical system. This approach helps to
store more medical data and transmit the data
securely.
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Majeed et.al [6] proposed remote monitoring
systems for the continuous tracking of patient
information. Here, the cloud computing
technique was developed in order to store and
access the patient’s data. This helps to increase
the storage level with more users. Jiang et.al
[7] introduced the enhanced authentication
scheme for wireless body area networks to
transmit the data securely. Here, the proposed
approach uses the biometric technique with the
assistance of a hand gesture password. A high-
density surface electromyogram helps to
encode the password to access the data. Kiani
et.al [8] explained the Benz logo antenna with
metal-plated for efficient communication in
healthcare applications. Dey et.al [9] discussed
the super wideband antenna for wireless
healthcare applications and it is also applied in
the internet of things domain. This antenna
helps to improve the reflection coefficient and
antenna gain. Aitzaouiat et.al [10]
implemented the involuntary medical seizures
for secure communication.
III. Methodology
Saha et.al [11] proposed usable healthcare
monitoring systems for wireless body area
networks. Zigbee act as a wireless
communication tool. The collected
information will be transmitted to the
computing device by using a shielded cable.
Karmakar et.al [12] investigated the Artificial
Neural Network (ANN) framework for
healthcare applications. There are 3 sensors
used such as ECG sensor, Pulse oximeter
sensor, and temperature sensor. As a result of
the experiment, the data classification
accuracy was found to be 98 %. ÖZCAN et.al
[13] discussed the telemonitoring system for
body temperature measurement. By using this
approach, it is possible to detect the patient’s
temperature from a long distance. Dikshit et.al
[14] explained the IoT-based smart health
monitoring system and it senses the healthcare
parameters such as body heat rate, heart rate,
and body temperature using the GSR and
temperature sensor. Assaba et.al [15] proposed
the smartphone-based patient health
monitoring system. This research work uses
wearable sensor nodes and it will reach the
doctor using Bluetooth.
38
 Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Inventive Research in Computing Applications (ICIRCA-2021)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP21N67-ART; ISBN: 978-0-7381-4627-0
The majority of the techniques examined
human body conditions and transmitted them
through the use of the internet [17-25]. The
limitations include high delay, high drop rate,
less security, and more energy consumption.
To overcome the limitation of the existing
technique, a new model called IoT and UAV-
based WBAN was proposed for biomedical
healthcare applications.
IV. Proposed System Description
Heart rate monitoring sensor, temperature
sensor, human motion sensor, oximeter sensor,
and blood pressure sensor are five sensors
utilized in the human body with a controller
node to determine the patient's state.
Figure 3. Proposed Block Diagram
Figure 3 shows the block diagram of
the proposed system. The heart rate sensor
helps to measures the heart rate of a human in
beats per minute. LED plays an important role
in the detection of heartbeat sensors. It passes
the light through the skin based on the amount
of light reflected from the skin detects the
heart rate of a human. The reflection of light
will be varied based on the blood pulses of the
human body and that term is represented as
heartbeats which are measured in beats per
minute. The digital temperature sensor
(DS18B20) has a 12-bit Analog to Digital
converter (ADC) in the microchip. This sensor
communication using the one-wire bus and the
result will be approximate +/- 0.5 degrees
Celsius. The operation of the temperature
sensors is determined by the voltage across the
diode and the temperature value is calculated
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using the diode's resistance. The patient will
have a lower temperature if the diode's
resistance is low. The patient will have a
greater temperature if the diode's resistance is
high. This temperature sensor helps to detect
the patient’s body temperature. A human
motion sensor helps to detect the patient’s
active condition. A passive infrared sensor
(PIR sensor) is employed to determine the
human movable condition from one location to
another. It uses a pyroelectric sensor which
helps to detect the infrared radiation when a
human passes to that region. When a human
approach a sensor, a positive differential shift
in bisects occurs. If the human is outside the
range, the bisect indicates a negative
differential change. An oximeter sensor is an
electronic device that is placed on the finger of
the human body. The oximeter sensor detects
the oxygen level in blood without any blood
samples by using the electric impulse. The
oxygen saturation level is measured in
percentage and it is abbreviated as Spo2. A
blood pressure sensor helps to sense human
blood pressure. It’s very useful for high blood
pressure patients.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) [16]
plays an important role for data
communication from the patient to doctor. It
helps to transmit the data securely without any
data loss. UAV maintains the line-of-sight
path between one user and another user. There
is a less chance probability of data loss and
increases security. UAV uses the aerodynamic
force to transmit the data automatically. This
research work employed the Ardupilot, which
is an inbuilt aircraft that runs on the Arduino
IDE. This Ardupilot supports to navigate the
UAV with the help of autopilot function with
GSM. This scheme used the fly-by-wire
method for data communication.
V. Experimental Results
The Arduino IDE board was used to
evaluate the experimental results. It is linked
to the human body through five distinct
sensors. The sensed data will be compiled and
displayed on the LCD. The acquired values
will be sent to the personal digital assistant
39
 Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Inventive Research in Computing Applications (ICIRCA-2021)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP21N67-ART; ISBN: 978-0-7381-4627-0

devices via the GSM module. The snapshot of

the proposed system is shown in figure 4.

Figure 4: Snapshot of the proposed system

Figures 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 exhibits the

real-time results obtained from hardware
implementation. Figure 5 shows that the Figure 8: Blood Pressure
temperature analysis and is measured in
Fahrenheit.

Figure 9: Motion Detector

Figure 8 shows the measurement of
Figure 5: Temperature in Fahrenheit
blood pressure and it is measured in
millimeters of mercury (mmHg). Systolic
represents SYS which is lesser than 120
mmHg. DIA represents diastolic which is
lesser than 80 mmHg. Figure 9 is analyzed
based on the availability of patient’s data. If
the patient is available in the sensor range,
then the result will be 1 or else the result will
be displayed as 0.

The collected graphs will be

Figure 6: Heart Rate in BPM transmitted to the patient by using unmanned
aerial vehicles. Ardupilot is simulation
Figure 6 shows that the heart rate software that helps to track unmanned aerial
analysis measured in beats per minute. Figure vehicles in autopilot mode. It helps to track the
7 depicts the analysis of the blood oxygen speed of the vehicle, traffic collision, and time
level which is measured in percentage. taken to transmit the data from one end to
another end.
VI. Conclusion
Certainly, the usage of IoT and UAV-
Based WBAN for biomedical and healthcare
applications was explored in this research. The
Internet of Things helps to transmit data with a
Figure 7: Blood Oxygen Level wide range of communication. Unmanned
aerial vehicle helps to increase the speed of the
communication by using the direct line of

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 Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Inventive Research in Computing Applications (ICIRCA-2021)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP21N67-ART; ISBN: 978-0-7381-4627-0
sight path. The proposed system uses five
different sensors to analyze the human
condition that will be collected using PDA.
With the assistance of IoT and UAV systems,
the medical data will reach the doctor in order
to solve the patient's emergency cases. The
main implementation of UAVs in IoT is to
increase the speed of medical data
communication. In the future, it can transmit
the medical data using a flying ad-hoc network
and it helps to reduce the complexity while
designing unmanned aerial vehicles.
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