1 WPI Precision Personnel Location System D. Cyganski, R. James Duckworth, Vincent Amendolare Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Worcester.

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WPI Precision Personnel Location System

D. Cyganski, R. James Duckworth, Vincent Amendolare

Electrical and Computer Engineering DepartmentWorcester Polytechnic Institute

Worcester, Massachusetts

Advisory Committee Dinner, October 23, 2008

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Position-Finding Technology for Emergency Personnel is a Critical Need

12/3/99: Six firefighters died in a warehouse fire literally within a few feet of safety in Worcester, MA.

9/11/01: A disaster of far greater magnitude, with some deaths in circumstances similar to the Worcester warehouse fire

NFPA: lost/trapped 3rd ranking cause of fatalitiesCurrent emergency responder escape technology:

Audio alarms which sound with lack of motion Homing devices (Ultrasonic, RF) becoming available

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WPI PPL Goal

A location and tracking system which displays locations, paths, and landmarks

(exits, etc.) for multiple responders in 3 dimensions, requiring no pre-installed infrastructure and minimal setup

Must be transparent to users

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The PPL Team (Past and Present)

Research Assoc/Assistants

Jack Coyne* Hauke Daempfling Jason Farmer* Jason Huang* Shashank Kulkarni* Hemish Parikh* Ben Woodacre Vincent Amendolare David Holl* Vivek Varshney Jorge Alejandro Tahsin Hassan* Ishrak Khair* Tanvir Madan* David Hubelbank* Matt Campbell Michael Moukarzel

Faculty David Cyganski R. James Duckworth Sergey Makarov William Michalson John Orr

Technician Bob Boisse

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System Overview

Personnel Unit

Reference units

Commander Display

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System Requirements

Fundamental capabilities: 3-D location of each user relative to a chosen

reference point Relative locations among users Graphical display at the incident command center Graphical path information on all users

Accuracy: +/- 1 ftRange: 2000 ftNumber of simultaneous users: 100Future enhancements:

Physiological information telemetry Integration with stored databases: geographic and

structural

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Locator Operational/Physical Specs

New Transmit ranging signal/Technology Up to 150 MHz spectrally friendly bandwidth

• programmable waveform Support 100 locators Updates each second Low power, long battery life, automatic on/off Monitor and report environmental status data

Temperature, movement, diagnostics Provide distress button Small size, lightweight Provide support for Physiological data

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Prototype Mobile Locator Hardware

Distress Button

Acceler-ometer

Transceiver Module

PC Interface

Temperature Sensor

Micro-processor

RF Hardware Interface

PC Interface

Acceler-ometer

Temp. Sensor

Distress Button

Micro-processor

Interfaceto RF

Hardware

RF Data Channels

Heart Rate

Monitor

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Custom FPGA based Software Radios

FPGA Digital Controller board

Analog to Digital board

RF Front End board

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Antenna Design and Testing

Several innovations have been introduced in small, wideband, near-omni directional, multi-polarization patch and base antennas

Patch Antennas

Concept for vehicle mounted base antennas

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2005: Outdoor 2D TDOA results

Our new multicarrier (MC) signal structure and processing approach theoretically provides high accuracy ranging data with low bandwidth and spectral flexibility

Outdoor tests proved that our approach could achieve high precision results with low bandwidth

Classic TDOA radio location algorithms were applied to ranging data

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But Indoors is not like Outdoors

Metal ceiling and floor decks

Steel building structure

Every metal structure bounces generates a multipath component

By April ’06 we repeatedly demonstrated that the MC/classic method of radio signal and contributes another solution confusing location could not cope with high multipath indoor propagation problems

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New end-to-end method developed

By June 2006 a new approach to radio location that uses the multi-carrier signal structure but abandons any classic component of radio location was created. Just in time for WPI’s PPL Workshop Demo!

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First Annual Technology WorkshopPrecision Indoor Personnel Location and Tracking for Emergency Responders August 7-8, 2006, WPI

First Public Demonstration of WPI PPL Technology

Featured Demos by many of the participants

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Through-wall/High Multipath Demo

Antennas on 3 sides WPI Civil Eng. Building – poor geometry

Antennas facing directly into brick walls

No system training information or pre-sited devices

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Kaven Hall Geology lab test site

2006 Live Demo site was WPI Civil Eng. Geology Lab.

Steel Frame and concrete block construction with heavy equipment and metal cabinets.

2006 test achieved 1 m average abs. error using 30 MHz signal.

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Spring 2007: Improved Signal Processing

Blue squares show actual locations

Red arrows point to locator estimates

• 60MHz BW

• Mean Error: 0.37m

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3D Residential Building - Tests

16 by 14 m coverage

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New band - 150 MHz BW/3D antennas

2nd floor error: 0.3m 1st floor error: 0.72m

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2nd Annual WPI PPL Workshop - 2007

Over 100 attendees Presentations, demos,

working sessions 3D WPI Demo

Workshop Participants

Industry

49%

Fire Service

12%

Academia

22%

Government

17%

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2007 Demo: 3D Real-Time User Tracking

Walk/Crawl through 1st and 2nd floors of the WPI Religious Center

WPI Locator

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Locator motion track with Kalman filter

Real Time Tracking/Physiological Display

Locator height display

Locator position display with color ID

Environmental temp and heart rate

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DHS/FEMA July 2007 – June 2008

Fire Prevention and Safety Award: “Integrated Firefighter Locator and Physiological Monitor”

Test feasibility of location and tracking combined with physiological monitoring: Monitor individuals, provide warning of harmful

stress before a serious event Locate these and others within buildings

Partnership: WPI – Location/Tracking/Integration Foster Miller – Physiological Monitoring Globe Manufacturing – Mfg of fire suits Worcester Fire Department

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Physiological Status Monitoring (PSM) System

Monitors Heart Rate, Respiration Rate, Skin Temperature, Activity Level and Posture

Comfortable t-shirt form factor Extremely flexible sensor platform Designed for military to withstand rugged environments

PSM T-Shirt

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Physiological Testing – PSM

Testing to confirm PSM data agreement with portable capnography and pulse oximetry systems

Subjects tested in FF gear mimicking FF activities

New short-range radio to wirelessly transfer physiological information from vest to locator

Capnograph

WPI Locator

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Physiological Testing – Pulse Ox

Wireless pulse-ox device developed at WPI

Development support by USAMRMC grant WFD requested addition of pulse ox so we

can monitor oxygen saturation levels

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New Locator/Health Status Display

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2008 PPL Workshop Demo in Atwater Kent:Harsh Indoor RF Environment!

Metal ceiling Metal benches

and cabinets Mesh Windows Metal backed

black/white boards Fire Doors Metal studded

walls – 16 inch spacing!

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PPL Workshop 2008: Demo Day

WPI PPL and other PPL systems demonstrated

Firefighters attribute WPI system with reducing search time to a single mission (one air supply)

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Currently Funded Projects

Testing and Evaluation of First Responder Indoor Location Technology U.S. Army (NSRDEC)/DHS

Micro-Beacon Tracking of Autonomous Systems (MTAS) Honeywell Aerospace

Microlight Indoor Positioning Raytheon Company

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WPI Precision Personnel Locator

Thank you!

David Cyganski, [email protected] R. James Duckworth, [email protected] Vincent Amendolare, [email protected]

www.ece.wpi.edu/Research/PPL/