WPI
Precision Personnel Location System
D. Cyganski, R. James Duckworth,
Vincent Amendolare
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
Worcester 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 fatalities
Current 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
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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 ft
Range: 2000 ft
Number of simultaneous users: 100
Future 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
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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
Accelerometer
Microprocessor
RF Data
Channels
Heart
Rate
Monitor
Temp.
Sensor
Distress
Button
Interface
to RF
Hardware
PC
Interface
PC Interface
Distress
Button
Temperature
Sensor
Accelerometer
Microprocessor
RF Hardware
Interface
Transceiver
Module
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Custom FPGA based Software Radios
RF Front End
board
Analog to Digital
board
FPGA Digital
Controller 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
Concept for
vehicle
mounted
base
antennas
Patch
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
Steel building structure
Metal ceiling and floor decks
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 Workshop
Precision Indoor Personnel
Location and Tracking for
Emergency Responders
August 7-8, 2006, WPI
Featured Demos by
many of the participants
First Public Demonstration
of WPI PPL Technology
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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
• 60MHz BW
• Mean Error: 0.37m
Blue squares
show actual
locations
Red arrows
point to locator
estimates
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3D Residential Building - Tests
 16 by 14 m coverage
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New band - 150 MHz BW/3D antennas
1st floor error: 0.72m
2nd floor error: 0.3m
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2nd Annual WPI PPL Workshop - 2007
Workshop Participants
Fire Service
12%
Academia
Industry
22%
49%
Government
17%
 Over 100 attendees
 Presentations, demos,
working sessions
 3D WPI Demo
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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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Real Time Tracking/Physiological Display
Locator position
display with color ID
Environmental temp
and heart rate
Locator height display
Locator motion track
with Kalman filter
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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
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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
WPI
gear mimicking FF
Locator
activities
 New short-range radio to
wirelessly transfer
physiological information
from vest to locator
Capnograph
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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/
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