NEAR-FIELD ELECTROMAGNETIC RANGING (NFER ) TECHNOLOGY FOR EMERGENCY RESPONDERS DR. ERIC RICHARDS, SENIOR RF SCIENTIST THE Q-TRACK CORPORATION SLIDE 1 OF 10
IMAGINE IF YOU COULD TRAIN REALISTICALLY TO AVOID RADIATION PINPOINT EVERY ASSET LOCATE EVERY WORKER AND EVERY FIRST RESPONDER AVOID COLLISIONS TRACK SOLDIERS IN TRAINING NAVIGATE IN GPS-DENIED ENVIRONMENTS SLIDE 2 OF 22
THAT S OUR MISSION! FOUNDED 2002 PIONEERING NFER RTLS TECHNOLOGY 15 EMPLOYEES IP: 9 U.S. PATENTS 10 PENDING 3 FOREIGN SLIDE 3 OF 22
AGENDA I. NEAR-FIELD PHYSICS A. PHASE RELATIONS B. PROPAGATION C. ADVANTAGES II. NFER RTLS A. SUPPORT B. SYSTEM OVERVIEW C. DOSIMULATION TM SYSTEM D. PROXIMITY SYSTEM III. FIREFIGHTER LOCATION AND RESCUE EQUIPMENT (FLARE) A. 2010 WPI PPL TEST B. TWO VISIONS C. OUR DECENTRALIZED VISION SLIDE 4 OF 22
NEAR-FIELD PHASE ELECTRIC-MAGNETIC PHASE DELTA NINETY DEGREES CLOSE TO TX ZERO DEGREES IN FAR FIELD OPERATE USING LONG WAVELENGTHS: ~ 300M YIELDS A NOVEL METRIC FOR RANGE SCHANTZ, NEAR FIELD PHASE BEHAVIOR 2005 IEEE ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM, 3-8 JULY, 2005, VOL. 3A, PP. 237-240. SLIDE 5 OF 22
NEAR-FIELD ADVANTAGES TYPICALLY ~1MHZ; = 300M LONG RANGE ~30-100 METERS (@ PART 15 POWER) SUPERIOR PENETRATION AND DIFFRACTION BETTER IN COMPLICATED NLOS ENVIRONMENTS HIGH ACCURACY ~1M OR BETTER MORE TRACKABLE PARAMETERS MULTIPATH RESISTANT LOW COST SIMPLE, LOW FREQUENCY HW LONG RANGE: LESS INFRASTRUCTURE SLIDE 6 OF 22
NFER RTLS HOW IT WORKS QT -550 RX LOCATOR Q-TRACK GUI QT -500 TX TAG SLIDE 7 OF 22
SUPPORT FOR NFER RTLS SBIR-I: CARGO CONTAINERS; SBIR-I+II: TUNNEL DETECTION BAA+SBIR-I: PROPAGATION TESTING; SMALL ANTENNAS SBIR-I+II: NUCLEAR WORKER TRACKING SBIR-I+II: MOUT BLUE FORCE TRACKING SBIR-I: SIGNAL-OF- OPPORTUNITY LOCATION SBIR-I+II: MINER TRACKING SBIR-I: CORRECTIONS SBIR-I+II: OTH- RADAR ARRAY 2XSBIR-I: SERVER + SOFTWARE-DEFINED RX SBIR-I+II: LOGISTICS TRACKING SOUTHERN COMPANY Energy to Serve Your World DOSIMULATION TM DEVELOPMENT PROXIMITY DEVELOPMENT SBIR-I: HEALTH CARE TRACKING RADIATION MAPPING DEVELOPMENT AUTO NAVIGATION & LOCATION LOGISTICS TRACKING SLIDE 8 OF 22
NFER RTLS ACCURACY OFFICE/LAB ENVIRONMENT 16M X 36M FIVE RECEIVERS; ~15M SPACING EVALUATE ACCURACY AT 82 LOCATIONS TOTAL 410 DATA POINTS AVERAGE ERROR 55CM; W/IN 1M 80% CHARACTERIZATION OF ERROR IN A NFER REAL-TIME LOCATION SYSTEM, H. SCHANTZ, C. WEIL, J. UNDEN, 2011 IEEE RADIO AND WIRELESS SYMPOSIUM, 16-20 JAN., 2011 SLIDE 9 OF 22
DOSIMULATION SYSTEMS FIRST PRODUCT (2009) SOUTHERN COMPANY Energy to Serve Your World QT -500 TX TAG ENHANCE ALARA RADIATION TRAINING (INPO STRENGTH FOR TRAINING). MINIMIZE WORKER RADIATION EXPOSURE. INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY AND SHORTEN OUTAGES. REDUCE UTILITY COSTS (TYPICAL ROI < 1 YR). SLIDE 10 OF 22
PROXIMITY DETECTION PROXIMITY DETECTION SYSTEM DEBUTED 2010 QT -550 LOCATOR RECEIVER QT -600 TX TAG SLIDE 11 OF 22
TUNNEL TRACKING PROTOTYPE LOCATION OF UNDERGROUND ASSETS MAPPING OF TUNNEL COMPLEXES <1M ACCURACY (95% CONFIDENCE) PENETRATION DEPTH 60-100FT. COMPATIBLE WITH ROBOTIC PLATFORMS (PACBOT, TALON, MATILDA) SLIDE 12 OF 22
RTLS COMPETITION NFER TECHNOLOGY Cost High HIGH ACCURACY LONG RANGE LOW COST Range Short Medium Long WiFi TM UHF or 2.4GHz NFER Low Medium High Low Medium Accuracy SLIDE 13 OF 22
NFER FLARE FIREFIGHTER LOCATION AND RESCUE EQUIPMENT (FLARE) COLLECT SIGNALS CORRESPONDING TO A PARTICULAR PATH CORRELATE LIVE SIGNALS TO STORED SIGNALS TO FIND LOCATION ALONG PATH VECTOR A RESCUER ALONG PRECISE PATH OF FIREFIGHTER IN TROUBLE Boston Globe August SLIDE 14 30, OF 2010 22
NFER FLARE FLARE LOCATOR-RECEIVERS (RX) IN VEHICLES, AND DEPLOYED AROUND BUILDING. FIREFIGHTERS CARRY TAG TRANSMITTERS COMPUTER LOGS TIME HISTORY OF SIGNAL CHARACTERISTICS SLIDE 15 OF 22
2010 WPI TEST FOUR STORY CAMPUS BUILDING THREE FLOORS FROM BACK FOUR FLOORS FROM FRONT FIREFIGHTER LOST IN EVACUATION VECTOR RIT TO FIND LOST FIREFIGHTER SLIDE 16 OF 22
2010 WPI TEST BASELINE (UNAIDED): 24:00 MIN TWO INERTIAL SYSTEMS: 11:56; 9:42 Q-TRACK S FLARE: 7:02 FULL VIDEO HERE START RIT @ 40% END SLIDE 17 OF 22
NFER FLARE PROVIDES PRECISE PATH GUIDANCE: W/IN 1-2M (3-6FT) WORKS AT SUBSTANTIAL RANGES: >30M (100FT) COMPLEMENTS OTHER APPROACHES: ENABLES INERTIAL SYSTEMS TO RE-INITIALIZE ASSISTS COARSE AREA LOCATION SYSTEMS TO LOCATE AND FOLLOW A PATH SLIDE 18 OF 22
TWO COMPLIMENTARY VISIONS CENTRALIZED INCIDENT COMMANDER HAS COMPREHENSIVE KNOWLEDGE ENABLES COORDINATED RESCUE AND SHARING OF OVERALL SITUATIONAL AWARENESS BUT! YOU DON T HAVE TO KNOW EVERYTHING IN ORDER TO KNOW SOMETHING USEFUL SLIDE 19 OF 22
TWO COMPLIMENTARY VISIONS DECENTRALIZED INDIVIDUAL FIREFIGHTER HAS LOCAL KNOWLEDGE AVOIDS NEED FOR RESCUE BY TAKING MAXIMUM ADVANTAGE OF LOCAL SITUATIONAL AWARENESS PROXIMITY/PARTNER STATUS SENSING PATH ROUTING HELPFUL EVEN WITHOUT COMMS SLIDE 20 OF 22
OUR DECENTRALIZED VISION PROXIMITY DETECTION SELF AND PARTNER STATUS AWARENESS SELF-RESCUE PATH ROUTING NO INFRASTRUCTURE (OTHER THAN BASE STATION) LOW COST <$250 SLIDE 21 OF 22
SUMMARY I. NEAR-FIELD PHYSICS A. PHASE RELATIONS B. PROPAGATION C. ADVANTAGES II. NFER RTLS A. SUPPORT B. SYSTEM OVERVIEW C. DOSIMULATION TM SYSTEM D. PROXIMITY SYSTEM III. FIREFIGHTER LOCATION AND RESCUE EQUIPMENT (FLARE) A. 2010 WPI PPL TEST B. TWO VISIONS C. OUR DECENTRALIZED VISION DR. ERIC RICHARDS, SENIOR RF SCIENTIST THE Q-TRACK CORPORATION E.RICHARDS@Q-TRACK.COM SLIDE 22 OF 10