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Technology: NASA and the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) team up to improve fire fighter tracking tech
Six fire fighters lost their lives responding to a fire in a century-old, abandoned warehouse in Worcester, Massachusetts in the US in December 1999. Worried that civilians were trapped inside, rescue teams initiated a rapid intervention but, unfamiliar with the layout of the building, the smoke-filled warehouse became a labyrinth for those that entered. Unfortunately, the fire fighters that answered this call were unable to locate any exits before they ran out of air. That tragedy, along with hundreds in the years since, served as the catalyst for ground-breaking new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) tracking and location technology. Precision Outdoor and Indoor Navigation and Tracking for Emergency Responders (POINTER) will soon allow agencies to pinpoint their fire fighters to within centimetres, helping to navigate them quickly and safely out of potentially disorienting emergency scenarios.
“From containing small kitchen fires to carrying civilians out of burning homes to securing local infrastructure, first responders put their lives on the line daily to ensure the safety of their communities,” said Greg Price, who leads the Science and Technology Directorate’s first responder research and development programmes. “The reality is, even with all of the advances made in fire fighting technology, we still lose far too many fire fighters each year. We want them to know that we have their backs; that we are working to give them the tools they need to ensure their own safety. POINTER is that solution.” Throughout the development of POINTER, S&T has not only been designing the technology for responders but with them as well, including fire fighters in Worcester, Massachusetts. “We have tested many different technologies, finding them not very accommodating to our needs for one reason or another,” said Chief Michael Lavoie of the Worcester Fire Department. “Mostly, the equipment was bulky and would work in some situations but not all. However, experimentation over the last 21 years has brought technological advances in this area and we are pleased to have been asked to field test the POINTER system.” S&T has collaborated with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California and first responder stakeholders since 2014 to develop POINTER, a wearable and portable, cost-effective tracking and location technology that leverages cutting-edge science to succeed where existing products may fail. For instance, technologies that use GPS, acoustic sensors, radio location, RF identification, ultra-wideband (UWB) radar or other methods often lose signal or face position drift in line-of-sight denied environments. Many can’t penetrate through certain building materials or even reach underground. POINTER can do all of this and more, making it both more accurate and reliable. POINTER uses magnetoquasistatic (MQS) fields to three-dimensionally track and locate responders in low-visibility environments. “MQS fields are not blocked or reflected by the materials found in most buildings due to weak response of the materials to magnetic-dominant fields,” said Dr Darmindra D Arumugam, principal investigator and senior technologist at NASA JPL. Dr. Arumugam developed the theory, technique and algorithms that can analyse both the electrical and the magnetic components of MQS fields so they can be utilised by POINTER. “This presents a significant difference to how remote wave-based position sensing works and performs.” The POINTER system operates in three parts. The transmitter, which is based outside at incident command, generates the MQS fields that geolocate the responders. Complex sensors and algorithms solve for position and orientation, tracking responders to the precise floor they are located on from up to 70 metres away. As they enter a burning structure, fire fighters wear a receiver, currently the size of a smartphone but that ultimately will be even smaller that is wirelessly connected to the transmitter. MQS fields ping the receivers on each responder and send data back to command. A laptop computer located at incident command houses a visualisation component that shows the responders in real time, pointing out whether the individual is still, moving or down within the structure and informing whether intervention may be needed. S&T’s First Responder Resource Group, an advisory body of responders from across the country, expressed that this type of technology is a top priority because of the lives it will save. Because responder input is so critical, S&T has worked hand-in-hand with them from the start to build this system to their specifications. Since development began, POINTER has evolved from a technology that could track first responders to within three metres of accuracy to now locating them within centimetres of their actual position. S&T, NASA JPL and industry partner Balboa Geolocatio continue to work closely with these and other first responders from across the country to operationally test POINTER. Most recently, successful tests of POINTER technology were conducted in a five-level, 8 000 square foot structure with very promising results. “The success of these tests signals the first step towards commercial availability in 2022,” added Price. Throughout 2021, S&T, NASA JPL and first responders will continue testing POINTER in additional simulated response environments, including rural two-to-three-storey houses, row homes and townhouses and warehouses. By year’s end, the goal is to put POINTER prototypes in the hands of departments in cities across the country that can validate its accuracy in their own training and operational environments. “I’m sure I speak for the entire Worcester Fire Department when I say that we are extremely excited to begin the testing process with the development team and DHS,” said Chief Lavoie. “It is my hope that we have finally arrived with a system that works in all settings so that no fire departments will have to suffer the same losses that we experienced.” As a veteran member of the fire service, Steven Vandewalle knows how vitally important it is for fire fighters to be aware of their location and surroundings while battling a fire. He also knows how quickly that awareness can be thrown off amid the smoke and flames. "You'd be tough finding a fire fighter who doesn't have a story about getting lost during a fire," said Vandewalle, a member of the San Diego Fire Department. "Never have I been so excited to see a dot on a screen before," Vandewalle said about the interface. "The beauty of this tech is its accuracy," Price said. Although the POINTER system's operating principles are in place, researchers are still refining the field equipment. Transmitters and receivers need to be mobile and they shouldn't significantly add to what fire fighters already bring on calls. "It has to be light," he said. "PPE, in general, weighs a lot. It has to be small and light, something that could fit in your hand and be possible to set up on the go." But how close is the promise of the POINTER system to becoming a life-saving reality? "This kind of breaks my heart," said Price about project delays caused by COVID-19. Originally, the goal was to have the system in the hands of fire fighters by 2020. The new tentative schedule is to have prototypes and begin testing by the last quarter of 2022, Price said. Even though the POINTER system has yet to be employed as a day-to-day tool for departments, Price and Arumugam already see other uses for the technology. When used in the field, the system can record the information from a fire scene, and a playback function allows for after-action reviews that can be integrated into training for departments. Other applications for the system include urban search and rescues, hostage situations and even commercial uses for the oil and gas industries. "I think it's a fairly broad spectrum because it solves a problem that people haven't solved yet,"Arumugam said. Source: US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) |
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