Prototype-Development for Combined Indoor Navigation, Communication, and Mapping for First Responder Applications

Abstract

First responder localization is important in emergency cases. The knowledge of the positions of the first responders helps to provide a quick aid for comrades in need and to efficiently coordinate their actions. The success of localization does not only depend on the localization system itself but also depends on reliable communication that plays an important role especially if the scenarios are indoors or in tunnels and mines. In this paper, we investigate the combination of localization and communication for first responder applications. First, we describe deeply the prototype development. These prototypes are built to be tested by end-users in quasi-real scenarios. Secondly, a first evaluation of the prototypes is given in this paper. It can be shown that the packet reception rate of the communication system over 34 experiments was 0.94 even under the condition that a building is partly hidden behind another building. In addition, the localization prototype provides a very accurate positioning of about 1m end-error on average for shorter walks (200m on average) and below 2m on average for a 1.3 km walk.