An L-3 Communications subsidiary has been awarded a preproduction contract for Advanced Three-Dimension Locators by the Department of Homeland Security Advanced Research Project Agency. The contract represents an initial step by the Agency to provide a solution for accurately identifying the location of emergency response personnel in disaster or emergency situations.
The new systems locate personnel using Integrated GPS Indoor Navigation Technology developed by IEC. Using the locator system, incident commanders are able to see the 3-D position of all personnel in the response team, even if they are within buildings and structures.
Under the contract, Interstate Electronics Corporation (IEC) will produce more than four dozen units for test and evaluation. Once fully developed, the locators have potential use in thousands of applications for police, fire and emergency medical personnel.
IEC, an industry leader in GPS and navigation technologies, recognized the need to locate first response personnel at the scene of an incident. In a crisis situation, it is highly challenging to maintain control when rescue personnel are visually out of sight, enveloped in smoke, in buildings or structures. While commercial GPS locators were expected to track personnel in emergency situations, they typically do not function adequately when they are located in or between buildings and structures.
The new IEC system incorporates patented networking capability that links individual GPS locators worn by first responders into a network that shares GPS satellite and other navigation information. Thus, if one locator is receiving only one satellite signal, it can share information from other locators receiving additional satellite signals enabling a precise location to be determined.
L-3's patented network sharing technology communicates between locators via RF (radio frequency) transmissions and personnel location information can be transmitted to the incident command center. The uniqueness of the IEC locators is the ability to reliably determine personnel locations, even when one or more GPS locators cannot receive the four satellite signals that are usually required.
"As the events of 9-11 demonstrated, a vital element of situational awareness is the ability to clearly establish the location of all emergency responders during an emergency, whether they are in stairwells, on top of or outside of buildings, or underground in subway tunnels and stations. The 3-D Locator sensor promises to provide this much needed capability for our first responders," notes Jalal Mapar, program manager at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
"We are extremely proud of our latest innovation in navigation technology because, when deployed, it will save lives in the hundreds of emergency incidents occurring daily in the United States," notes Robert Huffman, president of IEC.
