Wireless Intelligent Sensor Platform Aids Emergency Responders

A self-powered fire- and heat-resistant disposable router could mean the difference between life and death for firefighters and first responders.

Wireless monitors, combined with a newly developed disposable router, help monitor and direct firefighters located inside burning building or forest fires at all times. The monitoring system is composed of three components; a Geospatial Location Accountability and Navigation System for Emergency Responders (GLANSER) system combines a microwave radio and a suite of navigation devices into a tracking device the size of a book. Signals are received and transmitted by a small, USB-powered base station plugged into a laptop at the command center. As firefighters move from room to room and floor to floor, the laptop display animates their every step.

A second device, the Physiological Health Assessment System for Emergency Responders (PHASER) monitors the firefighter's body temperature, blood pressure, and pulse, relaying these vitals back to the base station. If a firefighter falls or faints, fellow firefighters can race in, quickly find him, and bring him to safety, guided by GLANSER. Both devices, due to their modest size, transmit signals that can be stopped by a wall or other physical obstacles, unless relayed by routers.

To overcome this obstacle, the system also includes the Wireless Intelligent Sensor Platform for Emergency Responders (WISPER), a tiny throwaway router that is both waterproof and heat-resistant up to 260 °C. The WISPER contains a two-way digital radio, an antenna, and a 3-volt lithium cell. Each firefighter enters a burning building with five routers loaded into a belt-mounted waterproof canister. If the firefighter steps behind concrete or beyond radio range, the base station remotely orders his canister to drop a router. The dropped routers arrange themselves into a network. If a router accidentally disconnects, the network will automatically reconfigure.

“Throw in smoke, firehose mist, stairwells, and walls, and you're down to maybe 10 kbps. But that's fast enough to tell an incident commander the whereabouts (via GLANSER) and health (via PHASER) of every firefighter in the blaze,” said Jalal Mapar, WISPER's project manager. “We're not streaming video that needs a lot of bandwidth, just vital signs and coordinates.”

The WISPER was developed by Oceanit Laboratories (Honolulu, HI, USA) and the University of Virginia (Charlottesville, USA), for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS, Washington DC, USA) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T).

Related Links:
Oceanit Laboratories
University of Virginia
US Department of Homeland Security