This Month ´s Cover.. .

Presents an artist´s rendition of the Precision Personnel Locator (PPL) system being developed by the BE Department of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The goal of the system is to provide a robust real-time tracking solution that requires no pre-established infrastructure. Emergency personnel each carry a transmitter emitting a multi-carrier wide-band (MC-WB) signal sensed at receiving stations on response vehicles, which form an ad-hoc network and establish a local coordinate system. A central location collects these signals where the relative positions of the transmitters within the coordinate system are estimated. These estimates are then conveyed to command-and-control software in the hands of the incident commander. Accumulation of track information for many transmitters has the effect of providing the incident commander with valuable information on building layout to assist with exit guidance or search and rescue operations. Efforts are underway to integrate additional information into the incident commander´s display to enable monitoring of personnel physiological status and ambient environmental conditions.