Development of an INS Integrated Positioning System for Assisting Effective Fire-fighting Activity

This paper describes the development of an INS (Inertial Navigation System) integrated positioning system, which can monitor and track the firefighter's position for assisting effective fire-fighting activity and rescue services. The INS consists of highly accurate three-axis gyro sensor and three-axis accelerometer. By integrating an INS to positioning system, it is also possible to obtain the information of firefighter's physical state (e.g. standing, collapse and crouch) of posture including velocity. Consequently, this research would obviously make a contribution to effective rescue activities and safety of firefighters. Besides, this paper presents results from field tests conducted at Tokyo University demonstrating its viability and utility. We also summarize the overall system requirements and architecture, and describe the hardware and software used in the prototype system in detail.