SBIR-STTR Award

Military and public safety personnel are often required to operate in areas where GPS is not available due to jamming or natural blockage (e.g., indoors or underground). To assure mission success and provide enhanced situational awareness, next generation military and public safety user equipment must supply accurate and reliable navigation information in all areas and phases of operations - especially when GPS denied.In this program TRX is proposing to develop auto-locating UWB beacon that is able to provide both accurate range and bearing to a tracked user, thus providing an accurate location constraint with a single beacon. The beacon will use GPS as well as communications from other beacons localize itself. When integrated with TRXs NEON location service, the beacon will enable tracked users to maintain high location and heading accuracy when moving in a structure without access to GPS.Performance testing will be completed in varying building types. The systems ability to track and map multiple individuals within a facility will be validated and compared to ground truth. Subterranean performance will be benchmarked in both mapped and unmapped environments.referential positioning,dismount tracking,Ultra-Wide Band,range and bearing,gps denied tracking,GPS denied mapping,3-D Mapping,Situational awareness

To improve safety and situational awareness, a system is needed that enables a commander outside of a facility to track, map, and direct holders of tactical communications systems that do not have GPS access within a known facility, tunnels/caves/other underground space, or other GPS-restricted areas. The objective of this program is to develop such a system that is able to track users in 3-dimensions to 2 feet in X, Y, and Z, and heading accuracy within 5 degrees of true in a multi-floor facility. TRX has demonstrated the feasibility meeting location and heading accuracy requirements in varying environments using a new UWB phase difference of arrival (PDOA) beacon which is able to provide both range and bearing information to tracked persons. In Phase II, rugged PDOA beacons will be developed that create a self-forming, auto locating beacon network. Map constraints will be added to enable users to maintain high accuracy in locations where RF ranging may be limited. The feasibility of using these map constraints to enable significant improvements to location accuracy while minimizing the number of beacons required has been demonstrated. These capabilities will be made available when operating offline on tactical networks though improved integration with TAK.