American start-up company launches RTLS solution, suitable for on-site shooter training
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Recently, some federal government agencies and Momentum Aerospace Group (MAG), a real-time situational awareness technology and service provider, negotiated a cooperation to test an RTLS system to help manage training courses such as sniper drills and live ammunition. This technology, called TeamWorks, uses Zebra’s ultra-wideband (UWB) tags and readers to identify the location of personnel during training and read sensor data (heart rate and movement speed). The solution was jointly developed by MAG, Zebra’s Positioning Solutions Division, and Renaissance Sciences (RSC).
Francis Hoang, chief strategy officer of MAG, once led a law enforcement tactical team and provided services to the US military in Afghanistan. He is very familiar with the difficulties of training. Under normal circumstances, the training venue will be placed in a separate building or campus, where there are students and actors to simulate actual combat tactics. In the past, when manual tracking was used, some trainers needed to observe the movements of trainees, and sometimes they needed to train in long and narrow pedestrian passages. But when a large number of trainees pass through a space quickly, it becomes very difficult to observe the actions of each trainee.
(Teachers can view the map of the training area and the real-time location of the personnel through the software)
Currently, law enforcement agencies and the military (in recent quarters of training) are interested in the TeamWorks program. Kurt Kleinsorge, head of human performance at RSC, said that the actions in both scenarios are fast, and this kind of fast action also makes it difficult for the students to analyze the results. Hoang said that agencies will use cameras for tracking, but the tracking results are not very useful because they cannot track people’s overall performance, speed or biometric data (such as: heart rate).
Hoang also said that if the information is not complete, it will be difficult for the instructor to share the training results with the trainees.
MAG, RSC and Zebra jointly developed TeamWorks to fill the gaps in training course results and detailed information on effectiveness. The system uses the RTLS hardware provided by Zebra and the location software of MotionWorks. Hoang said that he was inspired by Zebra’s program to monitor players in NFL games and realized that the technology could also be used for police and military training tracking. The tags worn by the students send signals to readers from 600 to 1,000 feet away 20 times per second.
RSC provides a software package to analyze the location data collected by these companies called the so-called application-specific instrument components (A-SIP). Kleinsorge said that if the instructor is interested in the position and orientation of the student’s torso, he can use an A-SIP with an RFID tag to track it. After collecting the data, the RCS software can measure the performance of the trainees.
The software can compare position data and action parameters during training. Kleinsorge explained: “When a group of four students line up outside the door, we hope that the system can recognize them as standard tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) actions.” If the software can recognize the actions in TTPs, Then the system can evaluate the performance of the students.
Using a portable tablet, instructors can access RSC software to view the training area map and the personnel’s real-time location and historical location data.
(Usually, students will wear 2 coin-sized Zebra Dart tags. The tags can also be placed on the weapon.)
RSC software can not only provide a virtual view of the training place and the location of the personnel, it can also integrate with the user’s existing weapon training system (such as Milo Range Pro) to integrate location, direction and sensor data.
Hoang said that the way the program works is as follows: students need to wear a coin-sized Dart UWB RFID tag, and the tag’s unique ID number binds personnel information. Usually, students will wear two tags, one on each shoulder. They also placed it on pistols, grenades and other objects.
Before entering the training ground, the instructor will give some instructions. The receiver installed in the training field can read the tag ID number within 1000 feet and send the information to the hub running MotionWorks and RSC software through a limited connection. In this way, the instructor can view real-time information in real time or after the training is over, so as to judge the performance of the students. The system can not only judge the position of the student, but also know the direction of the student and the weapon. The analysis data also includes other sensor data such as walking distance, average speed, and maximum speed.
Hoang said that in the near future, TeamWorks will also support BLE devices so that Bluetooth wearable devices worn by students can be collected. The sensor will be able to measure the heart rate or moisture level and transmit the data along with the tag’s unique ID to the Dart receiver.
(Exclusive manuscript of rfid world network, please indicate the source author for reprinting!)
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