The old technique of using pushpins and maps to track troop movements just got a radical new upgrade for soldiers or firefighters in rugged terrains.

A group of University of Florida engineering students has designed a system to locate, track and communicate with special forces troops or firefighters in remote areas where no cell towers or other communications infrastructure exists.

The system allows soldiers or firefighters to pinpoint their own and their comrades’ whereabouts on digital maps displayed on handheld personal digital assistants. It can transmit this information via satellite phone, making it available to Internet-connected commanders or observers anywhere in the world.

“It’s live and it’s in real time,” said UF electrical and computer engineering senior Rolando Estrella.

Estrella is among seven UF engineering seniors who spent the spring semester creating the system as part of the College of Engineering’s Integrated Product & Process Design program. The 11-year-old program’s goal is to assist corporations, small businesses and government agencies with engineering problems while giving engineering students practical experience working on real-world projects.

The team was sponsored by defense contractor WinTec Arrowmaker Inc., Chang Industries, U.S. Special Operations and the U.S. Forest Service. Karl Gugel, a lecturer in electrical and computer engineering and the faculty leader, said the U.S. Forest Service’s goal was to explore ways to upgrade its World War II-era equipment, which for communications purposes consists of traditional two-way radios.

The team sought to design an inexpensive system using off-the-shelf equipment or parts that would function in areas with no other available communications technology. The technology also had to be easy to use, robust and secure.

To achieve that goal, team members created a system with several different parts. Each firefighter carries a “FieldUnit,” a cellphone-sized device equipped with a Global Positioning System. The unit communicates via radio signal with a “SmartNode,” a nearby laptop equipped with radio transmitter and receiver. The laptop then transmits this information via satellite phone or other means if available.

At its most stripped-down, the system provides only location information for firefighters or soldiers to observers elsewhere. But users can add the PDAs to their FieldUnits. That gives them the capability to send messages and see their locations on road maps, terrain maps or satellite maps — whatever happens to be available for the area. In theory, FieldUnits could also add sensors, such as temperature gauges, or even cameras.

The other students on the team were Zachery Jacobson, Julie Ramirez, Adnan Rashid and Andrew Sciullo.

William Goh, gohak@ufl.edu
Karl Gugel, gugel@ecel.ufl.edu

Aaron Hoover