Rescue personnel localization system

Despite of rapid development in search and rescue robotics, the role of the human being is still very important both in the mission control and in the rescue field. However, robots can support humans in various ways. Combining humans and robots into a telematic system opens new possibilities in the rescue area. This paper explains a possible solution to add humans into a telematic system including robots and telematic mission management. The main requirement for the human cooperation with a rescue telematic system is the accurate localization of the human being. The localization system is based on traditional robotic dead-reckoning sensors like compass, gyro, and accelerometers. Due to the difficult kinematics of a human, there are neither ready nor fully functional solutions for the odometry. This problem is solved by using a self-made stride length measurement unit and laser odometry. The functionality of the integrated system is verified with tests in the European union IST-project called PeLoTe.