Foot-Mounted Inertial Navigation

System for First Responders

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

David Kodrin

© MSA 2009

Agenda MSA Background Indoor Location Technologies Inertial Navigation

Technology Concepts System Concepts Progress

Future Development Conclusion

© MSA 2009

MSA BackgroundThe World’s Leading Company Dedicated To Producing Safety and Environmental Monitoring Equipment Established in 1914 by two

mining engineers First Major Product: Flameless

Electric Cap Lamp for Miners Developed with Thomas Edison

$1B company listed on NYSE

John T. Ryan

George H. Deike

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MSA Background Personal Protection Instrumentation Fall & Rescue

Devices Respiratory

Protection Firefighter Helmets Ballistic Protection

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Indoor Location Technologies Beacon Systems

Radio frequency Ultrasonic

Narrowband RF Systems WiFi-based Cell phone-based Triangulation

Ultrawideband Systems Various Other Systems

Near Field Electromagnetic Ranging Ultranarrowband Others

Inertial Navigation

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Inertial Navigation - Technology MSA purchased Acceleron Technologies, LLC,

in early 2007 Founded by geophysicists at LLNL Held four US patents claiming frequent zero

velocity updates (ZUPT) using foot-mounted IMUs5724265 - Foot mounted accelerometers & gyroscopes5899963 - Added processing6122960 - Added wireless connectivity6305221 - Added magnetometers

Conducted many individual tests

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Inertial Navigation - System

(Patent Pending)

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Inertial Navigation - Progress Conducted a comprehensive series of tests

Ten (10) different walkers Ten (10) different sensors Five (5) different facilities Two (2) different courses at each facility

Series of tests included many activity types Walking Running Crawling Climbing Rappelling Jumping / falling Riding an elevator Riding an escalator

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Inertial Navigation - Progress Overall results were very encouraging

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Inertial Navigation - Progress Crawling results were better than expected

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Future Development MSA has decades of experience developing

and manufacturing rugged and reliable products for the fire service

We are applying this knowledge to create a robust firefighter location system around our inertial navigation core

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Conclusion MSA has evaluated many indoor location

technologies MSA believes inertial navigation will provide

the best solution in the least amount of time Test results have shown that a robust,

reliable product is possible in the near future MSA is excited about the opportunity to

provide first responders this potentially life saving technology

Thank You