Maciej Nikodem, PhD, in co-operation with a number of researchers from the Wrocław University of Technology Faculty of Electronics, is working on tools that will allow to spot people and objects in warehouses, shopping malls or underground mines. This will help to improve the logistics and workplace safety, for example, during rescue actions in underground mines
The project, authored by Maciej Nikodem, PhD, and our graduate Tomasz Jankowski is a continuation of the research initiated last year.
The researcher from our Faculty of Electronics and employees of the company MT-Silesia, thanks to a grant from the Mozart programme, designed and developed software for a device that allows to spot people and objects in close confinements (such as buildings or underground mines), where GPS doesn’t work. Last year in November, they presented it at the KOMTECH mining conference dedicated to innovative technologies for the mining industry.
The device measures the packet flight time, i.e. the time that a radio wave needs to travel from the transmitter to the receiver. Because an electromagnetic wave moves with constant speed, knowing the time of travel it is possible to determine the distance. Then again, knowing the distance from three points of reference, it is possible to calculate the person’s or object’s position in a 2D space.
Two prototypes were built as part of the Mozart programme – the access point and the portable module – both using the UWB (Ultra Wide Band) technology that allows to determine the position of people and objects with an accuracy of below 2 metres.
“During our work on the devices, there appeared the question where to locate the elements of the system in a close confinement, such as an underground mine, so that it would work optimally.” – said Maciej Nikodem, PhD – “We are now working on this problem.”
Thanks to another grant from the Foundation for Polish Science, Nikodem plans to create a computer programme that will analyse the data provided (such as the geometry of corridors in a building or gates in a mine) and, basing on them, indicate places where the elements of the system would function well and where they will not be able to work. It will be similar to programmes that determine where to place Wi-Fi access points so that the network would function properly in the entire space of a given area.
Maciej Nikodem, PhD, is an employee of the Chair of Computer-Aided Engineering. Since 2008 he has been involved in research on low-power wireless networks, focusing at the beginning on safety and network topology management, and since 2013 also on location in closed confinements. In 2012 he completed an internship at CISCO Systems, where he worked in the department offering location services, using data received from Wi-Fi network access points. He co-operates with companies designing solutions applying low-power radio systems for the mining industry in Europe (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany), and in Canada.
Lucyna Róg
Translation: Dariusz Więcławski
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