Personal Navigation System and Associated Methods

• US 20110029241A1
• Filed: 07/26/2010
• Published: 02/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mine Safety Appliances Company (MSA Safety, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Mine Safety Appliances Company (MSA Safety, Inc.)
• Inventors: Pavetti, Scott, Kodrin, David, Cron, Chadd, Miller, Paul A., Watson, Christopher Evan
• Granted Patent: US 8,744,765 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/220
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/188 for accumulated errors, e.g. by coupling inertial systems with absolute positioning systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 22/006 Pedometers

Abstract

A personal navigation system, including: at least one inertial sensor module associated with a user, the inertial sensor module comprising at least one sensor to generate location data associated with the user; a communication device to receive and/or transmit at least a portion of the location data; and an onsite computer to communicate with the communication device and receive at least a portion of the location data; wherein at least one of the inertial sensor module and the onsite computer is configured to determine at least one activity of the user based at least in part upon the location data; wherein the onsite computer is programmed to configure a display including a representation of the user based at least in part upon the location data; wherein at least one of the determination and the configuration is performed substantially in real-time.

Claims

1. A personal navigation system, comprising:

(a) at least one inertial sensor module associated with a user, the inertial sensor module comprising at least one sensor configured to generate location data associated with the user;

(b) a communication device configured to at least one of receive and transmit at least a portion of the location data; and

(c) an onsite computer configured to communicate with the communication device and receive at least a portion of the location data;

(d) wherein at least one of the inertial sensor module and the onsite computer is configured to determine at least one activity of the user based at least in part upon the location data;

(e) wherein the onsite computer is programmed to configure a display including a representation of the user based at least in part upon the location data;

(f) wherein at least one of the determination and the configuration is performed substantially in real-time.

2. The personal navigation system of claim 1, wherein the location data comprises corrected location data generated by applying error correction to raw location data.

3. The personal navigation system of claim 1, wherein the communication device is at least one of (i) a personal communication device located on the user and configured for communicating with at least one of the inertial sensor module and the onsite computer;

and (ii) a communication device integrated with the inertial sensor module and configured for communicating with at least one of a personal communication device located on the user and the onsite computer.

4. The personal navigation system of claim 1, wherein the at least one activity is selected from the group comprising walking, running, crawling, climbing, rappelling, jumping, falling, riding an elevator, and riding an escalator.

5. The personal navigation system of claim 1 wherein the inertial sensor module is further configured to generate corrected location data using activity-specific error correction values, and the corrected location data is transmitted by the communication device to the onsite computer.

6. The personal navigation system of claim 1, wherein the at least one inertial sensor comprises at least one of:

at least one accelerometer, at least one gyroscope, or any combination thereof.

7. The personal navigation system of claim 6, wherein the at least one inertial sensor comprises a plurality of accelerometers and a plurality of gyroscopes.

8. The personal navigation system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the inertial sensor module and the onsite computer comprise software configured to at least one of:

analyze raw location data, determine at least one activity of the user based at least partially upon the location data, apply activity-specific error correction values to generate corrected location data, configure a real-time graphical representation of the user based at least partially upon corrected location data, or any combination thereof.

9. The personal navigation system of claim 1, further comprising:

(a) an inertial sensor module communication device comprising a short range radio configured to transmit location data;

(b) a personal communication device comprising a long range radio configured to receive location data from the inertial sensor module communication device and transmit location data; and

(c) an onsite computer communication device comprising a long range radio configured to receive location data from the personal communication device and process at least a portion of the location data for use in configuring a display.

10. The personal navigation system of claim 1, wherein the communication device is integrated into a Self Contained Breathing Apparatus and the user is a firefighter.

11. A method of determining the location of a user wearing an inertial sensor module on at least one foot, the method comprising:

(a) generating, by the inertial sensor module, raw location data;

(b) determining at least one activity of the user based at least partially upon the raw location data;

(c) applying activity-specific error correction to the raw location data to generate corrected location data;

(d) transmitting the corrected location data to an onsite computer substantially in real-time; and

(e) configuring a real-time graphical representation of the user based at least partially upon the corrected location data.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising configuring a real-time graphical display of an activity of the user.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising determining at least one quiescent point based at least partially upon the raw location data.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising continuously analyzing at least a portion of the raw location data to determine at least one of the minimum of the acceleration norm in three axes and the minimum angular velocity noun.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein, prior to generating raw location data, the method comprises acquiring, by the inertial sensor module, a common reference point.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of transmitting the corrected location data to an onsite computer comprises:

transmitting, substantially in real-time, the corrected location data from the inertial sensor module to a personal communication device located on the user; and

transmitting, substantially in real-time, the corrected location data from the personal communication device to the onsite computer.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising enabling two-way communication between the onsite computer and the personal communication device.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising performing drift error correction to the raw location data before applying activity-specific error correction.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the determination of at least one activity type of the user further comprises:

(i) determining an orientation of the foot of the user; and

(ii) correlating the orientation of the foot with a certain type of activity.

20. A personal navigation system comprising at least one onsite computer having a computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions, which, when executed by a processor of the computer, causes the processor to:

(a) receive location data generated by at least one sensor of at least one inertial sensor module located on the foot of a user;

(b) process the location data to determine at least one activity of the user based at least in part upon the location data; and

(c) render, on a display and substantially in real-time, a graphical representation of the user based at least partially upon the received location data.