Positioning System for Rescuing Missions in Underground Facilities : Wireless Network Implementation

Abstract: In the case of an emergency in an underground facility, the harsh environment make the rescue missions a difficult and taxing task for the first responders. Disorientation, stress and lack of communication are fatal in that territory. In order to overcome all this difficulties and provide a system to coordinate and help locate emergency responders, a new Indoor Positioning System (IPS) is proposed. The system shall be scalable so it can expand its coverage over the site, it would adapt and remain reliable in the harsh conditions of the environment. The main goal of this project is to present an analysis of the current wireless technologies, their advantages and disadvantages and a comparison between them. Build a new solution and present the results of the performance of the network. The tests recreate the characteristics of the underground territory and present a good analysis of the system. This thesis project report the process, to build a scalable, adaptable and reliable wireless network to be used as the framework of a positioning system. The system is constructed using the ZigBee protocol stack and the nRF52840 hardware. A graphical user interface is developed to facilitate the configuration of the network. At the end the results gives proof that the system can be used in the underground facilities as long as the network is deployed carefully.