I-Corps: Commercialization Feasibility Research and Demonstration Preparation for Third-Party Localization Toolkits

研究人员开发了各种地面和空中定位工具包，用于监视和救援任务。与大多数专注于自我定位或通过定位基础设施初始化的本地化工作不同，这些工具包针对的是应用程序，在这些应用程序中，第三方响应请求并在没有(或在现有基础设施的帮助下)执行本地化移动目标的按需任务。应用领域包括公共安全、网络取证和网络管理。该工具包可以应对各种复杂的定位环境，包括从地面到空中的室内和室外场景，并迎合执法部门正在出现的网络空间犯罪现场调查。这四个第三方定位工具包包括一个基于微型直升机的空中无线工具包、一个基于智能手机的手持定位器、一个搜救机器人和一个三维定位和锁定天线工具包。由于多径效应和缺乏大规模基础设施，第三方通过接收信号强度(RSS)时间序列进行定位可能具有挑战性。研究人员能够利用他们的定位工具包的便携性，在多个位置进行测量，以提高定位精度。这些工具包有可能填补在没有定位基础设施的场景中定位的一个重要空白。企业、政府和安全机构执行的各种搜救任务都需要在不借助现有定位基础设施的情况下定位移动目标的能力。这些任务可以是执法部门通过无线网络搜索失踪的受害者或犯罪分子，也可以是包括公园护林员在内的各种救援队寻找失踪的游客和徒步旅行者。网络管理员可以使用这些工具包来定位恶意接入点和出现故障的移动设备。该项目的影响还可能延伸到学术界和教育界。该项目进行的市场研究可能会增进对便携设备本地化问题的科学和技术理解。

Researchers have developed various ground and aerial localization toolkits for surveillance and rescue tasks. Unlike most existing work focusing on self-positioning or localization initialized by positioning infrastructures, these toolkits target applications in which a third party responds to a request and conducts an on-demand task of localizing mobile targets without (or with) the help of existing infrastructures. The application domains include public safety, network forensics, and network management. The toolkits can cope with various complicated positioning environments including indoor and outdoor scenes from ground to air and cater to emerging cyber space crime scene investigations for law enforcement. The four third party localization toolkits include a mini helicopter-based aerial wireless kit, a handheld locator based on SmartPhones, a search and rescue robot and a three-dimensional localization and locking antennae toolkit. Localization via received signal strength (RSS) time series by a third party can be challenging due to the multipath effect and the lack of a large scale infrastructure. Researchers are able use the portability of their localization toolkits and make measurements at multiple locations to improve localization accuracy. These toolkits have the potential to fill an important gap in localization for scenes where no positioning infrastructure is available.The ability to localize mobile targets without the help of existing positioning infrastructures is needed by a wide variety of search and rescue tasks performed by corporations, governments, and security agencies. Those tasks can be law enforcement searching for missing victims or criminals committing crimes via wireless networks, and various rescue teams including park rangers searching for lost travelers and hikers. Network managers can use these toolkits to pinpoint rogue access points, and malfunctioned mobile devices. Impacts of this project may also extend to academia and education. The market studies conducted in the project may enhance scientific and technological understanding of the localization problems with portable devices.