Last month, a Q-Track team traveled to the historic Safety Research Coal Mine in Bruceton, Pennsylvania to conduct RF propagation and performance tests on a Near-Field Electromagnetic Ranging (NFER®) Real-Time Location System (RTLS). We optimized the system for use in a mine environment in an effort funded by NIOSH. We deployed three receivers spaced 150-200 feet along a single passage and demonstrated accurate tracking in a 400ft x 100ft (40,000 sqft) area of the mine. The low frequency (575kHz) signals bend and diffract around corners, enabling accurate tracking in a parallel passageway substantially beyond line-of-sight of the three receivers in the primary passageway. This ability to obtain accurate tracking in non-line-of-sight environments is a hallmark of NFER® RTLS. Here’s a brief (82 second) clip showing the performance.
AUTHOR
Hans
Hans G. Schantz is the Principal Scientist of Geeks and Nerds Corporation (GaN). He was co-founder and CTO of Q-Track Corporation until GaN's acquisition of Q-Track in 2019. Co-inventor of NFER indoor location technology, he has more than 40 U.S. patents to his credit. He is the author of The Art and Science of Ultrawideband Antennas, The Biographies of John Charles Fremont, and the science fiction thriller, The Hidden Truth, available free through Kindle Unlimited. Dr. Schantz earned his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Texas at Austin. He lives in Huntsville, AL with his wife, Barbara, and four children.
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