Wireless Hybrid Identification and Sensing Platform for Equipment Recovery (WHISPER), Phase II

NASA applications of this system will location tracking of various small and large items in space but will also include exercise monitoring, robotic poise control, vestibular compensation of motion sickness for space travel, musculoskeletal injury monitoring in astronauts, head tracking and tele-factoring for astronauts and internal navigation for SPHERES modules on board the ISS. The system could be incorporated, for example, by NASA into robotic arms to provide high precision "eye hand coordination" for automated manipulation tasks. The ability to tracking multiple items in close proximity to each has been a constant focus in the warehousing, manufacturing and shipping industries. In many cases it is also highly advantageous to also be able to determine the orientation and pose of items such as robotic arms, servos, and even human actions for training, medical, simulation, and even time/motion studies. While current RFID tags are capable of determining location they cannot effectively track motion or pose. The AS&T proposed AS&T WHISPER system, due to its hybrid technology of INS, optical tracking (through AS&T's PUPPET technology), and RFID technology, using PSO data fusion methods, will be able to provide low power, postage stamp-sized location, orientation, and kinematic information over a wireless WISP network for industrial, medical, training, and simulation uses in a wide variety of related industries. In essence the WHISPER tag is an idealization of a position/pose/tracking spime. More »