A Low-Profile Location Tagging System For Tracking Cargo, Personnel and Vehicles

127 A Low-Profile Location Tagging System For Tracking Cargo, Personnel and Vehicles--Signatron Technology Corporation, 29 Domino Drive, Concord, MA 01742-2845; (508) 371-0550 Dr. Steen A. Parl, Principal Investigator Mr. John F.Eschle, Business Official DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-97ER82475 Amount: $74,871 A location tracking system for tagging and monitoring the position of nuclear assets, personnel, special nuclear material, and vehicles is a critical requirement for knowing where these people and materials are at all times. Therefore, the research goals are to develop an inexpensive, miniature tagging device as well as a low-cost and a fixed location infrastructure. This infrastructure would be augmented by a portable or mobile system for receiving tagging signals and determining location. The approach is to minimize the complexity of the tagging device in order to enable the development of a miniature, easily concealed transceiver; in addition the system intelligence would be located in low-cost portable receiving and tracking stations. The system is based on a novel radiolocation technology developed for other applications such as locating Alzheimer¿s patients, cellular phones, and paroled criminals. In Phase I, the performance of the technology at extended ranges will be established, a system concept for location and retrieval of the tagged object or person will be developed, a preliminary design of a miniature device will be developed, and the technical requirements for mobile receiving stations will be studied. The Phase II objectives include the development of initial low-profile tagging device, followed by field testing with prototype receiving stations. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The new tracking/location technology will find numerous cost-sensitive commercial applications that are not adequately served by existing location technologies, such as the global positioning system. Such applications include fleet tracking and automated dispatch, personnel tracking, pre-release and parolee tracking, child location, stolen vehicle recovery, asset tracking, and stolen item recovery.