by

Surbhi Sharma, Sudhakar Kumar, Ankita Keshari, Suhaib Ahmed, Swastik Gupta, Ashish Suri

Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra

Jammu & Kashmir, India

A Real Time Autonomous Soldier Health Monitoring and Reporting System using COTS Available Entities

PRESENTATION OUTLINE

1. Introduction

• Historical Preliminaries

• Motivation

2. Methodology

3. Experimental Observations

4. Conclusion

5. References

As per the US casualties report (dated January 2nd, 2015) by Congressional Research Service [1], the

casualty summary of various conflicts like Korean War, Operation Iraqi Freedom etc. reveals that

thousands of American military personnel died of wounds and hundreds were declared missing in

action.

Back home in India, as per The Hindu [2], even 35 years after the India-Pakistan war ended on

December 17th, 1971, the families of 54 soldiers who were declared ‘missing in action’

All in all, around 160 million people have died in wars, during the 20th century alone.

According to few statistics. Millions of people are affected, because of the incessant warfare that

takes in modern times.

With the increasing number of missing people and fatalities, this problem needs to be addressed

with foremost importance.

WSN being widely used to address industrial, environmental, social and economical

challenges [8].

One such application is in military, (C4ISRT) systems.

The self-organization, rapid deployment and shortcoming resistance attributes of sensor

networks build them as an awfully promising sensing technique for military C4ISRT.

This paper too exploits the principles of WSNs in monitoring the vital signs of the military personnel.

A Real Time Autonomous Soldier Health Monitoring and Reporting System using COTS Available Entities has been proposed

in the paper to ensure the safety of army personnel by proposing a device that constantly monitors their pulse rate.

WSN have been utilized in yet another direction to include a vital monitor, that not only keeps a precise record of the

pulse rate of user, but also sends an automatic notification to the receiver.

This notification not only includes the current pulse rate of user, but also the GPS location that have been tracked on-

the-go by the GPS Module.

The main aim of this project is to help the defense services.

METHODOLOGY

The proposed system will ensure that any casualty is brought to the

attention of the authorities at the earliest. It will not only help to save the lives

but also tracing the missing soldiers.

System consists of a transmitter (with GPS Module and Pulse Sensor) and a

receiver at some remote location.

It parameterizes heartbeat rate as a decisive factor for the healthiness of

soldiers.

Fig. 1: WaspmoteFig. 2: Pulse Sensor

Pulse Sensor

Transmitter(Waspmote)

Receiver at Remote Location

GPS Module

Here, the system employs Waspmote for both the roles (transmitter as well as receiver).

The synchronization between them is attained through IEEE standard 802.15.4 and ZigBee [3].

The proposed system measure the heartbeat rate , tracking geographical location , comparing the heartbeat rate with the setthreshold and then responding accordingly.

The system may be programmed to transmit both heartbeat rate as well as locations all the time to the servers.

Age (in yrs)

Sex Heartbeat (in BPM)

22 Female 68

23 Female 80

24 Female 72

25 Female 92

22 Male 61

23 Male 83

24 Male 86

25 Male 89

26 Male 80

Table 1: Data Collection of HeartbeatTo determine the threshold heartbeat rate, the same

was studied for the people aged 25-40 years.

Normal heartbeat rate is 60 to 80 beats per minute but

on the same time, it varies with physical fitness and

age.

In a normal condition the average heartbeat rate is

80 BPM for the people aged 25-40 years [9].

On the contrary, the soldiers are always required to

make physical movements which will only increase

their heartbeat rates.

Hence, a low threshold of 60 was set for the proposed

system.

FLOW CHART OF PROPOSED SYSTEM

Start

Rescue Team LeavesReading Pulse Count

Transmit Location

Tracking Geographical

Location

Sensor Reading Pulse every

5 seconds

Count

< 60 ?

N Y

EXPERIMENTAL OBSERVATIONS

MODE CONSUMPTION

ON 15 mA

SLEEP 55 μA

DEEP SLEEP 55 μA

HIBERNATE 0.07 μA

Table 2: Current Consumption of Waspmote

Fig.: Experimental Setup for Pulse Detection and Transmission

The experimental observations show that the instant value of the user pulse rate isretrievable at any given time by the Receiver.

It is subjected to a constant revision every 5 seconds. The pulse sensor is used toconstantly measure this value in contact with the army-personnel’s finger/arm.

Furthermore, there is an automatic notification sent by the transmitter to the receiver.

PULSE SENSOR VALUE BEING MONITORED AND TRANSMITTED

Pulse Sensor Data Received at the Receiver End

A Real Time Autonomous Soldier Health Monitoring and Reporting System using COTS

Available Entities has been proposed in the paper to ensure the safety of army personnel by

proposing a device that constantly monitors the value of their pulse rate.

GPS module attached with the transmitter helps in keeping a tab on the immediate

location details of the wearer in those adverse situations where the pulse rate falls below

60 BPM

Thus the proposed system being robust in nature, will help to track, observe and all the

whereabouts of every soldier.

This Study may be extended to ensure the healthcare and well being of the citizens of the

world as well.

[1] American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics, Congressional Research Service [Online] Available:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf

[2] [Online] Available: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/54-missing-defence-personnel-believed-to-be-in-pak-jails-govt/article5042178.ece

[3] P. Huang, L. Xiao, S. Soltani, M. W. Mutka, N. Xi, "The Evolution of MAC Protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey", IEEE Communications

Surveys & Tutorials, vol. 15, no. 1, 2013, pp. 101-120.

[4] H. Furtado and R. Trobec, "Applications of Wireless Sensors in Medicine," in Proc. MIPRO'11, 34th International Convention, Opatija, May 2011, pp.257-

261.

[5] P. B. Crilly, E. T. Arakawa, D. L. Hedden, and T. L. Ferrell, “An Integrated Pulse Oximeter System for Telemedicine Applications,” Proceedings of the

IEEE Instrumentation and Measurements Conference, Ottawa, Canada, May 1997, pp. 102-104, vol. 1..

[6] Hyuntae Kim, Jingyu Do and Jangsik Park, “Wireless Structural Health Monitoring System Using ZigBee Network and FBG Sensor,” in International

Journal of Security and Its Applications, Vol. 7, No. 3, May 2013.

[7] N. Chadil, A. Russameesawang, and P. Keeratiwintakorn, "Real-Time Tracking Management System using GPS, GPRS and Google Earth," in Proc of

the 5th ICoEETIT, Thailand, 2008, pp. 393-396.

[8] I.F. Akyilidiz, Weilian Su, Y. Sankarasubramaniam, E. Cayiric, “A Survey on Sensor Networks”, IEEE Communications Magazine, Vol. 40, Issue 8, Aug

2002, pp. 102-114.

[9] N. M. Z. Hashim, N. A. Ali, A. Salleh, A. S. Ja’afar and N. A. Z. Abidin, “Development of Optimal Photosensors Based Heart Pulse Detector,”

in International Journal of Engineering and Technology (IJET), Vol 5, No 4, Aug-Sep 2013, pp. 3601-3607

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