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Contents 
Introduction
Nurses streamline with tablets
Picking up tips from from NYK
Fighting fire with wireless
Eight points for wireless success |
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A new product developed in South Australia provides an answer to the problem of accurately monitoring the position of fire-fighting vehicles and could be applied to other organisations that use two-way radio for their mobile communications.
WARPS (Wireless Automated Response Positioning System) is simple in concept, but that's often the case with the good ideas. The WARPS unit is connected to a two-way radio (government radio network, trunk radio network, and public mobile networks operating on UHF, VHF and CB frequencies are all supported) and an in-built GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver continuously determines its location.
Whenever the radio's push-to-talk switch is released, WARPS sends the vehicle's identity and location in the form of a series of audio tones lasting less than 0.2 seconds at the end of the transmission. Fixed or mobile base station units will automatically decode this data, which is passed on to a PC using a serial connection.
The Gosford (NSW) Rural Fire Service has been using WARPS to great effect. "It's eliminating a lot of logistical difficulties, especially in major incidents," Rural Fire Service inspector Rolf Poole says. "Large emergencies are by nature fast moving, and they require us to be on our toes."
The traditional approach is to listen to radio reports and move markers representing vehicles around a map. WARPS integrates with Gosford RFS's MapInfo-based geographical information system, allowing vehicle positions to be superimposed on maps along with aerial photographs and infrared scans, contours, road names, street numbers, property boundaries, infrastructure elements, high-risk areas and other data. This eliminates time delays and allows more effective use of resources.
"WARPS gives them a very efficient way of managing their mobile assets," technical director at WARPS Australia Michael Norman says. The RFS uses a private mobile radio network in Gosford but can also switch to a NSW government one if required.
While PCs can be attached to all WARPS units, Gosford RFS only does so with its base stations. The one at the fire station connects to a desktop PC, while the mobile unit used by the field commander (usually deployed only when five or more vehicles attend an incident) is used with a notebook for obvious reasons.
Knowing the exact positions is valuable in emergencies, such as a tanker being overrun by fire, as well as less dramatic circumstances such as delivering food to fire fighters while they tackle a large blaze. It's even helpful when attending relatively minor incidents such as road accidents, says Poole, as it gives an exact position rather than one relative to the nearest cross-street.
The base stations can also poll WARPS units to obtain their position at any time.
Future developments will allow the electronic tracking of crew members, monitoring the status of the vehicle such as a tanker's water level (the WARPS hardware provides two user-definable inputs along with a 'mayday' input), and logging working hours to determine when a crew change is needed. "WARPS is a huge advantage from an occupational health and safety perspective," Norman says.
Gosford Rural Fire Service is currently considering alternatives to MapInfo, but Poole is confident that WARPS is easily adaptable to any other GIS. The data collected can be analysed after an incident, perhaps to help determine how response times could be improved, or to provide a coroner with dates, times, and the exact location of vehicles.
"The potential is enormous," Poole says.
Wired for success
The examples above more than prove that multiple wireless technologies (WiFi, GPRS, trunk radio and others) can be applied to solve a variety of business problems. When implemented correctly, these technologies are able to provide you with measurable increases in productivity.
