The problem of relaying battlefield information is at the heart of all modern warfare, getting crucial, reliable data from one area to another, or from the battlefield back to the chain of command as fast as possible. To help mitigate the problem, we developed a small, lightweight, gun mountable sensor array with wireless capabilities and sufficient battery life to record and transmit vital information off the battlefield.
The problem of relaying battlefield information is at the heart of all modern warfare, getting crucial, reliable data from one area to another, or from the battlefield back to the chain of command as fast as possible. To help mitigate the problem, we developed a small, lightweight, gun mountable sensor array with wireless capabilities and sufficient battery life to record and transmit vital information off the battlefield. In addition, an off-site server will process and display the information, and could be used to alert necessary personnel if need be. The system could also play a role off the battlefield, simplifying the tracking of weapons, automatically calling for backup in sudden life-threatening situations, or to assist training exercises. The system consists of two separate sections, a physical unit, distributed to each soldier and mounted to the weapon, and a server to collect and process the data. The unit is always running, but remains dormant most of the time to conserve battery life. When a soldier fires his weapon, the weapon experiences a sudden change in acceleration along its axis, known as ‘recoil’. The device’s accelerometer captures this sudden change in acceleration and causes an interrupt to wake up the processor. The processor then takes a snapshot of all current sensor data and preprocesses it to extract the devices orientation, heading, altitude and position, and the time of the occurrence. This information, along with the devices unique ID number, is sent via Wi-Fi to the main server, which displays the information on an interactive map. Depending on requirements, the server could be setup for multiple purposes. In one instance, it could be used to take multiple shots’ information to predict where enemies might be and automatically notify other soldiers in the area that assistance is necessary. The server could also be setup as part of training exercises, and would be used to analyze how many shots each participant fired and how accurate each shot was. The device could also be mounted to steel plate targets to detect when a ‘hit’ occurred.
