GeoTrooper : a mobile location-aware system for team coordination

Navigation and assembly are critical tasks for Soldiers in battlefield situations. Soldiers must locate equipment, supplies and teammates quickly and quietly in order to ensure the success of their mission. This task can be extremely difficult and take a significant amount of time without guidance or extensive experience. To facilitate the re-assembly and coordination of airborne paratrooper teams, we have developed a location-aware system that uses an ad-hoc Wi-Fi network in order to broadcast and receive GPS coordinates of equipment and/or rendezvous points. The system consists of beacons, ruggedized computers placed at assembly points that broadcast their position over Wi-Fi, and receivers, handheld Android devices which orient the user towards the beacons and/or any predetermined coordinates.