Automated Vehicle Location Using Global Positioning Systems for First Responders

摘要

AVL technology is assisting decision support, situation awareness, and emergency response situations. It a well known that the most critical time factor is the availability of basic information such as the location of an incident, location of emergency resources, distance to a certain location and travel time. Aside from emergency response support, AVL technology provides improved response time, resource management, schedule adherence and increased productivity on a day to day application. The use of this technology can support many activities such as fleet management, snow plow routing, garbage truck tracking, and mobile workforce management. The value of dynamic geospatial information is extremely powerful especially when it is integrated with existing static geospatial information because of the added capability it provides. Knowing where 'something' is located as it moves along the earth's surface, gives you the ability to predict, react, and respond accordingly. By having the authority or ability to change the direction of a moving vehicle, certain users are essentially 'enabled' to make more efficient use of these valuable resources in real time. In response to a previous accident, Peterson AFB established a satellite based GPS tracking system in 2003. The system was designed to monitor missile transport using GPS, satellite communication and web based mapping capabilities. This same tracking system was later installed on emergency response vehicles to provide the similar capabilities including incident management. The Air Force Academy (AFA) Fire Department was a recipient of this system that was offered to all military installations in the region. Shortly after installation, it was discovered that although the GPS tracking system was efficient for tracking missile transport vehicles, it did not meet Emergency Management response requirements because of the eight to ten minute latency in data transmission.