Personal protective equipment with movement-based navigation

1 . A system comprising:

personal protective equipment (PPE) configured to be worn by an agent, wherein the PPE includes a sensor assembly comprising a head-mounted inertial detector and a body-mounted inertial detector, each configured to generate three-dimensional accelerometer data and three-dimensional gyroscope data, and a compass sensor configured to generate heading data; and

at least one computing device comprising a memory and processing circuitry coupled to the memory, wherein the at least one device is configured to:

receive the sensor data from the sensor assembly;

generate pose data of the agent based on the sensor data in response to a series of movements by the agent away from an arrival point, wherein for each pose the pose data includes an agent location, an agent heading, and a movement activity type selected from walking, hands-and-knees crawling, and belly crawling;

generate a navigation path based on the pose data; and

wherein the processing circuitry determines the movement activity at least by (i) using gravity-vector orientation derived from the accelerometer data to distinguish upright walking from crawling, and (ii) detecting oscillatory angular motions in the gyroscope data including yaw, roll, and pitch and comparing signals from the head-mounted inertial detector and the body-mounted inertial detector to differentiate hands-and-knees crawling from belly crawling, and computes the agent location for each pose from a previous pose location, the agent heading, and an activity-dependent estimated distance per step or crawl cycle determined according to the movement activity type.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the sensor assembly comprises a wireless communication interface configured to determine angle of arrival data from a direction-finding signal.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the sensor assembly is configured to capture agent input and generate agent input data, wherein the PPE further comprises an agent interface assembly configured to provide agent perceptible output, wherein the agent perceptible output comprises a visual, aural, or tactile information, and

wherein the at least one computing device is further configured to:

process agent input from the sensor assembly to generate agent input data; and

in response to the agent input data indicating a desire to return to the arrival point,

generate pose data of the agent based on the sensor data in response to a series of movements by the agent toward the arrival point,

generate instruction data based on the navigation path and the pose data, and

provide instruction data to the agent interface assembly to generate agent perceptible output to guide the agent toward the arrival point.

4 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the agent interface assembly comprises at least one of a heads-up display, a transducer, or a tactile actuator.

5 . The system of claim 3 , wherein to generate instruction data, the at least one computing device is further configured to:

generate an egress navigation path based on reversing the navigation path;

determine whether to remove one or more poses from the egress navigation path; and

determine the instruction data based on the egress navigation path.

6 . The system of claim 5 , wherein to determine whether to remove one or more poses, the at least one computing device is configured to determine a radius threshold.

7 . The system of claim 6 , wherein to determine whether to remove one or more poses, the at least one computing device is configured to remove one or more poses based on a distance to a subsequent pose in the egress navigation path being less than the radius threshold and the subsequent pose is not a next pose in the egress navigation path.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one computing device further comprises a wireless communication interface configured to generate calibration data based on wireless contact with one or more apparatus having a known location relative to the mapping information, and

wherein the at least one computing device is further configured to:

generate an estimated proximity to the arrival point based on the calibration data; and

update pose data in response to the estimated proximity.

9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the head-mounted inertial detector is used to capture rotation of the head and the body-mounted inertial detector is used to capture translational motion decoupled from head rotations.

10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the body-mounted inertial detector comprises a 6-axis inertial measurement unit that provides three-dimensional accelerometer data and three-dimensional gyroscope data and is mounted proximate to an upper back of the agent, and the compass sensor comprises a three-axis magnetic sensor.

11 . The system of claim 1 , wherein, in response to agent input indicating a desire to the arrival point, the at least one computing device is configured to generate an egress navigation path based on reversing the navigation path, determine whether to remove one or more poses from the egress navigation path based on a radius threshold, and remove one or more poses when a distance to a subsequent pose in the egress navigation path is less than the radius threshold and the subsequent pose is not a next pose.

12 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the egress navigation path adheres to a complementary navigation principle relative to the navigation path such that when the navigation path is generated using a left-hand navigation technique, the egress navigation path is generated using a right-hand navigation technique.