After 18 months of technical innovation, proposal work, and scoping challenges, Ascent is excited to announce we have won top prize in the Final Phase of the FRST Challenge, run by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Indiana University Bloomington. We are proud to share that our tech received the ‘Excellent’ ranking for first responder indoor tracking. To achieve this rank, our tech was put to the test in challenges involving relevant environmental load, such as darkness and smoke, as well as relevant task load like crawling, dummy carries, and ladders.
The journey to achieving top prize was not a linear one. Our solution went through several iterations to best meet the needs of the competition and of the first responders we aim to serve. Beginning with step tracking, which we found to be ill-performing under relevant task load, and eventually shifting to a visual-inertial odometry solution- the results of this competition reflect the numerous months of hard work and dedication that our team has poured into the project- all with the goal to improve safety for our first responders through accurate indoor tracking.
This is just the FRST step in the mission of ensuring first responders can get in, do their job, and return home safely to their families. Solving this challenge of tracking first responders is too important and too complex to work alone- we are excited to continue to change the firefight forever alongside fellow innovators in the challenge- AdaptiTrace, Epic Blue, nav4you, Ravenswood Solutions, SYSNAV and the broader community- Smart FireFighting, Illinois Fire Service Institute, Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service – TEEX, NFPA, National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF), Air Force Research Laboratory, TAK Product Center. We are excited to advance our mission through upcoming commercial launches with Charleston and Mattoon FD.
