Sysnav FRST is an advanced indoor and underground positioning solution designed for firefighters operating in GPS-denied and hazardous environments. It enhances situational awareness, team coordination, and responder safety during emergency interventions. The solution is at TRL6. FRST equips firefighters with a wearable tracking unit that continuously estimates their position in real time, even inside buildings, tunnels, or smoke-filled areas. The system allows incident commanders to monitor the location, movement, and status of each firefighter on a tactical interface, enabling faster decision-making and improved operational control during critical missions such as search and rescue, fire suppression, and evacuation. The core technology behind Sysnav FRST is inertial navigation based on proprietary sensor fusion algorithms. The wearable unit embeds high-performance inertial sensors (accelerometers, magnetometers and gyroscopes) that capture motion data. Sysnav’s algorithms perform real-time pedestrian dead reckoning, combining step detection, stride estimation, heading calculation, and drift compensation techniques to deliver accurate positioning without relying on external infrastructure. FRST does not require GPS, beacons, or pre-installed hardware inside buildings, making it immediately deployable in any environment. The solution is robust to extreme conditions such as heat and smoke. Position data is securely transmitted to a command unit, where it is displayed on indoor maps or building layouts when available. The device is designed to be fully interoperable and easily integrated with the equipment of the first responder of the future. By providing reliable indoor positioning and operational visibility, Sysnav FRST significantly improves firefighter safety, reduces response time, and increases mission effectiveness in the most challenging environments.
Wa are presenting Sysnav FRST to compete for Direktion Awards because we know that this technology addresses one of the most critical challenges in emergency operations: reliable indoor and underground positioning in GPS-denied environments. Firefighters and first responders often operate in complex, hazardous conditions where traditional tracking systems fail, making situational awareness and team coordination extremely difficult. Sysnav FRST is innovative because it combines inertial navigation, sensor fusion, exploitation of the magnetic field gradient and pedestrian dead reckoning to provide continuous, real-time positioning without relying on external infrastructure. This enables rapid deployment in buildings, tunnels, or smoke-filled environments, enhancing safety, operational efficiency, and decision-making for incident commanders. The system is also field-tested and user-centered, developed in close collaboration with first responders to meet real-world constraints such as heat, smoke, darkness, initialization at the beginning of the mission and how to wear the device (Synergise Project, Paris Fire Brigade). By presenting FRST, we want to highlight a solution that not only demonstrates technological excellence but also delivers tangible benefits for frontline responders.
The strength of Sysnav FRST’s innovative approaches lies in its ability to provide reliable, real-time 3D positioning without infrastructure for firefighters operating in GPS-denied and hazardous environments. Traditional tracking systems often fail indoors, underground, or in smoke-filled buildings. FRST overcomes these limitations by combining advanced inertial navigation, sensor fusion, exploitation of the magnetic field gradient and pedestrian dead reckoning algorithms to continuously estimate a firefighter’s position without external infrastructure. Sysnav approach is based on three technologies : - thermal calibration of sensors - step detection algorithms (for standard gaits only) for recalibration of the speed sensor - Use of the indoor magnetic field gradient to calculate a trajectory (even in the case of non-standard steps) By combining these methods and approaches, Sysnav FRST provides a response to the various challenges involved in locating first responders during operations: - a quick-to-deploy solution - a solution without infrastructure - an accurate 3D location solution - a robust solution for extreme conditions
Sysnav FRST addresses a critical operational challenge faced by first responders: the inability to reliably locate first responders in environments where GNSS (GPS) signals are unavailable or unreliable, such as inside buildings, underground, or in dense urban areas. During emergency operations, commanders often lack real-time visibility of where first responders are located. This can lead to increased risks, slower decision-making, and difficulties in coordinating teams or rescuing responders in distress. Sysnav FRST resolves this issue by providing accurate, real-time indoor and outdoor localization without relying on existing infrastructure. Using advanced inertial navigation technology, the solution enables continuous tracking of first responders, improves situational awareness for command teams, enhances coordination, and significantly increases the safety and effectiveness of emergency interventions.
The Sysnav FRST team is a multidisciplinary group of engineers and product experts specialized in inertial navigation and positioning. Working closely with firefighters, they design and deploy robust, field-proven solutions focused on safety, reliability, and operational efficiency in challenging environments.
The Sysnav FRST team is a multidisciplinary group of engineers and product experts specialized in inertial navigation and positioning. Working closely with firefighters, they design and deploy robust, field-proven solutions focused on safety, reliability, and operational efficiency in challenging environments.