ESE 1110, Team 17, Chirp4Help

Lost without cell service? Chirp4Help contacts rescue teams without fault!

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Inspiration

Thousands of people are lost in the wilderness every year because they cannot contact help with their cell phones. Search and rescue in forests are especially difficult as conditions are always changing and foliage prevent searching with aerial views. A distress system needs to be developed to improve the safety of outdoors activities in remote areas.

What it does

Chirp4Help is a network of distress stations deployed throughout forests or places without cellular signal. When a person is in need of emergency support, they could hit a distress button at the nearest station and their location will be relayed through the network to a base station connected to the internet.

How we built it

We chose the LoRa communication protocol for its low power and long range. We decided that the stations need to be low-maintenance which makes solar power a necessity. The enclosure has been designed in CAD and 3D printed.

Challenges we ran into

Developing a protocol that is expandable and low-bandwidth was very challenging. While implementing different functionalities, I found myself constantly changing how a distress message is sent. Getting the path routing to work was also a challenge, as the stations cannot be broadcasting every message they receive, as that will result in a cacophony of messages on the LoRa frequency, leading to excess power consumption and even undelivered messages.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Having developed a system that is actually deployable in the real-world and could help people stay safe. Chirp4Help is a robust system that can work over extreme distances and be a low-cost alternative to tradition methods of keeping in contact in the wilderness.

What we learned

To plan the software before it is implemented.

What's next for ESE 1110, Team 17, Chirp4Help

Expanding on the functionality to allow for things such as two-way audio contact, more efficient dynamic path planning, and failsafes in case some stations are offline or a message gets lost.

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Updates

posted an update —

Soldered wires for the solar panels and various converters for the individual relay systems. The relay system was fully assembled with the rechargeability aspect. The IoT system was developed and optimized.

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posted an update —

Soldered the pins for the LoRa chip that will be placed at the base station. Started CADing the birdhouse accounting for the battery, LoRa chip, and the solar panel. The system’s codes were updated and tested.

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posted an update —

MVP1

Electronic Design

  • Distress stations will be deployed using an IoT mobile platform
  • Signals will be relayed through the station network
  • Path planning of packet through the network will be done pre-transmission to lower power consumption
  • Low power arduino library used to minimize active listening time ## Structural Design
  • Shape designed to mimic a bird's house in order to survive the elements
  • Small size helps large scale deployment
  • Distress stations will be strapped to trees non-invasively to minimize environmental impact

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