HAMPSHIRE scientists are on the verge of perfecting new technology which could help protect the lives of British soldiers on the battlefield.

Roke Manor Research at Romsey has successfully demonstrated the latest in wearable sensors to the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl).

Most of us will be familiar with the error message ‘no GPS signal’ on our smart phones and satellite navigation systems.

To us it is just a minor inconvenience but for troops, losing GPS could be the difference between life and death.

The Dismounted Close Combat Sensors (DCCS) could help troops to navigate without reliance on GPS, which can be disrupted by enemy forces.

If GPS signal is lost, commanders lose the ability to monitor their troops’ location and wider situational awareness is withdrawn from those on the ground.

The urban environment poses the biggest challenge: signal is often lost when entering buildings when there is no clear line of sight with the GPS satellites or if the signal is being jammed.

The DCCS system uses inertial and visual navigation sensors to provide 3D navigation data when GPS signal is not available.

DCCS combines information from visually tracked features captured by a helmet camera and can calculate an individual’s location – it can also track people in buildings and tunnels.

A combination of camera, laser and orientation sensors mounted on a soldier’s weapon will allow them to highlight targets to other soldiers, drones and manned aircraft at the press of a button.

This will be quicker, easier and less confusing than giving verbal instructions which could be misheard over a crackly line during battle.

But it has other potential uses too, such as identifying wounded colleagues, the location of civilians and potential helicopter landing sites.

Acoustic and camera technology automatically identifies where enemy weapons are being fired from.

Roke’s lead engineer on the project, Mark Coleman said: “We independently considered 252 fledgling technologies from across industry, academia and beyond, before developing, distilling and fusing them to create the concept of an integrated wearable sensor system which we then built and trialled.”

Dstl’s principal project engineer, Ken McEwan, also said: “The demonstration programme has been very successful. It has shown that the concept works and that it has civilian and military applications.”

Roke says the technology can be used by the emergency services in navigating within smoke-filled buildings.

The DCCS project are the result of collaboration between Dstl and industry partners Roke, QinetiQ and Systems Engineering and Assessment (SEA) and has been funded by the government.