The TeamAware Situational Awareness Platform – Common First Responder Situational Awareness Picture

One of the major systems within the TeamAware project is the Common Situational Awareness Platform (CSAP). The CSAP system is the primary interface between the TeamAware ecosystem and the First responders on the tactical and strategical level, in opposition to the mobile and AR interfaces for the individual first responders which act as “boots on the ground”. The CSAP has to provide all available information to the first responder in order to coordinate their actions and provide ongoing situational awareness and support decision making on the coordinating levels.

For the development of the CSAP system and especially the actual front-end module, the following key guiding principles were identified:

• Technical Usability: The CSAP system should have minimal requirements to the technical infrastructure to make an integration into existing systems as simple as possible

• HMI Usability: The Front-End should be easy to use for the operator, employ as many standard HMI procedures as possible and be as language agnostic as possible

• Readability: The CSAP system should always show all the information needed but as little as possible

• Adaptability: The operator should be able to adapt the system to their liking in terms of what information they get presented directly and which is not directly visible

Figure 1 shows the overview page of the current CSAP version. To provide a device and system agnostic front-end for the CSAP, this system is realized as a dynamic web page with the back-end and data being deployed within the TeamAware ecosystem itself. This allows the operator to use any device capable of a network connection to the TeamAware ecosystem and able to display a web page to use the CSAP system in the most flexible way possible, be it from a mobile command post with relatively big hardware, over a laptop setup impromptu in the area of a developing situation to a tablet computer or handheld device. While technically possible it is advised to not use devices with small screens (like mobile phones) if possible, due to very limited screen space and handling problems.

To make the CSAP system as accessible as possible and keeping in mind the projects nature with many international partners, it is an ongoing effort to make the user experience as intuitive as possible while on the same time limiting the need for written text. In a high pressure situation, written text is not the optimal way to convey simple information in a fast and intuitive way to an international audience. Wherever possible it is tried to employ international icons, common and intuitive signage and easy to understand information display to make the CSAP system usable by as many people and institutions as possible and the usability of the system easy and intuitive.

To accommodate this fact, the CSAP front-end is designed to hide any information which is not deemed necessary by the system and only show that information which are considered important. Ultimately the end-users and first responders are the key personnel with the most experience in their field and the CSAP system (as the whole TeamAware ecosystem) is there to support them in their job, not make it harder. At all times, all the information is accessible through the CSAP front-end, even if it is not prominently displayed currently on the main overview screen. Also, the operator is able to manually overwrite the system decisions of which information to show and which to hide dynamically. This allows for high flexibility and the incorporation of additional domain knowledge and information the operator has access to which are not covered by the TeamAware ecosystem.

The CSAP system is an important part of the TeamAware ecosystem and, at least on the strategical and tactical level, the “face” of the system for the first responders in action. With the ongoing research and development actions in the TeamAware project the CSAP system will also be further evolved to accommodate changes in the technical systems and infrastructure but also to incorporate the crucial feedback from end-users and first responders to enhance their experience with the system wherever possible.