Real-time localisation and real-time monitoring of first responder team members
Localisation of first responders is vital for the responder’s safety, especially in GNSS-denied environments. The
responders need to localise each team member in risky situations to rescue them or notify other members near
potential hazardous and risky situations. According to the project responder PR4 study, most of the responders send
their location by using hand-held radios (inefficient procedure, especially in dense smoke) instead of automated realtime indoor localisation systems.
In fact, a continuous indoor/outdoor localisation system will provide the location
of first responders outside, in buildings, above and below the ground in real-time. In addition, a body motion
analysing system will provide position and orientation of the responders (e.g., standing still, walking or lying on the
ground). Furthermore, a wearable health monitoring system will provide information about the vital activity and
status of responders. An overall in-team-system, integrating indoor/outdoor localisation, body posture capture and
health monitoring will provide a complementary solution for situational awareness within team-members, thus filling
the current gaps. The Capability Gap 1 is fulfilled by WP7 (Team Monitoring System).
Detection of Surrounding Risks and Threats
According to the PR4 study, there is a lack of sensor systems efficiently running in the responder teams. The first
responders mainly prepare necessary and required tools and materials for the emergency in the preparedness phase.
However, the information setup in this phase is full of fragmentary, incomplete and sometimes wrong information. In
addition, the situation in the field can rapidly evolve in time, generating new hazards, currently impossible to detect
and forecast. For example, a terrorist attack can only be realised after the first responders arrive in the field and
rapidly evolving chemical risks cannot be detected and forecasted in the preparedness phase. Thus, there is a need
for various types of sensor systems to detect, identify and monitor threats for responders to be well prepared against
unexpected emergencies. These gaps are fulfilled by sensor systems defined in WPs (from WP3 to WP6).
Information Fusion and Comprehensible User Interfaces
Simultaneous and intense data flow from heterogeneous sources should be fused to obtain reliable information for
first responders. The fused data will be provided to operational centre and responders in the field. Furthermore,
Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be used to detect, identify and classify the threats and anomalies surrounding the
first responders to generate detailed common situational awareness picture. It is important to provide detailed
picture, which is generated by fusing the information gathered by the sensor systems in the field, for the dispatchers
in the incident management centre. This gap is fulfilled by TeamAware software platform (WP10) combining all
sensor systems (from WP3 to WP6) as well as a non-traditional way of obtaining further data such as social media,
citizens in the incident and IoT infrastructure of the city (WP8). All kind of sources are connected with a redundant
communication network (WP9). The intensive data flow and fused information in the situational awareness picture
can exceed the cognitive limits of the responders in the field. In detail, the layered dash-boarding of information
should be clear, understandable and manageable for the responders in the operation. Thus, there should be user
interfaces (UIs) enhanced with Augmented Reality (AR) to present refined information to the responders. This
gap is fulfilled by Human Machine Interface (HMI) displaying refined, filtered, and manageable common situational
awareness picture (WP11)
