Pre-hospital Triage Improvement for Ambulances via 5G Video and Vital Data Communication

The use of real-time video-audio and vital patient data significantly improves the effectiveness of remote assessment in emergencies, compared with the current audio-only pre-hospital communications. This was found during recently completed 5G trials, involving ambulance professionals. The aim of the trials was to investigate how 5G-enabled...

Persistent robot-assisted disaster response

We report on a field exercise in which a team of human fire-fighters used robots to enact a realistic disaster response mission in an industrial environment. In this exercise we evaluated the technical working of an integrated robotic system and gained insights concerning the manner in which robots and information streams can be utilized...

Dynamic formulation for humanitarian response operations incorporating multiple organisations

Disasters represent a significant challenge for countries globally. Balancing human and material resources during these situations is not a trivial issue, and that is further complicated by the participation of several actors at multiple periods. However, there is an absence of articles considering the importance of deploying only the required...

Incremental development of large-scale human-robot teamwork in disaster response environments

We report on the latest large-scale disaster-response exercise conducted by our project, which involves a robotic system with both ground robots (UGVs) and aerial robots (UAVs). In particularly, we focus on aspects related to Human-Robot teaming, and the uptake of new technology by end-users. © 2017 Authors. ACM SIGAI; ACM SIGCHI; IEEE Robotics...

Disaster preparedness in humanitarian logistics A collaborative approach for resource management in floods

Four archetypal networked organisations

Complex and multifaceted problems such as emergencies typically require coordinated effort by a network of different organisations. These networks typically rely less on formal hierarchical structures and instead have a stronger focus on allowing the dynamics to emerge in the process of collaboration. A balance has to be achieved between the...

Security in transnational interoperable PPDR communications: Threats and requirements

The relevance of cross border security operations has been identified as a priority at European level for a long time. A European network where Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) forces share communications processes and a legal framework would greatly enforce response to disaster recovery and security against crime. Nevertheless,...

Designing, developing, and deploying systems to support human-robot teams in disaster response

This paper describes our experience in designing, developing and deploying systems for supporting human-robot teams during disaster response. It is based on R&D performed in the EU-funded project NIFTi. NIFTi aimed at building intelligent, collaborative robots that could work together with humans in exploring a disaster site, to make a...

Utilizing the potential of the affected population and prevalent mobile technology during disaster response: Propositions from a literature survey

Despite the growing awareness of the untapped potential of the affected population in a disaster situation, their inclusion in a disaster management is extremely limited. This study aims to survey the literature to see whether utilizing the affected people and prevalent mobile technology can be used during disaster response. The idea is to...

WILLEM: a Wireless InteLLigent Evacuation Method

In this paper we present WILLEM, a system for dynamic evacuation routing in buildings, using a wireless sensor network. Dynamic evacuation routing is the process of dynamically determining the fastest routes to the exits. The routes may be changed in case a fire occurs somewhere. We also present an algorithm for detecting congestions in...

More than a feeling: Bringing touch into astronauts' spatial orientation

Data show that spatial orientation in microgravity differs from that on Earth possibly facilitating space motion sickness and degrading performance. As a technology demonstration, we developed a Tactile Orientation Awareness Support Tool (TOAST) consisting of a vest with 56 vibrators. TOAST presents an artificial gravity vector by a localised...