The Next-Generation Connected and Smart Cyber-Firefighter System
Location
Bobo Room, Hodgin Hall, Third Floor
Start Date
8-11-2017 9:00 AM
End Date
8-11-2017 10:00 AM
Abstract
According to the fire fighter fatalities report issued by the U.S. Fire Administration, ninety-one firefighters including 56 volunteer, 30 career and five wildland agencies died while on duty in the year of 2014. Respecting the fact that the total number of fire incidents across the country is actually decreasing, being a fire fighter becomes more and more dangerous disregarding other significant advances in various areas of science and technology. In the proposed research project, we investigate a new connected and smart infrastructure that allows the development of next-generation first responder coordination protocols. The proposed system will fundamentally augment existing systems used by first responders, with an initiative that couples novel hardware and software components to the fire fighters’ existing equipment, keeping minimal weight and firefighter training. The proposed system will provide a predictive modeling capability that supports the incident commanders evaluating possible alternative actions and choosing the best approach based on their experience and available resources. We enhance the information flow by creating a concept of case awareness through simulating the fire spreading based on the shared perspectives from both the incident commander and individual fire fighters. Current systems use voice-only radio channels for fireground and tactical communications. The proposed communication system is based on a Software Defined Network approach that supports the use of heterogeneous communication assets, and provides instant deployment and hot reconfiguration, cyber-security, resiliency and recovery abilities, and the possibility of service externalization with bounded latency and encryption. The proposed smart mesh communications structure combined with the situational awareness provides location and search capabilities. The communications backbone, in addition to the voice channel, will be enhanced and extended to enable the increased data flow from various sensors collected locally but not yet integrated into a larger picture or awareness.
The Next-Generation Connected and Smart Cyber-Firefighter System
Bobo Room, Hodgin Hall, Third Floor
According to the fire fighter fatalities report issued by the U.S. Fire Administration, ninety-one firefighters including 56 volunteer, 30 career and five wildland agencies died while on duty in the year of 2014. Respecting the fact that the total number of fire incidents across the country is actually decreasing, being a fire fighter becomes more and more dangerous disregarding other significant advances in various areas of science and technology. In the proposed research project, we investigate a new connected and smart infrastructure that allows the development of next-generation first responder coordination protocols. The proposed system will fundamentally augment existing systems used by first responders, with an initiative that couples novel hardware and software components to the fire fighters’ existing equipment, keeping minimal weight and firefighter training. The proposed system will provide a predictive modeling capability that supports the incident commanders evaluating possible alternative actions and choosing the best approach based on their experience and available resources. We enhance the information flow by creating a concept of case awareness through simulating the fire spreading based on the shared perspectives from both the incident commander and individual fire fighters. Current systems use voice-only radio channels for fireground and tactical communications. The proposed communication system is based on a Software Defined Network approach that supports the use of heterogeneous communication assets, and provides instant deployment and hot reconfiguration, cyber-security, resiliency and recovery abilities, and the possibility of service externalization with bounded latency and encryption. The proposed smart mesh communications structure combined with the situational awareness provides location and search capabilities. The communications backbone, in addition to the voice channel, will be enhanced and extended to enable the increased data flow from various sensors collected locally but not yet integrated into a larger picture or awareness.
