Final Report Summary - GETAWAY ((Generating simulations to Enable Testing of Alternative routes to improve WAYinding in evacuation of over-ground and underground terminals))
Executive Summary:
Evacuation from large and complex public buildings such transport terminals is usually hindered by a lack of detailed knowledge of the internal connectivity of the building space. In such premises, occupants are usually unaware of their most suitable means of escape. It is a well know problem that building occupants usually elect to make use of familiar exits, typically the exit through which they entered the building. Meanwhile emergency exits or exits not used for normal circulation are often ignored, and their actual usage heavily reliant on staff for directing the evacuation appropriately.
While emergency signage provides occupants with options, suggestions and the opportunity to decide on the best possible route for evacuating an enclosure, only 38% of people see the present passive standard signage in emergency situations. Therefore, there is a need to update the present passive emergency signage with one that is more detectable by passengers. Moreover, a new signage system should be intelligent and adaptable to the changing environment in order to assess and direct occupants to an optimal egress route, based on insight into the shortest route to safety coupled with the provision of minimum exposure to incident hazards such as heat, smoke and toxic gases.
The main objective of GETAWAY is to improve safety in transportation terminals through the development and trial of an Intelligent Active Dynamic Signage Systems (IADSS) for real time direction of passengers during the evacuation of a transport terminal in the event of an emergency.
The GETAWAY system is intended to be included as part of the design of new transport terminals or fitted into existing transport terminals to optimise evacuation from these complex structures.
The key results achieved in the project are
- Detectability of emergency signage improved by 103% with the use of the GEATAWAY Dynamic Signage System with the same visual characteristics with the standard sign (including size, colour and depiction).
- Use of new image analysis techniques can improve accuracy of crowd counting by more than 90% even in challenging situations including complex structures and varying lighting conditions.
- Simulations of evacuation scenarios can be performed three times faster than real time.
- When making decision about which evacuation exit to follow, more people take into account the GETAWAY system than the existing standard signage system.
- The GETAWAY system results in faster decisions regarding which evacuation exit to follow.
- The vast majority of participants agree that the GETAWAY signs are easy to understand and assist them in making faster decisions as to which exit to use
These results clearly show that the use of the IADSS can improve the effectiveness of evacuation of large crowds from railway stations. Therefore, the GETAWAY system has the potential to have a significant positive impact on human life. In addition, when appropriately adapted, the GETAWAY system can be used to improve evacuation of people from any complex environment (indoors or outdoors) where an accidental, natural or man-made disaster occurs.
Project Context and Objectives:
Project Context
Modern rail and metro stations are complex due to the interconnections between multiple rail services utilising the station, the mix of modes of transport such as above ground rail and underground rail, the need to move large volumes of people efficiently and the mix of retail and transport related functions. Evacuation from large and complex public buildings such transport terminals is usually hindered by a lack of detailed knowledge of the internal connectivity of the building space. In such premises, occupants are usually unaware of their most suitable means of escape. It is a well know problem, that building occupants usually elect to make use of familiar exits, typically the exit through which they entered the building. Meanwhile emergency exits or exits not used for normal circulation are often ignored, and their actual usage heavily reliant on staff for directing the evacuation appropriately. In fire situations, where smoke may also obscure vision, the problem is often fatally compounded. Large scale fires involving fatalities such as King’s Cross Underground Station and Düsseldorf airport are examples of situations where the inability to locate efficient means of escape contributed to loss of life. Other situations, where rapid evacuation of rail/underground systems is essential, could be due to the result of terrorist actions such as the Madrid and Londonbombings.
The presence of signage within an enclosure has traditionally been an essential aid in reducing the amount of time spent wayfinding [6] particularly in large, complex or unfamiliar structures such as transport terminal buildings. Emergency signage provides occupants with options, suggestions and the opportunity to decide on the best possible route for evacuating an enclosure. Furthermore, a successful signage system can effectively reduce the apparent complexity of an enclosure by increasing the wayfinding efficiency. However, to be effective, the occupants must first be able to see the signage. Research carried out by the University of Greenwich suggests that emergency signage systems can be extremely effective since people follow them if they see them. However, only 38% of people see the present passive signage in emergency situations. Therefore, there is a need to update the present passive emergency signage with one that is more detectable by passengers. Moreover, a new signage system should be intelligent and adaptable to the changing environment in order to assess and direct occupants to an optimal egress route, based on insight into the shortest route to safety coupled with the provision of minimum exposure to incident hazards such as heat, smoke and toxic gases.
Project Objectives
The main objective of GETAWAY is to improve safety in transportation terminals through an innovative signage system which will:
- Significantly improve the detectability of signage systems by 50%.
- Achieve this without increasing the size of the sign or changing the visual content of the sign, thereby making it acceptable to owners, architects and regulatory authorities.
- Make use of environmental information relating to the developing hazardous situation in real time.
- Make use of video analysis techniques that can determine the number of people within given regions within the station environment to an accuracy of 90%.
- Make use of evacuation simulations involving 100s of people which can be performed at least 3 times faster than real time.
In order to achieve this, GETAWAY will develop and trial an Intelligent Active Dynamic Signage Systems (IADSS) for real time direction of transport terminal passengers during the evacuation of a transport terminal in the event of an emergency.
The GETAWAY system is intended to be included as part of the design of new transport terminals or fitted into existing transport terminals to optimise evacuation from these complex structures.
Project Results:
See attached "Final Report SandT.pdf" file
Potential Impact:
Even though the GETAWAY system was developed based on the requirements of the Railway Industry and tested in a rail station, it could be used to improve the evacuation of people from different types of complex structures and environments following different types of potentially life-threatening incidences. For example, it could be used to improve the evacuation of large crowds from high rise buildings following a fire incident or underground terminals at risk of stampede following congestion. In addition, the GETAWAY system could help guiding people to safety following a natural or man-made disaster in close as well as open environments provided appropriate technologies have been developed and tested. For example, it could help guiding people to safety when they are attacked by terrorists in a enclosed complex structure (e.g. Nairobi shopping mall attack): based on information about the location of the intruders, the GETAWAY system could guide to exits through routes not controlled by the intruders. Furthermore, following suitable adaptation, the GETAWAY system could be applied in flooding emergences in open spaces showing people the direction to higher ground and safety. As a consequence, the GETAWAY system can potentially have a positive effect in saving more lives and reducing casualties in emergency situations requiring effective evacuation of people.
The dissemination strategy focused on two aspects; the most appropriate sectors who may find the project of interest and the methods available for disseminating information. The following target sectors were identified:
• The rail Industry
• Government departments
• Fire Authorities
• The Fire Industry
• Major Projects involving evacuation of large numbers of people
• Educational Establishments
• Aviation and Marine
• Other Groups
The methods to disseminate considered in this document are:
• The Website
• Published Media
• Getaway Workshop
• Conferences
• White Papers
• Social Sites
• One to One Meetings.
Partners disseminated project results through the website, presentation of posters and papers at conferences, publications of articles and books as well as exhibitions (TRA2014). In addition, the consortium organised a workshop at the end of the project to promote the GETAWAY system and disseminate the project results to transport industry and stakeholders.
Furthermore, the GETAWAY project received wider recognition through the University Guardian Award 2014 for Research Impact which was awarded to the University of Greenwich.
International recognition was also achieved through the short documentary produced by the Discovery Channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbVT5OZfMF4&feature=youtu.be).
The partners have been active in exploiting the project result through improvement of existing proprietary technologies or through direct contact with commercial customers. VSL also filed three UK patents for a novel crowd density estimation algorithm.
List of Websites:
http://www.getaway-project.eu/
Dr Christos Giachritsis
Senior Research Scientist (Project Manager)
cgiachritsis@bmtmail.com
BMT Group Ltd
Goodrich House
1 Waldegrave Road
Teddington
TW11 8LZ
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 7795364419
Fax: +44 (0)20 8977 9304
Email: cgiachritsis@bmtmail.com
Evacuation from large and complex public buildings such transport terminals is usually hindered by a lack of detailed knowledge of the internal connectivity of the building space. In such premises, occupants are usually unaware of their most suitable means of escape. It is a well know problem that building occupants usually elect to make use of familiar exits, typically the exit through which they entered the building. Meanwhile emergency exits or exits not used for normal circulation are often ignored, and their actual usage heavily reliant on staff for directing the evacuation appropriately.
While emergency signage provides occupants with options, suggestions and the opportunity to decide on the best possible route for evacuating an enclosure, only 38% of people see the present passive standard signage in emergency situations. Therefore, there is a need to update the present passive emergency signage with one that is more detectable by passengers. Moreover, a new signage system should be intelligent and adaptable to the changing environment in order to assess and direct occupants to an optimal egress route, based on insight into the shortest route to safety coupled with the provision of minimum exposure to incident hazards such as heat, smoke and toxic gases.
The main objective of GETAWAY is to improve safety in transportation terminals through the development and trial of an Intelligent Active Dynamic Signage Systems (IADSS) for real time direction of passengers during the evacuation of a transport terminal in the event of an emergency.
The GETAWAY system is intended to be included as part of the design of new transport terminals or fitted into existing transport terminals to optimise evacuation from these complex structures.
The key results achieved in the project are
- Detectability of emergency signage improved by 103% with the use of the GEATAWAY Dynamic Signage System with the same visual characteristics with the standard sign (including size, colour and depiction).
- Use of new image analysis techniques can improve accuracy of crowd counting by more than 90% even in challenging situations including complex structures and varying lighting conditions.
- Simulations of evacuation scenarios can be performed three times faster than real time.
- When making decision about which evacuation exit to follow, more people take into account the GETAWAY system than the existing standard signage system.
- The GETAWAY system results in faster decisions regarding which evacuation exit to follow.
- The vast majority of participants agree that the GETAWAY signs are easy to understand and assist them in making faster decisions as to which exit to use
These results clearly show that the use of the IADSS can improve the effectiveness of evacuation of large crowds from railway stations. Therefore, the GETAWAY system has the potential to have a significant positive impact on human life. In addition, when appropriately adapted, the GETAWAY system can be used to improve evacuation of people from any complex environment (indoors or outdoors) where an accidental, natural or man-made disaster occurs.
Project Context and Objectives:
Project Context
Modern rail and metro stations are complex due to the interconnections between multiple rail services utilising the station, the mix of modes of transport such as above ground rail and underground rail, the need to move large volumes of people efficiently and the mix of retail and transport related functions. Evacuation from large and complex public buildings such transport terminals is usually hindered by a lack of detailed knowledge of the internal connectivity of the building space. In such premises, occupants are usually unaware of their most suitable means of escape. It is a well know problem, that building occupants usually elect to make use of familiar exits, typically the exit through which they entered the building. Meanwhile emergency exits or exits not used for normal circulation are often ignored, and their actual usage heavily reliant on staff for directing the evacuation appropriately. In fire situations, where smoke may also obscure vision, the problem is often fatally compounded. Large scale fires involving fatalities such as King’s Cross Underground Station and Düsseldorf airport are examples of situations where the inability to locate efficient means of escape contributed to loss of life. Other situations, where rapid evacuation of rail/underground systems is essential, could be due to the result of terrorist actions such as the Madrid and Londonbombings.
The presence of signage within an enclosure has traditionally been an essential aid in reducing the amount of time spent wayfinding [6] particularly in large, complex or unfamiliar structures such as transport terminal buildings. Emergency signage provides occupants with options, suggestions and the opportunity to decide on the best possible route for evacuating an enclosure. Furthermore, a successful signage system can effectively reduce the apparent complexity of an enclosure by increasing the wayfinding efficiency. However, to be effective, the occupants must first be able to see the signage. Research carried out by the University of Greenwich suggests that emergency signage systems can be extremely effective since people follow them if they see them. However, only 38% of people see the present passive signage in emergency situations. Therefore, there is a need to update the present passive emergency signage with one that is more detectable by passengers. Moreover, a new signage system should be intelligent and adaptable to the changing environment in order to assess and direct occupants to an optimal egress route, based on insight into the shortest route to safety coupled with the provision of minimum exposure to incident hazards such as heat, smoke and toxic gases.
Project Objectives
The main objective of GETAWAY is to improve safety in transportation terminals through an innovative signage system which will:
- Significantly improve the detectability of signage systems by 50%.
- Achieve this without increasing the size of the sign or changing the visual content of the sign, thereby making it acceptable to owners, architects and regulatory authorities.
- Make use of environmental information relating to the developing hazardous situation in real time.
- Make use of video analysis techniques that can determine the number of people within given regions within the station environment to an accuracy of 90%.
- Make use of evacuation simulations involving 100s of people which can be performed at least 3 times faster than real time.
In order to achieve this, GETAWAY will develop and trial an Intelligent Active Dynamic Signage Systems (IADSS) for real time direction of transport terminal passengers during the evacuation of a transport terminal in the event of an emergency.
The GETAWAY system is intended to be included as part of the design of new transport terminals or fitted into existing transport terminals to optimise evacuation from these complex structures.
Project Results:
See attached "Final Report SandT.pdf" file
Potential Impact:
Even though the GETAWAY system was developed based on the requirements of the Railway Industry and tested in a rail station, it could be used to improve the evacuation of people from different types of complex structures and environments following different types of potentially life-threatening incidences. For example, it could be used to improve the evacuation of large crowds from high rise buildings following a fire incident or underground terminals at risk of stampede following congestion. In addition, the GETAWAY system could help guiding people to safety following a natural or man-made disaster in close as well as open environments provided appropriate technologies have been developed and tested. For example, it could help guiding people to safety when they are attacked by terrorists in a enclosed complex structure (e.g. Nairobi shopping mall attack): based on information about the location of the intruders, the GETAWAY system could guide to exits through routes not controlled by the intruders. Furthermore, following suitable adaptation, the GETAWAY system could be applied in flooding emergences in open spaces showing people the direction to higher ground and safety. As a consequence, the GETAWAY system can potentially have a positive effect in saving more lives and reducing casualties in emergency situations requiring effective evacuation of people.
The dissemination strategy focused on two aspects; the most appropriate sectors who may find the project of interest and the methods available for disseminating information. The following target sectors were identified:
• The rail Industry
• Government departments
• Fire Authorities
• The Fire Industry
• Major Projects involving evacuation of large numbers of people
• Educational Establishments
• Aviation and Marine
• Other Groups
The methods to disseminate considered in this document are:
• The Website
• Published Media
• Getaway Workshop
• Conferences
• White Papers
• Social Sites
• One to One Meetings.
Partners disseminated project results through the website, presentation of posters and papers at conferences, publications of articles and books as well as exhibitions (TRA2014). In addition, the consortium organised a workshop at the end of the project to promote the GETAWAY system and disseminate the project results to transport industry and stakeholders.
Furthermore, the GETAWAY project received wider recognition through the University Guardian Award 2014 for Research Impact which was awarded to the University of Greenwich.
International recognition was also achieved through the short documentary produced by the Discovery Channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbVT5OZfMF4&feature=youtu.be).
The partners have been active in exploiting the project result through improvement of existing proprietary technologies or through direct contact with commercial customers. VSL also filed three UK patents for a novel crowd density estimation algorithm.
List of Websites:
http://www.getaway-project.eu/
Dr Christos Giachritsis
Senior Research Scientist (Project Manager)
cgiachritsis@bmtmail.com
BMT Group Ltd
Goodrich House
1 Waldegrave Road
Teddington
TW11 8LZ
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 7795364419
Fax: +44 (0)20 8977 9304
Email: cgiachritsis@bmtmail.com
