Periodic Reporting for period 2 - FASTER (First responder Advanced technologies for Safe and efficienT Emergency Response)
Reporting period: 2020-11-01 to 2022-04-30
The European Environment Agency reports that Europe is experiencing an increasing number of disasters, derived either from natural phenomena, technological accidents or human actions. First responders (FRs) are the people who are among the first to arrive and provide assistance at the disaster scene. They are often operating in risky and hazardous conditions disaster sites, like demolished, burnt or flooded districts, being exposed to non-visible threats such as very high temperatures and dangerous gases. Furthermore, FRs may experience incidents during operations, which can prevent them from completing their mission, putting their own health at risk. FRs' capabilities can be limited by chaotic environments. Overwhelming amounts of information may reduce their situational awareness. Multiple displays and gadgets are adding clutter to their equipment. Autonomous vehicles are useful in disaster scenes, but they lack in operational autonomy. Communication between first responders and the C2 is often obstructed. Cooperation amongst FRs and community members is often ad-hoc and lacks coordination. Often the problem lies in the logistics to efficiently direct and deliver assistance where and when it is most needed.
FASTER addressed the challenges associated with the protection of first responders in hazardous environments, while at the same time enhancing their capabilities in terms of situational awareness and communication. FASTER provided innovative, accepted and efficient tools covering 1) Data collection, providing a secure IoT platform for distributed, real-time gathering and processing of heterogeneous physiological and critical environmental data from smart textiles, wearables, sensors and Social Media, 2) Operational capabilities, providing flexible, multi-functional autonomous vehicles, including swarms of them, for extended inspection capabilities and physical mitigation, 3) Risk assessment, providing tools for individual health assessment and disaster scene analysis for early warning and risk mitigation, 4) Improved ergonomics providing augmented reality tools for enhanced information streaming, as well as body and gesture-based interfaces for vehicle navigation and communication, 5) Resilient communication, at the field level providing haptic communication capabilities, emergency communication devices, communication with K9s; and at the infrastructure level through 5G technologies and UAVs, 6) Tactical situational awareness, providing innovative visualisation services for a portable Common Operational Picture for both indoor and outdoor scenarios representation. 7) Efficient Cooperation and Interoperability amongst first responders, LEA, community members and other resource providers to request and deliver assistance where and when it is most needed using blockchain technology to give everyone involved the ability to write and read data (including sensor data) on an open source platform to speed up disaster relief to a whole new level.
Despite the challenges introduced by the pandemic crisis, FASTER managed to produce a plethora of tools covering the aforementioned domains. All the tools were integrated with the FASTER Common Operational Picture to provide unique situational awareness and to enable the collaborative use of the tools, creating added value. The tools developed were tested extensively by First Responders in 13 demonstration and piloting activities in multiple countries (Portugal, Japan, Italy, Spain, Finland, Greece, France, Poland) and diverse scenarios to ensure that they cover their real operational needs in an adequate way. FASTER has a solid plan to pursue the exploitation of both individual and joint Key Exploitation Results after the lifetime of the project.
FASTER addressed the challenges associated with the protection of first responders in hazardous environments, while at the same time enhancing their capabilities in terms of situational awareness and communication. FASTER provided innovative, accepted and efficient tools covering 1) Data collection, providing a secure IoT platform for distributed, real-time gathering and processing of heterogeneous physiological and critical environmental data from smart textiles, wearables, sensors and Social Media, 2) Operational capabilities, providing flexible, multi-functional autonomous vehicles, including swarms of them, for extended inspection capabilities and physical mitigation, 3) Risk assessment, providing tools for individual health assessment and disaster scene analysis for early warning and risk mitigation, 4) Improved ergonomics providing augmented reality tools for enhanced information streaming, as well as body and gesture-based interfaces for vehicle navigation and communication, 5) Resilient communication, at the field level providing haptic communication capabilities, emergency communication devices, communication with K9s; and at the infrastructure level through 5G technologies and UAVs, 6) Tactical situational awareness, providing innovative visualisation services for a portable Common Operational Picture for both indoor and outdoor scenarios representation. 7) Efficient Cooperation and Interoperability amongst first responders, LEA, community members and other resource providers to request and deliver assistance where and when it is most needed using blockchain technology to give everyone involved the ability to write and read data (including sensor data) on an open source platform to speed up disaster relief to a whole new level.
Despite the challenges introduced by the pandemic crisis, FASTER managed to produce a plethora of tools covering the aforementioned domains. All the tools were integrated with the FASTER Common Operational Picture to provide unique situational awareness and to enable the collaborative use of the tools, creating added value. The tools developed were tested extensively by First Responders in 13 demonstration and piloting activities in multiple countries (Portugal, Japan, Italy, Spain, Finland, Greece, France, Poland) and diverse scenarios to ensure that they cover their real operational needs in an adequate way. FASTER has a solid plan to pursue the exploitation of both individual and joint Key Exploitation Results after the lifetime of the project.
FASTER aims to address the challenges faced by First Responders while enhancing their capabilities. The Societal, Ethical, Legal, and Privacy implications of the solutions developed were assessed by conducting a SELP Impact Assessment.
FASTER collected requirements and specifications following a plan of continuous interaction of technical partners with the users, fine-tuning the design in short iterations.
A Secure IoT Computing and Communication framework was developed featuring: a Smart Textiles Framework with sensors for physiological measurements, a harness for K9 activity recognition, and a Social Media Analysis tool.
FASTER developed two ground vehicles with sensors and autonomous navigation and UAVs that perform mapping, monitoring, and equipment transfer tasks. An AI-based analysis tool provided disaster scene analysis.
FASTER tested 5G infrastructure with ML-powered QoS Monitoring. Relay network capabilities, emergency communication devices, haptic communication, and DLT-based trusted communication were developed.
FASTER developed Augmented Reality technologies including Extended Vision, gesture-based UxV navigation, intuitive UI for providing FRs information, and localization.
FASTER developed an Information Model to allow fusion of data. A COP dashboard for indoor and outdoor environments was developed, integrating mission management functionalities.
FASTER held 13 pilot events for FRs. Impact assessment and evaluation was performed.
The FASTER communication and dissemination strategy included the launch of multiple websites, social media campaigns, newsletters, publications and project videos.
16 FASTER’s Key Exploitable Results (including joint) have been selected and analysed with the support of the Horizon Results Booster service. An MoU has been signed.
FASTER collected requirements and specifications following a plan of continuous interaction of technical partners with the users, fine-tuning the design in short iterations.
A Secure IoT Computing and Communication framework was developed featuring: a Smart Textiles Framework with sensors for physiological measurements, a harness for K9 activity recognition, and a Social Media Analysis tool.
FASTER developed two ground vehicles with sensors and autonomous navigation and UAVs that perform mapping, monitoring, and equipment transfer tasks. An AI-based analysis tool provided disaster scene analysis.
FASTER tested 5G infrastructure with ML-powered QoS Monitoring. Relay network capabilities, emergency communication devices, haptic communication, and DLT-based trusted communication were developed.
FASTER developed Augmented Reality technologies including Extended Vision, gesture-based UxV navigation, intuitive UI for providing FRs information, and localization.
FASTER developed an Information Model to allow fusion of data. A COP dashboard for indoor and outdoor environments was developed, integrating mission management functionalities.
FASTER held 13 pilot events for FRs. Impact assessment and evaluation was performed.
The FASTER communication and dissemination strategy included the launch of multiple websites, social media campaigns, newsletters, publications and project videos.
16 FASTER’s Key Exploitable Results (including joint) have been selected and analysed with the support of the Horizon Results Booster service. An MoU has been signed.
FASTER developed a set of tools towards enhancing the operational capacity of first responders while increasing their safety in the field. It introduced Augmented Reality technologies for improved situational awareness and early risk identification, and Mobile and Wearable technologies for better mission management and information delivery to first responders. Body and Gesture based User Interfaces are employed to enable new capabilities while reducing equipment clutter, offering unprecedented ergonomics. Moreover, FASTER provides a platform of Autonomous Vehicles, namely drones and robots, aiming to collect valuable information from the disaster scene prior to operations, extend situational awareness and offer physical response capabilities to first responders. FASTER gather multi-modal data from the field, utilizing an IoT network, and Social Media content to extract, either locally or in the cloud, meaningful information and to provide an enhanced Common Operational Picture to the responder teams in a decentralised way using Portable Control Centres. Additionally, it uses Digital Ledger Technology to create a trusted network for communication between the stakeholders. The whole system is facilitated by Resilient Communications Support featuring opportunistic relay services, emergency communication devices and 5G-enabled communication capabilities. The developed tools are tightly integrated to create unique capabilities to First Responders. The evaluation of the FASTER by First Responders on the field showed that the tools developed have significant added value and could lead to improved processes in the future. The effectiveness of the tools were highly rated and the acceptance of the proposed solutions is significant. FASTER partners are committed to exploit the technologies developed and deliver solutions that will be adopted by the First Responders community.