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.
