Emergency Response Simulation Using Wireless Sensor Networks

During emergency response situations, decisions have to be made in a timely manner. Multiple entities have to be op- timally coordinated and numerous resources must be allo- cated efficiently, creating a very interesting and challenging technical problem. In this paper we present a simulation system that models the evacuation of a multi-storey build- ing. Autonomous intelligent agents are used to represent various types of actors that interact inside a virtual physi- cal world. We also model virtual hazards, such as fire, that spread inside the building evacuation simulator. A real wire- less sensor network is used to monitor the spread of the haz- ards while an external event generator provides input to the sensors. We study the effect of different disaster scenarios and agent behaviours, such as human behaviour during an emergency, on the result of the evacuation procedure. Our initial results indicate that the safety of the evacuees and the evacuation time depend on local interactions between the participants and are affected by the actors’ decisions. The integration with the wireless sensor network gives us the opportunity to investigate the effect of sensed informa- tion on resource allocation and allows us to study the impact of network issues on the decision making process.