Rapidly Deployable Infrastructures for Communications and Localization in Disaster Management Scenar

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Rapidly Deployable Infrastructures for
Communications and Localization in Disaster
Management Scenarios, Requirements and Concepts
United Nations International Workshop on the Use
of Space Technology for Disaster
Management, Munich, Germany, 18-22 October, 2004

• Michael Angermann (German Aerospace Center)
• Thomas Strang (German Aerospace Center)
• Martin Kähmer (University of Freiburg)
• Michael Kreutzer (University of Freiburg)

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Outline

• Motivation
• Technological Components
• Scenarios
• Earthquake/CSSR (collapsed structure search and
  rescue)
• Field hospital
• Flooding/evacuation
• Conclusions
• Request for Feedback and Participation

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Motivation I

• Discussions with experienced people of
  organizations involved in disaster management and
  humanitarian aid (Red Cross, THW, German Armed
  Forces, UNHCR,) have given us some insight into
  the current status of communications and
  information technology, typically in use
• Voice radio communication is used for
  communicating among on-site personnel
• Voice satellite communication is used for
  communicating among local and central HQs (fixed
  terminals) and sometimes between mobile personnel
  (Thuraya, Iridium)
• Data satellite communication is only rarely used
  (e.g. for uploading pictures for press work).
  These data satellite communication links
  terminate at local and central HQs and are rarely
  or not at all utilized from mobile terminals.

• Note Satellites, typically in use, are
  Eutelsat, Intelsat, PanAmSat, Inmarsat, Thuraya,
  Iridium

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Motivation II

• Information/Data is relayed by hand/voice from
  HQ to mobile personnel.
• The potential benefit of more advanced
  information sharing is not fully utilized, due
  to
• Problem 1 Cost of hardware
• Problem 2 Incompatibility among systems
• Problem 3 Lack of a suitable mechanism to
  select the information/addressee suiting the
  scope of the task at hand
• Hence, funds and the efforts of personnel may
  result in less aid than possible.
• Our previous work in the relevant technical
  fields gives us reason to believe that the major
  problems can be solved.

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Technological Components

• Existing satellite communication systems
  (Inmarsat, Thuraya,)
• Satellite navigation systems (GPS, Galileo to
  come)
• (Near-) real time earth observation data from
  satellites
• Common-off-the-shelf (COTS) small handheld
  computers PDAs
• Standardized wireless local area networking
  components (802.11)
• Royalty-free non-proprietary operating system
  (Linux)

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COMM
EO
NAV
HQ
disaster area
Ad hoc network
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Resulting Features

• Direct feed of relevant information to/from
  personnel at the site
• Permanent localization of personnel and material
• WLAN infrastructure is inexpensive
• Self configuration of local ad hoc network (no
  experts needed)
• Mobile devices are inexpensive (only WLAN and GPS)

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Scenarios under Investigation

• We show three tiny examples illustrating the use
  of the technical infrastructure for improving
  efficiency in disaster management
• Earthquake/CSSR (collapsed structure search and
  rescue)
• Field Hospital
• Flooding/Evacuation

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Scenario I Earthquake/CSSR

• INSARAG Marking system is typically used as
  language spoken between rescue teams
• A system used to identify structures,
  conditions, hazards and victim status in a
  standardized, simple and clear fashion that can
  be understood by all local, national and
  international rescue personnel
• Common identification system marking and
  signaling
• Structure assessment go/no-go, search, rescue
  and special hazards of a particular structure,
  victim location
• Results warning, tracking and continuity/ease of
  work transfer (interoperability)
• All markings must be conspicuous, using a
  high-contrast, durable, fluorescent color
• Examples of INSARAG markings

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Scenario I Earthquake/CSSR
potential victim location
Source Structural Triage and the INSARAG Marking
System
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Scenario I Earthquake/CSSR
L - 3
potential victim location, 3 live victims,
confirmed
Source Structural Triage and the INSARAG Marking
System
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CHEM GASES REQUIRES SHORING
G
AUSTRIAN TEAM 20/11 0730 Hr
2
12?
Source Structural Triage and the INSARAG Marking
System
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CHEM GASES REQUIRES SHORING RATS
G
AUSTRIAN TEAM 20/11 0730 Hr 21/11 1730 Hr
2
7
12? 2 DEAD IN ELEVATOR
Source Structural Triage and the INSARAG Marking
System
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Scenario I Earthquake/CSSR

• The INSARAG marking system is established,
  conveys all important information and is easy to
  understand
• BUT, no direct information feed or status update
  between teams and headquarters. updates have to
  be relayed by (voice) radio
• The INSARAG marking system is ideally suited for
  entering, updating and displaying information on
  a small portable device (small display/touch
  display)

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Scenario I Earthquake/CSSR

• Precise localization of the devices allows to
  show/reference the information at the right
  location
• This way, important information can flow faster
  between HQs and local teams.
• Hazards known from non-local sources can be
  displayed
• Victim counts can be relayed to inform hospitals
• Teams can be better coordinated by better
  informed HQs
• Note The electronic marking is not supposed to
  replace the conventional spray-can marking, but
  done in parallel and using the same language!

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Scenario II - German Red Cross Field Hospital
University Freiburg Institute of Computer Science
and Social Studies Department of Telematics
IIG

• Transportable hospitals
• Modularly packed camps
• Built up in areas of war or disaster
• Installed within 1-2 days
• Fully extended, size of 2 football fields
• Up to 200 inpatients and 1000 outpatients
• At present, deployed without any IT as
• "not maintenancefree"
• "not ready for use"

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Scenario II - German Red Cross Field Hospital
University Freiburg Institute of Computer Science
and Social Studies Department of Telematics
IIG

• Aim
• Develop a maintenancefree network and middleware
  platform
• Provide fail-safe technology where even more
  then 1,000 devices are interconnected
• Allow adoption of certain applications from
  "home" hospitals,e.g. for planning and
  organizing resources
• Approach
• MANET provides a maintenancefree and robust
  network solution
• New self-organizing, self-configuring and
  self-healing service discovery provides
  applications with up-to-date view on resources
• Clustering allows scaling for large and dynamic
  networks

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Scenario III Flooding/Evacuation

• Concept
• Deploy robust Internet-born technology to warn
  individual mobile users via already disseminated
  devices (i.e. mobile phones) in terms of
  emergency channels (cf. RSS newsfeeds, ICQ
  etc.)
• Propagate information such as nearest shelter
  with free capacity through local and/or regional
  communication systems including multi-hop
  communication enabled by ad-hoc short-range
  networking
• Approach
• Standardize emergency-messaging as base
  communication protocol for smart mobile devices
• Develop advanced emergency-messaging, e.g.
  extending GNSS by a more flexible SAR service
  being capable to distribute / feedback sensor
  information such as water level or wind direction

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Further down the road Smart Dust
smart dust devices (Motes) tiny wireless
microelectromechanical sensors (MEMS) that can
detect everything from light to
vibrations contain sensors, computing circuits,
bidirectional wireless communications technology
and a power supply gather scads of data, run
computations and communicate that information
using two-way band radio between motes at
distances approaching 1,000 feet
July99
11.7 mm3
2004 6.6 mm3
2003
Source Berkeley Sensor Actuator Center (BSAC)
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Making use of Smart Dust technology
DLR MicroAirLab












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Conclusions and Open Questions

• Technical issues are challenging but should be
  feasible
• The benefit/cost ratio appears favorable
• Only tests under real world conditions can show
  existing problems and/or prove the the concepts
• A publicly funded project (EU,?) seems to be a
  suitable vehicle to transform the concepts to
  reality
• Several questions remain
• What about radio licenses? WLAN is operating in
  internationally license-free ISM band (2.4 GHz),
  However, local authorities might object...
• Usability issues, e.g. languages, training,
• many others, unknown so far.

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Request for Feedback and Participation

• We are seeking
• Feedback, especially by people/organizations
  experienced in organizational and operational
  aspects of disaster management, humanitarian aid,
  etc.
• Partners, interested in actively participating in
  RD activities to define, develop and test
  rapidly deployable infrastructures with
• Suitable technical background
• Suitable organizational and operational
  background in disaster management, humanitarian
  aid, etc.

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Contact

• Please contact
• Thank you very much!

Michael.Angermann_at_DLR.DE