Optimal path planning in real time for dynamic building fire rescue operations using wireless sensors and visual guidance

Abstract The architectural environment is always changing, as high-rise buildings and complex interior spaces are constructed, causing a wide variety of unpredictable disasters and accidents. Hence, effective disaster prevention and rescue are crucial to the protection of life and property. Specifically, firefighting is essential for public safety and building safety. Rescue maps that are currently used in fire departments are two-dimensional (2D) because fire accidents have mostly occurred in low-rise buildings. Therefore, fire incident commanders have previously only had typical fire rescue maps to use for firefighter deployment. Such 2D-based firefighting strategies, tactics, and deployment are not always effective in current structures, and do not inform whether occupants are trapped during a fire. Consequently, fire rescue teams continue to consult maps on different floors when conducting fire rescue tasks, reducing their speed and efficiency. An intelligent integrated fire rescue system could provide real-time status updates, alarm reports, and evacuation guidance, improving fire rescue techniques through a combination of contemporary autosensing and communication systems. To achieve the aim, this work combines existing firefighting equipment, Bluetooth sensors, global positioning information, an optimal fire rescue path-planning algorithm, and visual technology to construct a framework of dynamic rescue/evacuation procedures for fire departments. By providing the locations of firefighters and trapped occupants, real-time updates for optimal path planning in a dynamic environment provide fire departments with accurate and useful information regarding the fire site in real time. The proposed system effectively reduces the number of casualties, supporting rescue process and emergency evacuation.

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