WILLEM: A Wireless InteLLigent Evacuation Method

Abstract

In this paper we present WILLEM, a system for dynamic evacuation routing in buildings, using a wireless sensor network. Dynamic evacuation routing is the process of dynamically determining the fastest routes to the exits. The routes may be changed in case a fire occurs somewhere. We also present an algorithm for detecting congestions in corridors during evacuation, and a means of providing the people in those congestions an alternative route towards the exit. Each phase of the method is descibed extensively: the deployment of the wireless sensor network, the automatic topology learning of the network and the actual evacuation routing methods. We have built a simulation framework in which all types of evacuation routing can be simulated. The results of our experiments were surprising in the sense that dynamic evacuation routing turned out not to be faster than static evacuation routing in every setup; however, we did find out why this is the case. We also performed some experiments on a real wireless sensor network, in order to find out if our automatic configuration method could work in real life. The results are promising. We also present an algorithm for mapping the learned topology of the wireless sensor network upon a virtual map. This way, the network topology can be visualised -which is an important feature for emergency services.

The Role of Advanced Sensing in Smart Cities

“…A more efficient way to perform building evacuation is to count the number of people and direct them through the quickest routes by considering congestion information, obtainable from a variety of sensors, such as beam sensors or video cameras. Examples of such WSNs are described in [62] and [63], using beam sensors and detection of tags worn by the people in the building, respectively. Although not as accurate, these methods are preferable to video camera based methods, from a processing cost perspective.…”

Yanapay : Sistema De Evacuación Basado en Tecnología Rfid Y Dispositivos Android

“…Sin embargo, las rutas de la red pueden ser fácilmente interrumpidas por el despliegue de fuego, provocando que las instrucciones de evacuación sean inaccesibles. En [17] se propone un sistema de red de sensores para detección de desastres. Este sistema está compuesto de varios sensores como: sensor de calor, sensor de humo, cámaras, etc.…”

“…La mayoría de las propuestas se basan en transmisores de señales de radio, o en redes de sensores [15][16][17][18] . En donde las rutas de evacuación se dan de acuerdo con caminos preinstalados.…”

Autonomous navigation systems for emergency management in buildings

“…Barnes et al [10] present a distributed WSN-based building evacuation algorithm that takes into account the expected spread of the hazard inside the building. Works by Li et al [11] and Willigen et al [12] consider congestion during evacuation in their proposed distributed evacuation methods where they use WSNs as the navigation infrastructure. [11] additionally investigates how the WSN can be used to guide rescuers to critical areas in the building to reduce congestion and save trapped civilians.…”