Supporting Urban Search and Rescue with digital assessments of structures and requests of response resources

First responders, including structural engineers and firefighters, inspect buildings and identify the structural integrity of buildings within a disaster affected area. The performance of their inspection and dissemination of the assessment information are critical to Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) operations. This paper presents an innovative approach for structural assessment and resource requests through an application – Supporting Urban Preparedness and Emergency Response using Mobile Ad hoc Network (SUPER-MAN). The goal of this research is to address challenges encountered in the current practice for structural engineers and first responders to inspect and disseminate building damage assessments and resource requests more efficiently to support US&R. The SUPER-MAN system is equipped with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, as the storage device of assessment information on the disaster site, and a Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) with a Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) implementation for communication. SUPER-MAN strengthens responders’ situational awareness, reduces confusion of inconsistent assessment formats, and automates information dissemination and editing. As a result, lifesaving operations are adequately prioritized, risk of first responders are minimized, and requests of response resources are facilitated. Results obtained from field trials carried out at the Illinois Fire Service Institute with a simulated disaster scenario and computer simulations of the MANET are presented to highlight the benefits provided by SUPER-MAN.