Comparative assessment of an indoor localization framework for building emergency response

• The indoor localization framework consists of two novel localization algorithms.
• The framework is evaluated both in simulations and field tests.
• The framework is evaluated under different emergency situations and scenarios.
• The framework is proven promising to meet criteria required by first responders.

Building emergencies, especially structure fires, are threats to the safety of both building occupants and first responders. It is difficult and dangerous for first responders to perform search and rescue in an unfamiliar environment, sometimes leading to secondary casualties. One way to reduce such hazards is to provide first responders with timely access to accurate location information. To address this challenge, the authors have developed a radio frequency based indoor localization framework, for which novel algorithms were designed for two different situations: one where an existing sensing infrastructure exists in buildings and one where an ad-hoc sensing infrastructure must be deployed. This paper presents a comparative assessment of this framework under different situations and emergency scenarios, and between simulations and field tests. The paper first presents an assessment of the framework in field tests, showing that it achieves room-level accuracies above 82.8% and 84.6% and coordinate-level accuracies above 2.29 m and 2.07 m, under the two situations, respectively. Moreover, the framework demonstrates considerable robustness in the tests, retaining a room-level accuracy of 70% or higher when the majority of sensing infrastructure is damaged. This paper then synthesizes results from both simulations and field tests, and demonstrates how the framework can be adapted to different situations and scenarios while consistently yielding satisfactory localization performance.