Building Safety System for Disaster Evacuation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
During multi-casualty disasters like earthquakes, fires, or floods, buildings suffer damage, leading to trapped individuals due to door frame deformations and blocked exit paths, posing risks from fires, gas leaks, and power cable hazards, necessitating systems to detect impending threats and mitigate damage.
Innovation Solution
A computer-based system with environmental condition detection sensors and actuators that detect imminent threats, utilize risk analysis models to predict damage, and transmit instructions to safety devices like door openers, gas valves, and sirens to reduce damage before the threat occurs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If safety devices remain in normal operational state during disasters, then building structure integrity is maintained, but persons and animals become trapped due to door frame deformation and blocked exit paths
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by detecting imminent threat events (earthquakes, fires, floods) before they fully occur and automatically activating safety devices in advance. Environmental condition detection sensors monitor parameters such as seismic activity, temperature, and water levels, triggering door openers, gas valves, and other safety mechanisms proactively to prevent door frame deformation and ensure exit paths remain clear during the actual disaster event.
2Ease of operation
If door openers are activated during earthquakes, then evacuation access is improved, but door frame deformation may still occur causing doors to become stuck
Solution Approach 1:
The door openers are activated in advance of the actual earthquake event based on preliminary detection of seismic activity. This preliminary activation ensures doors are opened before significant ground shaking occurs that would cause door frame deformation, allowing persons and animals to evacuate through clear exit paths without becoming trapped by deformed frames or stuck doors.
3Reliability
If real-time environmental monitoring and risk analysis is implemented, then damage prediction and mitigation is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system is segmented into distinct functional modules: environmental condition detection sensors for monitoring specific parameters (seismic activity, temperature, water levels), a processor for receiving and analyzing sensor data, a risk analysis model for predicting damage based on analyzed data, and separate actuators for different safety devices (door openers, gas valves, etc.). This modular segmentation manages system complexity while maintaining comprehensive damage mitigation capabilities through specialized sub-systems that can operate independently yet cooperatively.
Data Source
AI summary
A system includes a processor, safety devices including a door-related safety device, and environmental condition detection sensors. The processor is configured to receive environmental condition sensor data from the at least one environmental condition detection sensor. An imminent occurrence of a threat event tis detected that would cause the damage a building. A risk analysis model analyzes threat event related environmental condition sensor data to predict a risk value that the at least one threat event would cause the damage to the at least one building and to generate risk mitigation actions that at least reduces the damage during the actual occurrence of the threat event. Prior to the actual occurrence of the threat event, respective risk mitigation instructions are transmitted to actuators that cause an operational state change of safety devices so as to at least reduce the damage to the building from the threat event.