Dynamic Evacuation Signage System for Hazard Avoidance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing evacuation systems in buildings are inefficient due to static emergency signs that do not guide people away from hazards and binary sensors that can lead to false alarms, resulting in unclear evacuation paths and loss of trust in the systems.
Innovation Solution
An automated evacuation system that includes dynamically adjustable emergency signs and sensors forming a mesh network, controlled by an evacuation server that calculates and updates evacuation paths in real time to avoid detected hazards, guiding people safely out of the building.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If static emergency signs are used to indicate exit directions, then the system structure is simple and cost-effective, but the evacuation path clarity is poor and people cannot be guided away from hazards
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms static emergency signs into dynamic emergency signs that can change their indicated direction in real-time. The dynamic emergency signs receive control signals from the server and adjust their arrow directions dynamically to guide people along optimal evacuation paths that avoid detected hazards, thereby improving evacuation path clarity without requiring complete system reconstruction
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback loops where sensors continuously detect hazard conditions and send data to the server, which then calculates updated evacuation paths and sends control signals back to the emergency signs. This closed-loop feedback mechanism enables the emergency signs to adapt their directions based on real-time hazard detection, improving reliability while maintaining manageable system complexity through automated control
2Reliability
If binary sensors are used to detect hazards, then the device complexity is low and easy to implement, but false alarms occur frequently leading to loss of trust
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple sensor types (smoke detectors, heat detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, and other environmental sensors) into an integrated sensor network that communicates with a central server. By merging multiple detection capabilities and data sources, the system cross-validates hazard conditions, significantly reducing false alarms while maintaining relatively simple individual sensor components
Solution Approach 2:
The server performs multiple functions including receiving data from various sensor types, analyzing hazard conditions, calculating evacuation paths, and controlling emergency signs. This multi-functional approach allows the system to achieve high reliability through comprehensive hazard assessment without requiring complex specialized hardware for each function
3Productivity
If static emergency signs pointing to closest exit are used, then the system is simple to implement, but the evacuation efficiency is poor when hazards are present in the building
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically recalculates and updates evacuation paths based on real-time hazard locations detected by sensors. The dynamic emergency signs adjust their indicated directions to guide people away from hazards and toward safe exits, even if those exits are not the closest geometrically. This dynamic adaptation significantly improves evacuation efficiency during hazardous conditions
Solution Approach 2:
The system pre-establishes a network of emergency signs throughout the building and pre-programs the server with evacuation path calculation algorithms. When hazards are detected, the system can rapidly recalculate and update paths without requiring real-time human intervention. This preliminary preparation enables efficient response to hazards while maintaining system simplicity
Data Source
AI summary
An automated evacuation system for guiding people out of a building during an evacuation, the evacuation system including a plurality of sensors at predefined locations in a building, each of the sensors configured to measure hazard parameters, a plurality of emergency signs at predetermined locations within the building, an evacuation server operatively coupled to the plurality of sensors and the emergency signs, the evacuation server configured to receive sensor measurements from each of the sensors, determine if a hazard has occurred based on comparing if one or more of the hazard parameters within the sensor measurements exceeds a threshold, determine a location of the detected hazard, calculate an evacuation path if a hazard has occurred, wherein the evacuation path is a path to out of the building, and control the one or more emergency signs to guide people along the calculated evacuation path.