Dynamic Fire Route Maps Using Virtual Reference Points
Solution Overview
Problem
Firefighters face difficulties in quickly locating fires within large facilities and navigating to them due to lack of comprehensive guidance in existing fire alarm systems, especially in unfamiliar environments.
Innovation Solution
A fire detection system that generates dynamic route maps using virtual reference points with Cartesian coordinates, providing firefighters with the shortest route to the fire location and nearest exit, utilizing a control panel, sensors, and graphical displays to guide them through the facility.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If firefighters use traditional fire alarm control panels with alpha-numeric identifiers, then the system is simple and cost-effective, but firefighters cannot quickly locate fires in unfamiliar facilities
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a visual copy of the facility layout displayed on a screen, showing the actual physical arrangement of rooms, corridors, and floors. This graphical map allows firefighters to visually locate the fire incident without needing to memorize or interpret alpha-numeric sensor identifiers, directly reducing the time to locate fires while maintaining system simplicity through software-based visualization rather than physical map distribution.
Solution Approach 2:
The control panel acts as an intermediary device that receives data from distributed sensors and presents it in a visually intuitive format on a display screen. This intermediary function transforms complex sensor network data into a simple graphical representation showing fire location on a facility map, bridging the gap between the complex sensor system and the firefighter's need for quick location identification.
2Ease of operation
If firefighters are provided with facility maps and sensor location references, then they can identify fire locations, but they still cannot quickly navigate to fires due to locked doors and blocked corridors
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides dynamic, real-time information about facility conditions by continuously monitoring sensor status and updating the graphical display. When a fire incident occurs, the system dynamically identifies the optimal navigation route from the firefighter's current location to the fire incident, taking into account real-time conditions such as locked doors or blocked corridors detected by sensors, thereby enabling adaptive navigation that reduces time to reach the fire.
3Loss of information
If the system provides detailed facility maps with sensor identifiers, then firefighters can cross-reference locations, but the information is not actionable for quick response in unfamiliar environments
Solution Approach 1:
The graphical display provides locally relevant information by highlighting only the specific area where the fire incident has been detected, rather than requiring firefighters to search through entire facility maps. The system enhances the visual display locally at the fire incident location with distinctive markers and provides navigation instructions specifically tailored to the firefighter's current position and the detected fire location, making the information immediately actionable without overwhelming the user with unnecessary details.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and apparatus are provided for finding fires. The method includes providing a plurality of reference locations within a facility where each of the reference locations is associated with a readily identifiable feature of the facility, detecting a fire within the facility, receiving a fire location request from a monitoring location within the facility and dynamically generating a routing map from the monitoring location to a location of the fire and from the fire to a fire exit of the facility using at least some of the plurality of reference locations based upon the request.