Mobile Evacuation Robot for Crowd-Aware Rescue in Large Buildings
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Solution Overview
Problem
Large buildings with complex structures face challenges in evacuation due to potential bottlenecks, misleading evacuation guidance, limited effectiveness of safety management, and high risks from smoke inhalation during disasters, especially in deep underground stations.
Innovation Solution
A smart system equipped with cameras, a communication part, a driving part, a boarding part, and a control part that analyzes images to determine crowdedness, guides evacuation, searches for mobility-impaired individuals, and provides breathing aids, while moving to their location and deploying marking devices for rescue teams.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If evacuation lights are placed to indicate direction to exits, then evacuees can see the direction, but the information may be misleading if there is a dangerous area in that direction and the awareness rate is only 38%
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors evacuation routes using cameras and sensors, detecting dangerous areas such as smoke or fire. The evacuation guidance is dynamically updated based on real-time feedback from the environment, ensuring that the indicated paths remain safe and accurate throughout the evacuation process.
Solution Approach 2:
The evacuation guidance system transitions from static signs to dynamic, adaptive guidance. The system adjusts evacuation routes in real-time based on changing conditions, using mobile robots and digital displays to provide up-to-date direction information that reflects current safety conditions.
2Loss of information
If safety management personnel provide guidance about initial situation and dangerous areas, then evacuees receive initial information, but they cannot inform about growing dangerous areas and deployment is difficult due to insufficient personnel
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables self-service evacuation guidance through autonomous mobile robots equipped with cameras and sensors. These robots independently navigate evacuation routes, detect dangerous areas, and provide real-time guidance information without requiring human safety personnel, thereby achieving unlimited coverage efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
Mobile robots serve as intermediaries between the disaster environment and evacuees. They collect real-time information about dangerous areas using sensors and cameras, process this information, and communicate updated evacuation guidance to evacuees, bridging the gap between insufficient human personnel and the need for continuous monitoring.
3Ease of operation
If the system moves to provide rescue, then it can assist mobility handicapped persons, but it may obstruct evacuation routes when crowdedness is high
Solution Approach 1:
The mobile robot's operational state is dynamically adjusted based on real-time crowdedness detection. When crowd density exceeds thresholds, the robot remains stationary or moves minimally to avoid obstructing evacuation flow. When crowds thin out, the robot becomes active to provide rescue assistance, optimizing both evacuation efficiency and rescue capability throughout the disaster timeline.
Data Source
AI summary
A smart system for evacuation and rescue support in case of a large building disaster and an operation method for the smart system are disclosed. In an embodiment, a smart system deployed in a large building includes: a communication part that, in the event of an emergency situation, receives information on an emergency situation from an integrated control center of the large building; a sensing part including at least one camera; an output part that outputs information; a driving part that moves the smart system; a boarding part for getting a user in the large building aboard; and a control part that controls the communication part, the sensing part, the output part, and the driving part, wherein the control part determines crowdedness by analyzing an image inputted through the at least one camera, operates in a kiosk mode and outputs information through the output part, if the crowdedness is equal to or above a preset threshold, operates in a rescue mode and moves the smart system through the driving part, if the crowdedness is below the preset threshold, and searches for a mobility handicapped person or a person in need of rescue by analyzing an image inputted through the at least one camera.