Open AccessBluetooth portal‐based system to measure the performance of building emergency evacuation plans and drills
Author(s) -
Astarita Vittorio,
Festa Demetrio Carmine,
Giofrè Vincenzo Pasquale,
Vitale Alessandro
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
iet intelligent transport systems
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.579
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1751-9578
pISSN - 1751-956X
DOI - 10.1049/iet-its.2017.0219
Subject(s) - bluetooth , beacon , measure (data warehouse) , computer science , plan (archaeology) , signal (programming language) , floor plan , event (particle physics) , real time computing , emergency evacuation , simulation , embedded system , wireless , engineering , telecommunications , database , engineering drawing , geology , oceanography , physics , archaeology , quantum mechanics , history , programming language
The safety of a building can be explicated in two different ways: the ability to withstand a critical event that affects the structure and the ability to safely allow people to leave the building. This article present a new methodology that can allow engineers to detect people trajectories in evacuation drills and provide a measure of effectiveness for buildings evacuation plans. In the proposed system Bluetooth beacon passive emitters are positioned as reference points and the sensing device is made up by the smartphones of people evacuating a building. The proposed methodology is thus based on using beacons that are capable of emitting a radio signal. The radio signal can be picked up by the sensors present in smartphones. The signal is then processed by a dedicated application on the device. Information is transferred to a computer and elaborated obtaining a measure of people positions. In the system people movements in emergency evacuation drills can practically be traced with very simple and affordable equipment. Once all data from mobile phones are gathered the system is able to reconstruct the trajectories of smartphones, in indoor (or outdoor) environments, and therefore to assess the overall performance of the building evacuation plan.