SAA, 1st version - Net!Works

eMobility – Strategic Applications AgendaAnnex CObjectives:1. Development of a prototype system, which would provide the rescue teams quickly and cost-effectivelyreliable information on:2. a.The presence (or not) of people in each building space during a collapse;3. b.The state of the ruins (possible pathways, structural integrity).The LOCCATEC prototype will be a fullyfunctional pre-industrial prototype, including at least one central unit and a number of capturing devices,the functionality of which will be tested against the specified requirements;4. Significant enhancement of the effectiveness of the rescue management and operations by providing atool to perform a quick survey of the disaster site to detect and locate trapped people and plan thesubsequent rescue operations in the quickest and most effective way.As part of an overall emergency response system, it would allow personnel, equipment and information to bedispatched where it is most needed and assist in setting rescue priorities and planning the rescue effort quicklyand efficiently.Work description:LOCCATEC will be a prototype system aiming at promptly providing the rescuers with information on trappedpeople and the state of the ruins. It will be based on small, low-cost, autonomous capturing devices to be preinstalledin each building space. Each capturing device, adequately integrated and packaged so as to survive aneventual building collapse, triggered by the catastrophic event (e.g. earthquake), would record what happened ina given space just during the collapse. The rescue team, equipped with the LOCCATEC central unit, upon arrivingat the vicinity of the collapsed building, would transmit a signal triggering the wireless download of theinformation stored in each capturing device. Image processing techniques could yield an estimate as to thenumber of people present in each space at the moment of the event. The rescue team would have a quickindication on the number of people trapped in each space and some information on the structural state and thepossible pathways in the ruin.Each capturing device will comprise: Optical sensor, FIFO non-volatile memory chip, IR illuminating LED,triggering device, wireless low-power communications and suitable back-up battery. Each central unit willcomprise: Communication and localisation equipment to trigger, identify, download the captured information andlocate the capturing devices as well as display and image processing capabilities. The LOCCATEC system will beopen and flexible with various sensor and triggering options, according to the space and the environment. It caneventually serve as platform for other sensors, like a microphone, which would be activated by the signal thattriggers the transmission of the capturing data and would provide the rescue teams with real-time acousticinformation.Milestones:1. Requirements and specifications;2. Design;3. Implementation;4. Integration;5. Testing.Project detailsProject Acronym: LOCCATECProject Reference: IST-2000-29401Start Date: 2001-08-01Duration: 36 monthsProject Cost: 3.34 million euroContract Type: Cost-sharing contractsEnd Date: 2004-07-31Project Status: CompletedProject Funding: 1.7 million eurohttp://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=PROJ_ICT&ACTION=D&DOC=1&CAT=PROJ&QUERY=011e8a00d536:6a67:59b46085&RCN=60438259