Use case #1 Emergency/Disaster Recovery

NEPHELE Use Case 1 - Emergency/Disaster Recovery aims to enhance the awareness for first responders (e.g., firefighters, emergency services) and collect data to prioritize rescue operations. The use case showcases the advantages of using the VOStack in complex robotic software implementations in emergency and disaster scenarios. More specifically, it shows a navigation mapping detection and assessment solution in an unknown environment.

During the demo day at the Luca Koper Port, our robots were deployed to simulate an emergency scenario involving a fallen container with and unknown and potentially dangerous liquid, showcasing how autonomous systems can assist in such critical situations. A phone call was placed to alert the firefighting and security teams to respond to the fallen container emergency at the port. The security team quickly arrived to secure the area, clearing the way for our robotic team to step in and begin the missions.

The first mission involves drone-based mapping. The second mission focuses on mapping and detection using a ground robot. The third mission involves sensor deployment and the fouth and final task is liquid sampling. (Coordinates for sampling are obtained from the liquid detection and localization previous processes).

In this use case we evaluated several KPIs. These are some of our results:

• Victim detection and assessment: This KPI measures how accurately the system detects and classifies victims in tests. Both precision and recall were perfect, with no false positives or false negatives.
• Time to task completion: Our system outperformed all targets. Mapping, sensor deployment, liquid sampling, and victim detection were completed up to 20 times faster than expected, enabling swift and effective emergency response.