1. Directional Navigation Improves Opportunistic Communication for Emergencies.
- Author
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Kokuti, Andras and Gelenbe, Erol
- Subjects
- *
BUILDING evacuation , *EMERGENCY management , *BUILT environment , *SHOPPING centers , *FIRES , *ALGORITHM research - Abstract
We present a novel direction based shortest path search algorithm to guide evacuees during an emergency. It uses opportunistic communications (oppcomms) with low-cost wearable mobile nodes that can exchange packets at close range of a few to some tens of meters without help of an infrastructure. The algorithm seeks the shortest path to exits which are safest with regard to a hazard, and is integrated into an autonomous Emergency Support System (ESS) to guide evacuees in a built environment. The algorithm proposed that ESSs are evaluated with the DBES (Distributed Building Evacuation Simulator) by simulating a shopping centre where fire is spreading. The results show that the directional path finding algorithm can offer significant improvements for the evacuees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2014
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