Sensors 2014, 14(6), 11153-11178; https://doi.org/10.3390/s140611153
Enhancing Evacuation Plans with a Situation Awareness System Based on End-User Knowledge Provision
1
Department of Telematics Engineering, Technical University of Madrid, Av. Complutense 30, Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid, Spain
2
Department of Topographic and Cartographic Engineering, Technical University of Madrid, Av. del Mediterráneo km 7.0 (Calle Mercator 2), 28031 Madrid, Spain
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 18 May 2014 / Revised: 16 June 2014 / Accepted: 16 June 2014 / Published: 24 June 2014
(This article belongs to the Section Sensor Networks)
Abstract
Recent disasters have shown that having clearly defined preventive procedures and decisions is a critical component that minimizes evacuation hazards and ensures a rapid and successful evolution of evacuation plans. In this context, we present our Situation-Aware System for enhancing Evacuation Plans (SASEP) system, which allows creating end-user business rules that technically support the specific events, conditions and actions related to evacuation plans. An experimental validation was carried out where 32 people faced a simulated emergency situation, 16 of them using SASEP and the other 16 using a legacy system based on static signs. From the results obtained, we compare both techniques and discuss in which situations SASEP offers a better evacuation route option, confirming that it is highly valuable when there is a threat in the evacuation route. In addition, a study about user satisfaction using both systems is presented showing in which cases the systems are assessed as satisfactory, relevant and not frustrating. View Full-TextKeywords:
evacuation plan; events conditions; actions; wireless sensor networks; publish/subscribe; situation awareness
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MDPI and ACS Style
Morales, A.; Alcarria, R.; Martin, D.; Robles, T. Enhancing Evacuation Plans with a Situation Awareness System Based on End-User Knowledge Provision. Sensors 2014, 14, 11153-11178.