Systems, Methods and Devices for the Rapid Assessment and Deployment of Appropriate Modular Aid Solutions in Response to Disasters

Abstract

An embodiment of a disaster response system is disclosed that includes a communication and monitoring environment (CME). The CME includes an incident command infrastructure, and a communication infrastructure configured to exchange data with the incident command infrastructure. The communication infrastructure includes a network comprising a plurality of sensor assemblies that are configured to wirelessly communicate with the communication infrastructure. The sensor assemblies are configured to acquire data that includes at least one of environmental conditions, motion, position, chemical detection, and medical information. One or more of the sensors are configured to aggregate data from a subset of the plurality of sensors. The CME is configured to detect an incident based on at least the data acquired by the sensor assemblies.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12 / 870,117, filed Aug. 27, 2010, and entitled “Systems, Method and Devices for the Rapid Assessment and Deployment of Appropriate Modular Aid Solutions in Response to Disasters,” which claims the benefit of priority to GB application serial no. GB0914962.6, filed Aug. 27, 2009, the content of each being hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety for all purposes.FIELD OF THE INVENTION(S)[0002]The invention relates generally to systems, devices and methods for global disaster response, more particularly to the rapid detection, qualified assessment and monitoring of disasters and electronic triage of victims, communication, alert and evacuation systems, provision of suitable modular sensing or aid solutions, and their rapid deployment via delivery platforms such as mobile applications and networks, remote operated vehicles (unmanned aerial sea or land systems) or ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent describes a system for quickly detecting, assessing, and monitoring disasters and helping people affected by them. The system includes a communication and monitoring environment, modular aid solutions, and a deployment system. It can be quickly deployed using mobile apps, remote vehicles, or other means. Overall, the system allows for efficient and effective response to disasters.

Problems solved by technology

Natural disasters, such as earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes and other mass emergencies represent significant threats to mankind in terms of mortality, injuries, chaotic reaction of civilians and response organizations.

With over half the world population now living in urban areas, the complexity of the response phase is also increasing in terms of search and rescue across a damaged three-dimensional cityscape, rapidly and effectively assisting large numbers of casualties or citizens across a wide area with medical aid or evacuation advice, loss of main communications networks, delay or damage to response infrastructure—transport, energy and medical facilities, and difficulties in logistics and distribution of aid resources.

Similarly with large scale disasters the mass displacement, refugee volumes and need for substantial sustenance in terms of large scale medical assistance, food, clean water, habitat and infrastructure in the days following a disaster is significant and can result in considerable threat to life, medical needs and other problems if not addressed and managed properly.

For example, in a major earthquake, damage can be sustained over thousands of square kilometers, resulting in millions of people impacted or displaced, loss of transport / access and communications infrastructure, electricity and medical facilities within the region, and consequential fires, flooding, aftershock damage, sanitation / water issues, habitat and food crises.

Similarly in the Katrina Hurricane in New Orleans, groups of people did not evacuate and were left isolated creating clusters in need but no emergency personnel were able to reach them for several days.

War zones and famines also create huge displacements and volumes of refugees, and significant medical and sustenance challenges in aid camps.

However, none of these solutions addresses the challenging scenario of failing networks during or after a disaster, which the invention addresses by using pre-caching of information and novel burst-SMS condensed message structures sent to selected subpopulations according to their geo-location to provide advice, resources and guided evacuation, and enable incident command to better direct evacuation with limited network bandwidth.

Various prior art also outlines the application of UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) in field situations, generally in military conflict, and their role in surveillance, targeted weapon delivery, medical assistance, however, do not address some of the benefits of the invention deployment approaches in large scale deployment of low cost, or light UAV systems, coordinated UAV cluster or swarm activity via a central command UAV, or combination with some of the sensor modules, deployment and drop solutions, or modular payload solutions described herein.

Despite the numerous examples of prior art in the field of disaster management, communications infrastructure and medical assistance, few address the problems outlined here or provide the benefits of the holistic and integrated approach to utilize skilled assets already caught up in the disaster, simple accessible tools, modular designed solutions, integrated e-triage approaches, communication approaches and rapid delivery systems.

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