Evacuation route calculation of inner buildings

Abstract

Disastrous accidents (fire, chemical releases, earthquake, terrorist attacks, etc) in large public and residential buildings (discotheques, cafes, trade and industrial buildings) usually result in tragic consequences for people and environments. Such accidents have clearly showed that need for reliable systems supporting rescue operations is urgently appealing. Amongst all, giving appropriate information to the ordinary people in/around the affected area considering the disaster developments (available exists, assessable corridors, etc.) and the human factors (age, gender, disability) are of critical importance for the success of the rescue operation. This paper promotes a new approach (based on 3D models) for giving evacuation instruction to people. The paper is organized in three general parts. The first part discusses briefly current approaches for alarming people in buildings showing their disadvantages. The second part presents the 3D system architecture and elaborates on the needed components. Discussion on the required developments concludes the paper. © 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.