IoT Flows: A Network Flow Model Application to Building Evacuation

Abstract

This chapter presents a real-time emergency evacuation handling system based on internet of things (IoT) technologies. The IoT infrastructure has a core computational component that is in charge of minimizing the time necessary to evacuate people from a building. The space and time dimension are discretized according to metrics and models in literature, as well as original methods. The component formulates and solves a linearized, time-indexed flow problem on a network that represents feasible movements of people at a suitable frequency. Accurate parameter setting makes the computational time to solve the model compliant with real-time use. An application of the proposed IoT system and its core algorithm to handle safe evacuation test in Palazzo Camponeschi—a building in L’Aquila (Italy) now and then used for exhibitions—is described, and diverse uses of the methodology are presented.