Improving Emergency Response Using Wearable Wireless Sensor Networks and Structural Health Monitoring Systems

Structural collapse and damage which have been occurred during past decades have caused severe failures especially in strategic infrastructures and public buildings. A natural disaster may cause a large number of injuries and deaths expecially in public building which are usually crowded, therefore in order to improve their resilience it is necessary to decrease their probability of failure and improve their emergency response in rescuing the people inside. Since timing is important during an emergency, if the rescue teams search for victims faster, the nummber of survivors can increase. This paper presents a novel practical method to improve the emergency response of rescuers after a disaster using a structural health monitoring system (SHM) and a Wearable Sensor Networks (WSN). The proposed system includes fixed SHM nodes which measure structural related parameters like vibration, humidity, etc. It also includes mobile nodes which are wearable wristbands worn by people to collect data including approximate location of victims and health status. This system provides the rescue teams with data related to the damaged parts of the buildings, number of people who have been trapped inside the building, their location by means of indoor localization, and their vital status. These data which are collected and analyzed in real-time, are being used for building damage level assessment, but also to help rescuers to locate victims faster and save more lives. The fixed and mobile nodes construct a wireless sensor network which stays functional even during power outage by means of rechargeable batteries. Through this system, it is possible to assess the structural health of the building and also improve the emergency response of rescuers by optimizing their time when a disaster occurs.