Smart Fire Fighting and

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS)

The Next Five Years in Fire and Electrical Safety

NOVEMBER 13, 2013

WASHINGTON, DC

Anthony Hamins, Al Jones, Nelson Bryner, Tony Putorti

Dan Madrzykowski, Chris Overholt, Craig Weinschenk

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

What are Cyber-Physical Systems?

Massive integration of

wireless networks,

advanced sensors, 3D

simulations, and cloud

services enabling a

new generation of

Smart Systems.

Images©Shutterstock.com

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– Global data collection, central analytics, targeted

decision making

– Real time information, where and when it is needed

– Total cost estimated at $300B+

– 70,000 firefighter injuries

• 45% on fireground

• 25% are moderate or severe

Why Apply CPS to Firefighting?

• Fire losses/costs still too high

• Fire scene is an information-poor environment

• CPS offers opportunities previously unimaginable

– Lack of information on location of fire fighters, victims,

& fire

– Lack of data on thermal conditions, gas-phase species,

smoke,…

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• Real-time data extremely limited

• Small teams take action based on local observables

• Some teams interact with IC over radio

• IC directs action based on limited available information

Today’s Information-Poor Fire Ground

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-

- Not all teams in real-time communications with IC

- IC uses info and knowledge to build a mental model

- IC uses mental model to issue commands to the teams

- IC may not know the outcome of individual commands

- IC may not know success or failure until end of an event

- Few sensors

- Limited communication links

- Fire fighters observe, analyze, and act

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Current State of Fire Fighting:

• Fire losses are too large

• Fire fighting is hazardous

• Fire ground is chaotic

Proposal:

Use CPS to provide an information-rich

environment, data analytics, and real-time

decision tools to improve fire protection and

the safety and effectiveness of fire fighters 5

Historical Perspective

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Cyber-Physical

Systems

Buildings

& Structures

Fire Fighting

Transportation

Production

Healthcare

Warfighting

Infrastructure

Images©Shutterstock.com

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NY 311 Noise Map Autonomous vehicles

Augmented reality

“Urban Science”

Big Data analytics

Smart Clothing

Emerging Technologies and Fire Fighting

Smartphone Apps

Satellite information Fully interoperable

equipment

Robotics

Real-time data from

distributed sources

Under-Armour

E-39 shirt

Google glasses Adidas adizero f50

boot

Shadow C6M

Smart Hand

Drones

BACnet

Apple iphone

Smart Fire Fighting Framework

FF

FF

FF Relocate team

FF FF

Disparate Information

(sensor data & databases)

FF

FF

FF

FF IC Building

City

Police EMS

County

Collect, analyze, process data • Databases on building layout and fire protection features

• Physiological data forecasting fire fighter health

• Sensor data assimilated by models to predict fire growth

• SOPs, best practices, lessons learned to inform tactics

IC

Replace Air

Cylinders Suppress

Fire

Select Information

(recommended actions)

Weather Traffic 9

Paradigm Shift Smart Fire Fighting

From:

• Untapped/unavailable data

• Lack of awareness

• Local information-poor decisions

• Tradition-based tactics

• Isolated equipment and building

elements

• Human operations

To:

• Data collection, analysis & communication

• Sensors everywhere

• Global information-rich decision making

• Data-driven physics-based tactics

• Interconnected equipment and building

monitoring, data, and control systems

• Human controlled operations

Flame Sim

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www.wikimedia.org

Better Equipment, Controls, Technologies

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Integrated Systems

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Smart Fire Fighting Enterprise

13 13

Wilson Hospital, Wilson, North Carolina

An Early CPS Demonstration

En Route Screen On Scene Screen 14

CPS Platform Technology Gaps

• Systems-engineering based architectures and standards

• Control, communications, and interoperability

• Wireless sensing and actuation

• Diagnostics and prognostics

• Reliability

• Integration with legacy systems

• Validation and verification

• Cyber-security, assurance and certification

• Scalability and complexity management

• Deep-physics and digital world model integration

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NIST’s Work on Smart Fire Fighting

What’s Next?

• Research Needs Roadmap - September 2014

– Identification of technology development priorities

– Foundation for standardization efforts (NFPA, IEEE, NEMA,…)

• CPS Smart Fire fighting Testbed

– Fire hose water flow rate

– SCBA air management

• Robotic Fire Suppression

– Encourage technology development through RoboCup

competitions

– Benchmark performance using standardized tests

Summary

• Fire losses and costs still too high

• CPS has a critical role in the future of fire

fighting

• Significant research issues remain

• NIST has programmatic efforts underway to help

advance Smart Fire Fighting

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Thank You

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Develop methods and standards to supply information

from municipal databases and building systems to

public safety officials/emergency responders in

electronic formats during incident response

• Information content

• Representation

• Storage

• Access

• Transport

• Presentation

NIST Project Goal

Potential Standards

Montgomery County Maryland

Emergency Command Center

R&D Grand Challenges

• Diagnostics & prognostics for evolving complex,

dynamic systems

• Multi-scale, multi-physics, multi-temporal modeling

• Including uncertainty and risk into reasoning and

decision-making

• Modeling levels of autonomy and optimizing the

roles of humans