DrillSim: A Simulation Framework forEmergency Response Drills
Vidhya Balasubramanian, Daniel Massaguer, Sharad Mehrotra and Nalini Venkatasubramanian
DrillSim Team – www.ics.uci.edu/~projects/drillsimRESCUE ProjectUC Irvine
2
Testing of IT solutions
• Necessary to see impact of IT solutions in actual disaster scenarios
• Essential to test efficacy of IT solutions in the context of disaster response– Translate IT metric to disaster response metric
• IT metric – minimum delay, bit rate, bandwidth, loss rate etc.
• Disaster metric – time to evacuate, number of people evacuated, number of injuries etc.
– Study impact of IT solutions in decision making• Heightened awareness does not necessarily
translate to better decision making – so IT solution need not work!
3
The DrillSim Simulator
• A multi-agent response activity simulator to test IT solutions for disaster management
• Methodology– Plug & Play capability
• Information flow among DrillSim agents can be routed through external IT tools
• Ability to integrate external simulators– Testing and validation of IT tools
• Impact of additional/improved awareness to crisis response metrics (lives saved, evacuation time)
– Integrate real world drill with simulated drill• Use an instrumented framework to bring real world data to
simulator and vice versa • Other simulators not designed for IT testing
– Not plug and play– Specific for crisis modeling or macro level
4
Conceptual Modeling
• Modeling– Activity Model
• Micro Level Modeling of activity• Individual level modeling
– Modeling of agents– Helps plug information at the right points in the
activity– Crisis Model– Spatial Model
• Environment and Infrastructure• Activity and Crisis is represented in DrillSim space
through impact!• Impact of other entities on space (crisis,
communication etc) is by the impact on space• e.g, obstacle, cellular coverage present,
5
Agent Modeling• Role
– Evacuee– Response Personnel– Behavior
• Decision making
• Profile – Visual, auditory, motor profile– Health
• State (evacuated, not evacuated)• Social Network• Personal Devices
– Cell phone, laptop, PDA etc– Hat, vest etc
6
Space and Resources
• Spatial Model– Indoor and outdoor model of space– Entities in space can be derived from shape files or cad files
• floor, room, wall, stairway, door, exit signs, walkways, roadways, open spaces etc.
– Extend to 3d representation
• Resources in space– Sensors– Cameras, People counters, motion sensors, – Communication
– Phone – Location
– Others– Fire alarm, sprinkler etc– Objects
Environment Model
Geographic Model
Sensing Infrastructure
7
Cell[i,j] = {Obstacle, Occupied, Hazard},
Obstacle = <0..1>
Occupied = <0..1>
Hazards = {Hazard1, Hazard2,..Hazardn},
Visual Awareness
Auditory Awareness
Effects modeling
8
Activity flow
AwarenessKnowledge
Decisions
Plans
Actions
<Decision Making>
<Planning>
<Plan Implementation>
<If fire alarm Evacuate floor>
<Determine Path>
<Walk>
9
Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality Integration
• A simulation can run along a real drill!!• Immersing a real person into the simulator
– Using an instrumented environment with sensing and communication capabilities, a real person is immersed into the simulator• By tracking the real user using sensors
• Projecting the simulated world to real user– Track location of user in real world and send
customized view to user• View based on direction of sight, location,
etc• Alternatively user can take the role of a virtual
agent by controlling the virtual agent (as in games)• Real person takes decisions giving more
validity
10
InputInterface
AndExternal Modules
Data Management Layer
SimulationEngine
VR/ARInterface
Sensing Infrastructure(data from Real world)
Visualization andOutput Interface
Mediator
Spatial Temporal Database
Prototype Architecture
11
Inputs to DrillSim
• Initial Scenario Inputs– Number and location of agents– Crisis– Resources and Obstacles
• Activity Inputs– Assembly Area– Response plan for activity
• Agents– Profile, knowledge, role
• Predefined for current system– Personal items carried
• Geography Predefined and stored in database• Inputs can come from real sensors
12
Output of DrillSim
• Visualization – Visualization can be on a EOC or
a portable device that a immersed person in the drill carried
– 2D and 3D– Outputs a hybrid view of real
world and simulated world– 3D helps to view agent’s
observed reality
• Statistics– Generates results
• Speed of evacuation, number of people remaining in the building etc
• Helps study effectiveness of solution
13
Simulation Engine and Data Management Module
• Simulation Engine– The main module that drives the simulator– Driven by agents modeling people in the activity
• Agents modeled as information processors• Decision making modeled as stochastic neural
network– The state of the simulator is updated as and when an
event occurs as a result of decisions
• Data Management Module– Manages data exchange between components
• Manage continuous queries from different entities• Manage frequent updates
– Geography is stored in common database
14
Prototype Version 0.1
• Activity– Evacuation in a building
• Agent roles– Evacuee
• common people in the building– Floor warden
• Goes to every room in the floor and makes sure everyone evacuates
• Agents – communicate with each other by talking– take decision at every step based on awareness– plan path to exit using A*
• Space– Represented as grids
15
The DrillSim Interface
16
Testing and Validation
• Use of DrillSim is to test– Impact of IT solutions in disaster response– Impact of response procedures– Effective modeling of human behavior
• Validity of tests depends on– Accuracy of human modeling– Calibration of human models necessary
• Experimental setup– Evacuation of an office floor with 18 agents– Floor warden goes to every room to evacuate people– Relevance agent gives to fire, floor warden command
depends on agent's profile
17
Experimental Results
18
Major Research Challenges
• Agent Modeling– Realistic modeling– Decision making in crisis
• Spatial Temporal data representation– Effective and scalable representations
• Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality Integration– Localization and tracking real people– Bringing the virtual world to real people
• Data Management– Scalability
• Manage high Query and Update rates
• Plug and Play Capability
19
Conclusions and future directions
• A simulation framework that merges reality with simulation helps– Recreate realistic response activities– Test IT solutions and response
processes
• Version 2.0 of DrillSim under development– A campus level evacuation simulator– Will be integrated with macro-level
simulators, and communication simulators
– A portable computer called Evac-Pack which has sensors, camera and mobile visualization has been developed• Helps in VR/AR integration
20
Extra Slides
• Extra!!
21
Disaster Response• Response activity can be
– Evacuation, medical triage, disaster mitigation, damage assessment etc
• Response Activity’s effectiveness depends on– Information available– Decisions taken
• IT solutions can help in response through– Information dissemination, collection, sharing and
analysis
• Timely and effective response to natural or manmade disasters essential– Reduce death and injuries– Prevent secondary disasters
22
Impact of IT solution
• Demonstrates impact of floor warden in the evacuation process– Metric – Number of agents in the floor over time
• Agents respond better to floor warden than just a fire alarm
• The behavior of floor warden can be improved using IT solution– Knowledge if building is empty can help floor warden
leave the building earlier– Graph shows floor warden leaving earlier.
23
24
IT solutions for Emergency Response
• IT solutions can improve disaster response– Information collection
• Sensor based collection, human as sensors etc
– Information analysis• Text, video, speech transcripts etc
– Information sharing• Secure sharing, common sharing platform
– Information Dissemination• Timely dissemination of information• Customized dissemination
25
Testing solution for disaster response
• Methods of testing– Conduct drills
• Expensive– Simulators
• Activity Simulator with plug and play capabilities• DrillSim Simulator
– www.ics.uci.edu/~projects/drillsim
26
Why another simulator?
• Existing simulators not designed to test IT solutions– Crisis Simulators
• Models spread of the crisis like fire or hurricane and the impact of crisis
– Crisis Response Simulators• Simulate response activity at a macro-level, difficult
to study impact of IT solutions and plug at appropriate points
– e.g., Simulex– Integrated Tools
• Integrate different simulators like crisis simulators, traffic simulators etc.
– e.g., SOFIA at Los Amos National Laboratory • Need to be an open framework to plug in IT
solutions for the purpose testing
27
Other similar simulators
• Robocup Rescue– Testing agent communication and coordination
• Freewalk (Kyoto Japan)• USC- Defacto system
– Used for training– It solutions using agent technology
28
ActivitySimulator
ITSolution
Evacuationroute
given the location of fire
NumberOf peopleEvacuated
Drill Scenario
ExternalSimulator
29
Activity Modeling
• Response Activity– Evacuation, medical triage, firefighting etc– Procedures for response activities
• Response plans– In case of fire do not take elevator– Response personnel should make sure everyone has
evacuated
• Activity translates to individual entities (people, infrastructure etc)– Decision Making at individual level
• Exit via stair 2• Plan path of evacuation• Response personnel checks if floor is empty
– Events at infrastructure level• Fire alarm goes off• Sensors triggered
30
Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality Integration
• Simulator not realistic enough for validating disaster response solutions
• Real Drills expensive and cumbersome to organize• Solution – Merge simulations and drills
– Run the simulator alongside a drill– Some of the agents in the simulator will be real people
participating in the real world• Drill can be smaller• More realistic
– Communication and infrastructure can also be virtual or real• Test both real IT solutions and simulated solutions
31
Impact of Behavior
• Given a evacuation, this experiment studies the impact of agent obstinacy without presence of floor warden
• Three levels of obstinacy– High (agent responds least), normal and low
• Result– More Obstinate the agent, the longer the evacuation
takes!!!!
• This result indicates how DrillSim can be used to study impact of human behavior in disaster response– Calibration of human models can be more effectively
done
32
Experimental Results
