Improving the safety and the operational efficiency of emergency operators via on field situational awareness

In rescue missions, the situational awareness represents an essential tool in supporting rescue team operating in unknown and complex indoor environments. In case of fire in highly congested industrial scenarios (e.g., refineries, oil depots, petrochemical plants, etc.), the smoke may reduce the awareness of the rescuer about potential local resources/hazards, affecting both operational efficiency and personal safety. The mitigation of potential consequences arising from major accidents can be limited providing the emergency staff with tools able to foster their role on field. In this paper, we present the RISING (indooR localizatIon and building maintenance using radio frequency Identification and inertial NaviGation) project that is devoted to support on field operators supplying them with a system for situational awareness and personal indoor positioning. The RISING solution is based on the integration of the RFID technology with the inertial navigation. A set of RFID tags, conveniently preinstalled in the working environment, can store information about their absolute position and the site of local items. This information can be easily retrieved on-the-fly using RFID readers and displayed on smart devices with which the user is equipped (e.g., tablet and/or smartphone) to allow on field situational awareness.