EAGER: Bio-Inspired Smart Sensor Networks for Adaptive Emergency Response

最近在巴基斯坦（79 000人死亡）、中国（68 000人死亡）和海地（170 000人死亡）发生的地震灾害表明，民用基础设施极为脆弱，需要改进应急反应。但不为人所知的是，这种规模的灾难可能会发生在美国：最近的研究估计，新马德里断层沿着的一次重大断裂，仅在田纳西州和密苏里州就可能导致超过7万人的伤亡。 结合土木工程，计算机科学和神经生物学的技术，这项研究旨在改变应急响应人员在处理此类灾害时的有效性-确保快速评估物理结构的稳定性，定位和营救被困和无法行走的受害者，识别和提供紧急医疗，以及安全疏散可行走的幸存者。这项研究的重点是开发一个生物启发的智能传感和通信框架，用于快速应急响应。该系统利用增强的移动的电话技术来创建一个神经通知，传感器丰富，信息处理网络。该研究建立在生物系统和自适应传感和通信框架的相似性基础上。 像生物神经元一样，每个手机节点都具有通信和计算能力。单个节点能够通过ad-hoc网络与邻居建立本地连接（就像神经元与突触连接一样），以及通过细胞塔基础设施进行更长距离的全球通信（类似于扩散神经调节和神经内分泌信号）。手机还具有各种传感器输入功能（例如声音、视频、运动传感和GPS），这些功能与生物系统的传感功能相似。这些类比有助于将神经生物学的信息处理原理转化为工程实现，以便在应急响应场景中有效地获取、过滤和传输任务相关信息。

Recent seismic calamities in Pakistan (79,000 deaths), China (68,000 deaths), and Haiti (170,000 deaths) have demonstrated the tremendous vulnerability of civil infrastructure, as well as the need for improved emergency response. What is not widely known is that disasters of this magnitude could occur in the USA: recent studies estimate that a major rupture along the New Madrid fault could result in casualties exceeding 70,000 in Tennessee and Missouri alone. Combining techniques from civil engineering, computer science, and neurobiology, this research seeks to transform the effectiveness of emergency response personnel in dealing with such disasters--ensuring rapid assessment of the stability of physical structures, location and rescue of trapped and non-ambulatory victims, identification and provision of emergency medical treatment, and safe evacuation of ambulatory survivors. This research focuses on developing a bio-inspired smart sensing and communications framework for rapid emergency response. The system utilizes enhanced mobile phone technology to create a neurally-informed, sensor-rich, information-processing network. The research builds on the similarities in biological systems and adaptive sensing and communication frameworks. Like biological neurons, each cell phone node has both communication and computation capabilities. Individual nodes are capable of establishing local connections with their neighbors through ad-hoc networking (much as neurons connect with synapses), as well as longer-distance global communication via cell tower infrastructure (similar to diffuse neuromodulatory and neuroendocrine signaling). Cell phones also have a variety of sensor input capabilities (e.g. sound, video, motion sensing, and GPS) that have parallels with the sensory capabilities of biological systems. These analogies facilitate translation of information processing principles from neurobiology to engineering implementations for efficient acquisition, filtering and transmission of task-relevant information in emergency response scenarios.