Utilizing the ARAIG haptic suit to navigate firefighters out of hazardous environments

气候变化对加拿大的影响逐年增加。在过去的十年里，加拿大的严重风暴，洪水，也许最重要的是森林火灾增加了[1]，[2]。当消防员进入燃烧区域拯救生命时，他们的防护装备可以保护他们免受有毒气体，热量和烧伤;然而，有一种危险是他们的装备不能防止迷路或被困。火灾产生大量的烟雾和碎片从下降的材料和结构故障。这些情况会降低能见度，阻塞出口，并阻止安全疏散。传统的导航辅助设备通常在这些情况下失败[3]-[5]，导致消防员不得不手动导航出危险的环境。该研究项目将专注于新技术的开发，该技术将在时间紧迫和压力大的情况下消除导航到安全的猜测。它将提供一套新的集成传感器（视频、全球定位系统（GPS）、光探测和测距（LiDAR）），以及路径规划和场景重建算法，这些算法可以集成到当前的消防员防护设备中。这项新技术将提供基于通过上述传感器集成集收集的入口信息自动生成疏散路径的能力。当被提示时，新算法将使用生成的出口路径和重建的场景，并创建一组触觉指令，以安全地引导消防员使用ARAIG套装技术远离危险。

The effect of climate change in Canada has grown with each passing year. Severe storms, floods, and, perhaps most importantly, forest fires, have increased in Canada over the past decade [1], [2]. When a firefighter runs into a burning area to save lives, they are safeguarded from toxic gases, heat, and burns by their protective gear; however, there is one hazard that their gear cannot protect against getting lost or trapped. Fires produce a lot of smoke and debris from falling material and structural failures. These situations can reduce visibility, block exits and prevent safe evacuation. Traditional navigation aids often fail in these situations [3]-[5], resulting in firefighters having to manually navigate out of dangerous environments. This research project will focus on the development of new technology which will take the guesswork out of navigating to safety in time-critical and stressful situations. It will provide a new integrated set of sensors [video, global positioning system (GPS), and light detection and ranging (LiDAR)], and path planning and scene reconstruction algorithms that can be integrated into current firefighter protective equipment. This new technology will provide the capability of autogenerating evacuation paths based on entry information collected via the integrated set of the aforementioned sensors. When prompted, the new algorithms will use the generated egress path and reconstructed scene and create a set of haptic instructions to safely guide a firefighter out of harm's way using the ARAIG suit technology.