Citation

Zhang J, Guo J, Xiong H, Liu X, Zhang D. Sensors (Basel) 2019; 19(14): s19143128.

Affiliation

Tianjin University Research Institute of Architectural Design and Urban Planning, Tianjin University, 192 Anshanxi Road, Tianjin 300073, China. dzhang@ttjl.org.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/s19143128

PMID

31315174

Abstract

Many research studies have focused on fire evacuation planning. However, because of the uncertainties in fire development, there is no perfect solution. This research proposes a fire evacuation management framework which takes advantage of an information-rich building information modeling (BIM) model and a Bluetooth low energy (BLE)-based indoor real-time location system (RTLS) to dynamically push personalized evacuation route recommendations and turn-by-turn guidance to the smartphone of a building occupant. The risk score (RS) for each possible route is evaluated as a weighted summation of risk level index values of all risk factors for all segments along the route, and the route with the lowest RS is recommended to the evacuee. The system will automatically re-evaluate all routes every 2 s based on the most updated information, and the evacuee will be notified if a new and safer route becomes available. A case study with two testing scenarios was conducted for a commercial office building in Tianjin, China, in order to verify this framework.

Language: en

Keywords

building information modeling; fire evacuation management; personalized routing; real-time location system; smartphone