Sensing Health, Environment, and Performance Holistically during Emergency Response and Damage-control (SHEPHERD)
Abstract
The effective response to damage directly affects a naval vessel and its crew#s survivability, resilience, and readiness. Effectiveemergency response, such as damage control and firefighting, depends on shipboard personnel preparedness, timely decisions, and appropriate actions. However, damage control can only be successfully achieved when individuals in the entire chain of command have relevant, real-time information about not only the hazard but also each sailor and his/her surroundings that best support each of theirunique responsibilities. The type and granularity of information can differ between sailors of different roles. Relevant information can include self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) oxygen level, body and ambient temperatures, physical activity, health, and sailor location in each ship compartment.This project, SHEPHERD # Sensing Health, Environment, and Performance Holistically during Emergency Response and Damage-control, aims to integrate on-body devices withdevice-free sensing and advanced data analytics for local and command view of sailor performance and safety. Specifically, the goal is to develop high-performance nanocomposite and commercial off-the-shelf environmental sensors, which are seamlessly integrated with existing damage control and personal protective equipment (e.g., SCBA harness unit), to measure the health, activities, locations, performance, and surrounding conditions of shipboard personnel during damage control and emergency response. By building and integrating sensors with existing damage control equipment, sailors are not burdened with wearing additional devices. In addition, the sensing streams can be wirelessly transmitted to fixed receivers that are fully integrated with the ship telecommunications cyber-physical infrastructure for seamless information flow. A suite of different tests, ranging from laboratory human subject tests to simulated indoor shipboard environment tests to Fire Academy drill tests, will be performed to verify, validate, and demonstrate system capabilities, priming the technology for further technological advancement and development by the end of this two-year project. Overall, the proposed SHEPHERD sensing hardware and data fusion, analytics, and visualization software will enable new capabilities for the U.S. Navy and will provide individuals across the entire damage control battle organization and ship leadership with total situational awareness of shipboard personnel during an emergency. When disaster occurs, it will enable leadership, scene leaders, and damage controlmen to make effective decisions rapidly in orderto achieve well-directed, effectively coordinated, and properly prioritized actions of damage control and emergency response, thereby enhancing ship and crew survivability, resilience, and readiness.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jul 24, 2023
- Source ID
- N000142312647
Entities
People
- Kenneth J. Loh
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of California, San Diego