Future Research on Cyber-Physical Emergency Management Systems

Cyber-physical systems that include human beings and vehicles in a built environment, such as a building or a city, together with sensor networks and decision support systems have attracted much attention. In emergencies, which also include mobile searchers and rescuers, the interactions among civilians and the environment become much more diverse, and the complexity of the emergency response also becomes much greater. This paper surveys current research on sensor-assisted evacuation and rescue systems and discusses the related research issues concerning communication protocols for sensor networks, as well as several other important issues, such as the integrated asynchronous control of large-scale emergency response systems, knowledge discovery for rescue and prototyping platforms. Then, we suggest directions for further research.