One of the main axes of this strategy is the participation of ENSOSP on research and development projects aiming at (visant à) creating new technologies notably to improve the situational awareness and safety of first responders. One of these projects is RESCUER (first RESponder-Centered support toolkit for operating in adverse and infrastrUcture-less EnviRonments).

What is the RESCUER project?

RESCUER is a research and a development project (R&D) financed up to seven million euros by the Executive Research Agency in the framework of the research and innovation program Horizon2020 of the European Union. For a duration of three years (July 2021 to June 2024), RESCUER brings twenty partners from nine Europeans states representing different types of organizations:

-          Technical partners: research centers and companies who provide  technological solutions;

-          End-users partners: the emergency responders’ organizations who guide the development of technological solutions, test and validate them.

The goal of RESCUER is to develop a technological toolkit to improve the situational awareness of emergency responders and help them work more efficiently and safely in dangerous and infrastructure-less environments. As a R&D project, RESCUER develops prototypes at an intermediate level of maturity, and focuses primarily on getting future users to validate application concepts that could be deployed in the future with more mature and robust technologies.

To sum up, RESCUER’s goal is to prototype the future of first responders according to the needs they have expressed. In particular, this user-driven project seeks to involve future users in the development of innovation, in particular through the collection of user needs, and to improve the acculturation of first responders to innovation and new technologies.

What is the RESCUER core (fondement) concept?

RESCUER uses the HERO concept (enHanced nEw eRa first respOnder), which aims at addressing the capability gaps already identified by the International Forum for First Responder Innovation (IFRAFRI), in particular:

-          Ability to track responders' localisation in real time

-          Ability to monitor, detect and analyze threats and risks in real time

-          Rapid identification of hazardous agents and contaminants

-          Ability to integrate information from multiple, non-traditional sources into incident command operations

-          Ability to deploy interoperable communications solutions

-          Ability to carry out remote operations without endangering responders

-          Ability to monitor the physiological signs of emergency responders

Based on this picture of operational gaps, the HERO concept of the RESCUER project seeks to "augment" first responders by equipping them with technologies offering functionalities designed to improve their situational awareness and safety during interventions. To that end, the HERO concept is based on the following 4 PILLARS:

-          Enhancing the senses of first responders: environmental and situational data are collected by different tools which outputs are then visualized using augmented reality devices;

-          Improved localisation of first responders: to ensure a smooth, real-time localisation of first responders inside or outside.

-          Improved communication solutions: ensure the smooth operation of the RESCUER integrated system as well as communication between team members, first responders and C2;

-          Improved cognitive support for the first responders: allow the representation of collected data through augmented reality interfaces, and monitor the first responders' vital signs to avoid cognitive overload of the first responders.

These 4 pillars cover all RESCUER technological modules which, once integrated into an unified system, will provide first responders and the command center with a visualisation of all data collected on the environment of first responders, their localisation and their cognitive state.

Set of icons representing the different functionalities of the RESCUER system

What are the main features of the RESCUER system?

Below you'll find a table listing all RESCUER modules grouped by pillar, with their associated visuals:

The architecture of the RESCUER system is as follows:

The final target of this project is to offer a user-friendly system which provides a visualisation of RESCUER modules’ outputs for the first responders, notably through visual interfaces (AR), tactile and/or audio feedbacks. The development of the integrated system is a continuous process, with two subsystems available (HOLOLENS2 and SMART HELMET).

The information collected by the different sensors and devices are sent to the "orchestrator", which distributes the data among the visualisation systems. The information prioritisation module determines the information to be visulalised on the augmented reality displays according to the following criteria :

1. Preferences expressed by first responders
2. Biological signal monitoring indicators,
3. Cognitive balance index experienced by the first responders.

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Maëlle GROSLIER

Chargée d’affaires européennes – Division de la Recherche scientifique - Département Recherche, Ressources, Innovation et Prospective, ENSOSP.

Léa TAILLANDIER

Chargée de projet européen / European project manager ALBATROS - Division de la Recherche scientifique - Département Recherche, Ressources, Innovation et Prospective, ENSOSP.

Rémi GELMINI

Chef par intérim du Laboratoire des projets de recherche et Chargé de Projet RESCUER – Division de la Recherche scientifique - Département Recherche, Ressources, Innovation et Prospective, ENSOSP.

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