Data management and interoperability of tunnel fire digital twin system. Credit: 2024 Research and Innovation Office, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. All rights reserved.
The rise of high-rise buildings and densely populated urban development is driving demand for safety and resilience solutions for emergency situations such as fires. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has developed an advanced technological solution to strengthen fire safety and urban resilience.
Professor Asif Usmani, Chair Professor of the Department of Building Science and Fire Safety Engineering, UPP, and Dr. Huang Xinyan, Associate Professor of the Department of Built Environment and Energy Engineering, UPP, hosted the 2nd International Smart Firefighting Workshop (SureFire 2024) at UPP. The workshop aims to address future urban fire threats and enhance smart firefighting capabilities. The workshop is part of the “SureFire: Smart Urban Resilience and Firefighting” project.
Thanks to the research of Prof. Usmani and Dr. Huang, the Surefire system employs a complex data-generating network to enable real-time monitoring of the urban environment and hazards. With the right AI-based data analytics, the system's health and evolution can be continuously assessed, new pathologies can be diagnosed, and information can be provided to support decision-making.
The increasing number of fires in high-rise buildings around the world demonstrates how the evolution of the built environment has changed the nature of fire threats. During the workshop, over 70 international research experts and academics presented emerging topics on fire safety, covering areas such as fire safety design, thermal safety management of battery systems, and fire prediction using artificial intelligence (AI).
“We are working with interdisciplinary research teams to uncover answers to fundamental research questions needed to develop the underlying technologies for smart firefighting systems, which leverage rapidly evolving cyber-physical technologies,” said Dr Huang.
To improve fire safety management during emergencies, Dr Huang and his research team recently introduced an intelligent digital twin system that combines artificial intelligence of things (AIoT) systems and computer vision models to enable real-time fire risk assessment.
Before a fire breaks out, this digital twin can map the distribution of different fire-risk vehicles within the building in real time. In case of a fire, the AI engine can not only assess the current fire scene but also predict the future fire progression to support firefighting, evacuation and rescue operations.
An overview of digital twin systems and their application areas. Provided by: 2024 Research and Innovation Office, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. All rights reserved. A comprehensive digital twin framework for tunnel fire safety management. Provided by: 2024 Research and Innovation Office, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. All rights reserved.
To demonstrate the system's performance, the SureFire team conducted multiple large-scale fire tests in a tunnel in Sichuan Province and a multi-story building at the Hong Kong Fire Department's Fire and Emergency Services Academy (FASA). By utilizing advanced computational fire modeling technology, the SureFire system can predict the location of a fire 1-3 minutes in advance with over 90% accuracy.
“The developed SureFire system has the potential to be deployed in any building or infrastructure in the future to enhance public safety, provide early warning of disasters, and optimize emergency evacuation,” said Dr. Huang. This research marks a giant leap toward realizing truly intelligent public safety and emergency response.
PolyU SureFire team has been dedicated to developing intelligent solutions for fire safety for the past five years, and their latest research achievements on tunnel safety include “AIoT-enabled digital twin system for smart tunnel fire safety management” published in Developments in the Built Environment and “Smart real-time assessment of tunnel fire risk and evacuation safety with computer vision” published in Safety Science.
This modern system provides an intelligent emergency management system framework for responding to public fire emergencies, and the team is currently working with multiple property management companies in China and overseas to implement the SureFire system in metro stations, tunnels, and high-rise buildings.
Functions and data flows of a firefighting digital twin system. Courtesy of 2024 Research and Innovation Office, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. All rights reserved. Database generation for model training. Courtesy of 2024 Research and Innovation Office, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. All rights reserved.
The Smart Dynamic Exit Sign System with the SureFire system can be installed in buildings to guide evacuation in case of fire. This system has been developed and made available by PolyU startup GABES. The SureFire system not only reduces fire casualties by facilitating evacuation, but also has great potential to enhance the capabilities of firefighting robots, leading to fully automated and accident-free firefighting operations.
Dr Wong and his team are currently developing the next generation of autonomous firefighting robots to support firefighters and minimise fire casualties. The integration of this new technology will position Hong Kong as a world-leading smart city.
Further information: Xiaoning Zhang et al., “AIoT-enabled digital twin system for smart tunnel fire safety management,” Developments in the Built Environment (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.dibe.2024.100381
Xiaoning Zhang et al., “Smart real-time assessment of tunnel fire risk and evacuation safety with computer vision.” Safety Science (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.ssci.2024.106563
Courtesy of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Source: Firefighting Technology Innovations with Smart Solutions Strengthen Urban Resilience (August 19, 2024) Retrieved August 19, 2024 from https://techxplore.com/news/2024-08-firefighting-technology-smart-solutions-urban.html
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