TeamAware

First responders are the groups of people, services and organisations with specialised skills and qualifications whose duty is to arrive first to the emergency zone, search, save and rescue operations, and perform crisis management in natural or human-made disasters. First responders mainly consist of firefighters, emergency medical services, and law enforcement agencies. Depending on the impact and effect of the disaster, the sectors react to the emergency event individually as well as together. Their duty is hard and critical since lives and valuable assets are in the focus of their operations under high levels of stress and uncertainty associated with the type of event. For instance, the first responders were the first victims infected by the previously unknown SARS virus, when they cared for patients infected by the virus. It is a fact that first responders need to be protected, connected, and fully aware of the emergency event so that they can efficiently and effectively save and rescue lives without exposing their lives or the operation to risks.

Although first responders provide secure and safe societies by protecting the communities, responding to the disasters and rescuing lives, they often use inefficient, weak and obsolete technologies in their operations. With respect to the current situation, the operational capabilities of the first responders can be dramatically boosted by the advances in technology and engineering fields such as smart sensor systems, wearables, data processing, data fusion, data analytics, communication infrastructure, and artificial intelligence tools.

The main objective of TeamAware Project is to develop an integrated and cost-efficient situational awareness system for first responders from different sectors with heterogeneous and hardly interoperable sensor units, including drone-mounted, wearable, and external sensor systems, existing first responder services, and operation centres. The purpose is to enhance the crisis management, flexibility and reaction capability of first responders of different sectors through real-time, fused, refined, filtered, and manageable information by using highly-standardized augmented reality and mobile human-machine interfaces.

Reason for applying to HSbooster.eu services

Standards are not only the core of the EU single market but also the core of the TeamAware project. In order to properly promote and achieve interoperability within the project’s situational awareness system for first responders, harmonised standards are crucial.

The aim of TeamAware project is to provide an interoperability reference architecture not only for TeamAware partners but also for all first responders. Interoperability is only feasible with standardisation; therefore, basing the envisaged reference architecture on well-known standards will increase the adaptability of our system.

With efficient automated data sharing between applications, databases, and other computer systems being an essential component throughout interoperability in emergency information and management systems, we believe that the HSbooster can help us to increase and valorise our project results (e.g., by contributing to the creation or revision of standards, and also help us prepare for possible challenges).    

Our goal is to create a communication network architecture that will provide interoperable and flexible infrastructure so that uninterrupted and continuous communication of a secure and standardised communication network. For this, the TeamAware project aims to produce clear guidelines and recommendations for standardisation – including the combined use of existing standards. With the guidance and support the HSbooster offers, we, as the TeamAware project, want to learn, reflect and take on new skills and knowledge regarding the development of efficient standards. These might be capable to accelerate the transition towards more resilient crisis management and reaction capability of first responders of different sectors working with highly-standardized augmented reality and mobile human-machine technology.     

We also want to get to know the standardisation landscape and its main actors (such as corresponding Standards Developing Organisations (SDOs)) better in order to engage with standardisation working groups to increase our impact on (international) standardisation and strengthen competitiveness.

Main Standardisation Interests

The main objective of the TeamAware Project is to develop an integrated and cost-efficient situational awareness system for first responders from different sectors. In order to achieve this objective, interoperability is the main target. And because effective interoperability is only possible through widely used standards, they, therefore, play a crucial role.

There are quite a number of standards that address different layers of the interoperability stack.  That is why the project will produce clear guidelines and recommendations for standardisation – including the combined use of existing standards. In addition to the conventional profiling approach, TeamAware will advance the state-of-the-art by considering organisational and legal aspects, such as policies, procedures and operations via the Disaster Management Data Exchange Policy Framework.

The long-term vision is that first responder IT providers will one day implement and test IT solutions EU-wide based on these Disaster Management Interoperability Profiles. Enhanced information exchange between systems will contribute to a better overview of the disaster management domain awareness for the first responder authorities at the national and EU levels. To achieve this aim, the common data model, domain ontology and interoperability profiles, ensuring the interoperability of information exchanges among first responders, will be standardised with a recognised standardisation body (CEN, CENELEC, ETSI).

A related work package (WP) regarding standardisation is especially WP 14 – “Dissemination, Exploitation and Communication” (which aims to adequately exploit and disseminate project results and outcomes to ensure that the information and knowledge created by the project is communicated to the targeted audience) with the task 14.3 “Standardisation”. This task addresses the standardisation component within the overall TeamAware approach towards an interoperable solution, ensuring compliance with existing standards and specifications (e.g. CISE and NATO STANAGs). Moreover, it will contribute to the long-term standardisation efforts through the harmonisation of concepts relevant to first responder operations, recommendations for revision of existing standards and the active interaction with working groups and standardisation bodies. The standardisation activities and results within TeamAware are reported in three different deliverables called “Standardisation Report” (in months 12, 24 and 36), of which the first version (D14.8 Standardisation Report v1) from month 12 has already been submitted. This deliverable covers topics such as giving an overview of data model standards used in the TeamAware system and presenting transport protocol standards, which can be used in the system. Furthermore, there are chapters on network interfaces and security standards.

Regarding the current status: Currently, all the data models used in our project are standards-based. In a couple of months, we plan to contact standardisation bodies like OASIS EDXL and OGC SensorThings. And here, we want some help from Horizon Standardization Booster to contact these standardisation groups.