Building Fire Emergency Detection and Response Using Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) provide a low cost solution with respect to maintenance and installation and in particular, building refurbishment and retrofitting are easily accomplished via wireless technologies. Fire emergency detection and response for building environments is a novel application area for the deployment of wireless sensor networks. In such a critical environment, timely data acquisition, detection and response are needed for successful building automation. This paper presents an overview of our recent research activity in this area. Firstly we explain research on communication protocols that are suitable for this problem. Then we describe work on the use of WSNs to improve fire evacuation and navigation.