E-SMART® TECHNOLOGY

In February 2003, an E-SMART® TA chemical detection network was used as part of a FEMA/DTRA 2003 Comprehensive Hazmat Emergency Response Capability Assessment Program (CHER-CAP) exercise in Niceville, Florida. Over 45 local, state and federal agencies participated in the exercise. General Atomics, through Air Force Research Laboratory and DTRA sponsorship provided a network of sensors to detect a toxic industrial compound (TIC) and provide additional weather GPS data for command and control and situational awareness involved in the exercise. The E-SMART® TA network was part of an integration demonstration of Wide Area Network technologies into an Incident Commander display for a single coordinated command and control authority for the exercise. The E-SMART® TA network consisted of three fixed sites and 2 mobile sites for the exercise. The fixed sites provided TIC concentration and alarms, GPS position data, Wind speed, Wind direction, temperature, and relative humidity. Although these were designed as “fixed” sites, they in fact were movable, requiring only a single twisted pair for communications to the E-SMART® TA network. The two “mobile” sites were specifically designed to be moved by robotic transporters supplied by AFRL for the exercise. The mobile sites provided GPS location information, TIC concentration and alarms. The Incident commanders tent housed the E-SMART® TA SiteMaster computer and software, and additionally provided other alarm notification capabilities, such as Paging, Fax and E-mail alarms. The SiteMaster software suite was also integrated with a DTRA product called HPAC, that allowed prediction of the TIC plume using real time data collected from the E-SMART® TA system. This provided an important tool for the incident commander to predict and mitigate the TIC plume hazard. The incident commander requires full situational awareness of not only the TIC and plume conditions, but also the status and position of all the assets deployed in this exercise. This includes locations of first responders, robotic transporters, and other information. This was provided by a “higher level” display that integrated all the data from each participating organization. ArcView was chosen for this “higher level” display mechanism. General Atomics has extensive experience integrating into these third party higher level displays from our military experience, and through an association with Polexis systems, can integrate to virtually any type of external display. The incident commander was therefore able to receive overall status and position information from the “higher level" display, and detailed TIC and weather information from the E-SMART® TA screens. Also demonstrated at this exercise was a human wearable computer, along with wireless network and GPS transceiver. The ability to connect to the E-SMART® TA software, and see asset location, plume data, weather conditions, location of other responders, and other parameters would greatly enhance the situational awareness of first responders, allowing them to perform their activities in greater safety.

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