The ForeSight project addresses the escalating challenge of managing urban and wildfire disasters in low-visibility conditions, intensified by climate change and urban growth. Recognizing the limitations first responders face, project ForeSight is developing advanced, cost-effective tools to enhance response capabilities. The project aims to equip responders with technologies that improve visibility through smoke, fire, and dust, boost situational awareness, and streamline last-mile logistics in disaster zones. Integrating ethical, legal, and security standards, the project’s toolkit will undergo rigorous testing to ensure real-world applicability, aiming to revolutionize emergency response and support civil protection agencies across diverse, challenging scenarios.
Aims and Objectives
The ForeSight project empowers first responders by providing them with an innovative set of response tools and services, to enhance efficiency without jeopardising safety
In order to achieve the project goals and effectively address the challenges that originally served as the inspiration for this project, the partners have established a series of specific strategic, technological, scientific, policy and societal objectives, as presented below:
- To strengthen EU resilience and reduce societal vulnerability to urban fires and wildfires by delivering a breakthrough and bespoke set of tools and services extensively validated by responders to facilitate training and acceptance.
- To conduct a thorough analysis of current technologies used in emergency response (e.g., drones, AI, sensors) to assess their strengths and limitations in disaster scenarios.
- To promote the adoption of ForeSight solutions through targeted and widespread communication and dissemination activities, and comprehensive business planning and market analysis.
- To actively engage users to integrate, test, and validate ForeSight tools and services in real-world settings.
- To develop the first Long Wave InfraRed (LWIR) LiDAR in the 9μm spectral range using Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCL) technology, revolutionizing imaging and mapping in low-visibility smoke and fire conditions, reducing scattering effect and avoiding interference caused by the fire’s black body radiation.
- To leverage customized flash LiDAR imaging in the visible range to accelerate 3D data acquisition for enhanced situational mapping.
- To deliver a high-performance SWIR LiDAR system with an optical phase-locked loop (OPLL) for enhanced precision.
- To develop a laser-based, high-power LWIR illuminator combined with LWIR imaging sensor, so as to allow responders to see through smoke, fire, fog, and dust unobtrusively.
- To develop ultra-high-power MWIR beacons with high-power QCL arrays, to facilitate team localization and status sharing.
- To effectively deliver a new paradigm an intuitive navigation and mapping solution for low- or zero-visibility environments by integrating LiDARs, illuminators, and beacons into responder protective gear with Heads-Up Display (HUD) and augmented reality (AR) capabilities.
- To boost situational awareness and tactical logistics by developing heavy-lift drones (>40kg and >100kg) for emergency supply delivery, deployment of Fire-Fighting Bombs (FFBs) with fire-retarding material, high-resolution imaging and videos for 2D/3D area reconstruction, and detecting and identifying persons (FRs and citizens) within the entire event zone.
- To deliver innovative command, control, coordination, and intelligence (C3I) capabilities that improve situational awareness, task allocation, and logistics management through advanced 2D/3D data acquisition and mapping.
- To significantly boost civil protection response effectiveness against urban fires and wildfires by enhancing operational performance.
- To ensure adherence to societal, ethical, legal, privacy, and security (SELP) requirements, incorporating best practices and regulations to support the sustainability of the ForeSight project.
- To deliver a novel command, control, coordination & intelligence (C3I) capabilities, enabling effective sense and decision making, as well as enhancing situational awareness, task allocation and logistics management, based on advanced 2D & 3D data acquisition, representation, and mapping.
- To increase civil protection effectiveness against urban fires and wildfires by significantly enhancing response performance.
- To ensure societal, ethical, legal, privacy (SELP) and security requirements, best practices and regulations are followed advancing ForeSight sustainability.