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.
To achieve its ambitious goals and address the challenges inspiring its inception, ForeSight has defined a series of strategic, technological, scientific, policy, and societal objectives. At the core is the mission to strengthen EU resilience and reduce societal vulnerability to urban fires and wildfires through the delivery of bespoke tools and services extensively validated by responders to facilitate training and foster acceptance.
A comprehensive analysis of current emergency response technologies, including drones, AI, and sensors, will evaluate their strengths and limitations, paving the way for innovations that overcome identified gaps. ForeSight prioritizes active user engagement to integrate, test, and validate its tools in real-world settings, ensuring practical utility. Central to its technological breakthroughs is the development of a groundbreaking Long Wave InfraRed (LWIR) LiDAR in the 9μm spectral range, utilizing Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCL) to enable imaging in low-visibility conditions while mitigating interference from fire radiation.
Complementary advancements include flash LiDAR imaging for rapid 3D data acquisition, high-performance SWIR LiDAR systems with optical phase-locked loops for enhanced precision, and laser-based LWIR illuminators for unobstructed visibility in challenging environments. ForeSight also envisions ultra-high-power MWIR beacons for effective localization and status sharing among teams. Integration of these technologies into protective gear with augmented reality (AR) and Heads-Up Displays (HUDs) will redefine navigation and mapping in low-visibility scenarios. Heavy-lift drones capable of carrying over 40kg and 100kg loads will enhance situational awareness and logistics by delivering emergency supplies, deploying fire-retarding materials, and providing high-resolution imaging.
Advanced command, control, coordination, and intelligence (C3I) systems will revolutionize situational awareness, task allocation, and logistics management through cutting-edge 2D/3D data acquisition and mapping, while by ensuring adherence to societal, ethical, legal, privacy, and security (SELP) principles, ForeSight aims to deliver sustainable solutions, significantly boosting civil protection effectiveness and enhancing disaster response performance.