Integrating Sensor Platforms to Enhance Information Systems in Public Safety Organizations

Organizations active in the field of public safety are facing new challenges globally due to an increasing number and range of mission types and increasingly intensive missions. This is especially true for alpine search- and rescue (SAR)-missions. A reliable and useful situational overview is thus essential for mission control. At the same time, due to rapid technological developments in the field of sensors, support platforms such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), as well as the improved availability of data communication infrastructure, new possibilities arise to improve the data and decision base for mission managers. This requires a meaningful and seamless integration of various information sources and systems, however, which are currently often stand alone operated. The work presented in this paper aims to bridge this gap by developing a concept and demonstrates the practical applicability by the integration of various sensor platforms into an existing command and control (C2) system. The provision here from a technical perspective are, detailed insights into this advanced integrated approach supporting the seamless information flow from sensor data generation to data processing (automatic orthogonal picture generation) and visualization via an existing C2 system. In the course of a case study a prototype for such an integrated sensor-based C2 system was developed and tested in a real world mission scenario where feedback from mountain rescuers was gathered during a field test using a qualitative survey. Based on these results implications and topics for future C2 systems are discussed.