Task-Adaptive Information Distribution for Dynamic Collaborative Emergency Response

Niels Netten, Guido Bruinsma, Maarten van Someren and Robert de Hoog

This paper appears in: The International Journal of INTELLIGENT CONTROL AND SYSTEMS
Publication Date: December 2006
Volume: 11, Number: 4
On page(s): 238- 247

Abstract

For emergency responders in crisis situations it is essential that they timely acquire all information critical to their task performance. Lack of adequate information hampers the decision-making process, the workflow as well as situational awareness, which consequently strongly influences a successful solution of the crisis. Studies have shown that in practice errors occur in accessing and sharing relevant information between collaborating individuals or organizations, leading to unnecessary, preventable errors and delays, that can cause more damage to the situation. This paper presents the Task-Adaptive Information Distribution (TAID) method. It consists of a system for adaptive information distribution that distributes relevant information to collaborating emergency responders and of an adaptive (simulated) workflow system (AWS) used to obtain knowledge of tasks and work processes. The system is trained on data from previous crisis management processes, using tools from Machine Learning. Results of experiments with data from a real incident indicate that this approach is promising. Using task knowledge significantly increases the quality of distributing relevant information so making collaborative response work much more effective.

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