Supporting civil engineers during disaster response and recovery using a segway mobile workstation chariot

Peña-Mora, F; Thomas, J; Golparvar-Fard, M; Aziz, ZUH

Abstract

This paper presents a mobile workstation chariot (MWC) that enables first responders and civil engineers to undertake initial
disaster reconnaissance and damage assessment operations by quickly traversing hazardous terrain and through provisioning of a necessary
computing infrastructure to support real time communication with the command center. The MWC comprises a personal transporter equipped
with on board communication equipment and computational processing capabilities to collect, archive, analyze, and report large quantities of
data from a disaster site to provide better situation awareness of an emerging disaster scenario. In the case study presented here, the MWC
uses a commercially available Segway Personal Transporter modified with a framework designed to carry a payload of information gathering
and communication equipment. The MWC supports both horizontal and vertical real time data capture and transmission flow from first
responders and civil engineers on the scene up to the command center by means of multilevel wireless voice and data communication
infrastructures. This on board computational and visualization infrastructure allows for collecting, aggregating and deaggregating semiautomatic
data, analyzing, recording, and reporting critical response and recovery information easily and quickly

Citation

Peña-Mora, F., Thomas, J., Golparvar-Fard, M., & Aziz, Z. (2012). Supporting civil engineers during disaster response and recovery using a segway mobile workstation chariot. Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, 26(3), 448-455. https://doi.org/10.1061/%28ASCE%29CP.1943-5487.0000117

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 10, 2011
• Publication Date: Mar 16, 2012
• Deposit Date: Dec 8, 2015
• Journal: Supporting Civil Engineers during Disaster Response and Recovery Using a Segway Mobile Workstation Chariot
• Print ISSN: 0887-3801
• Electronic ISSN: 1943-5487
• Publisher: Coasts, Oceans, Ports and Rivers Institute
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 448-455
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1061/%28ASCE%29CP.1943-5487.0000117
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CP.1943-5487.0000117