Disaster scene reconstruction: modeling, simulating, and planning in an urban disaster environment

Urban disasters are characterized by buildings collapsing. The rubble of collapsed buildings forms a chaotic, unplanned and unmapped environment in which emergency first responders must find the surviving occupants who are now trapped and hidden in the dangerous rubble. The more knowledge that search teams have pertaining to the resulting environment the better they are equipped to plan and rescue survivors. Our research demonstrates that simulations can be used to inspect urban disaster-related terrain remotely and safely within hours of the actual disaster. The Disaster Scene Reconstruction system allows for the creation of accurate 3D models and a simulation providing custom functionality --such as virtual structural inspection and--providing first responders the ability to plan actions in the simulated environment. The goal of this research is to demonstrate that the functionality we developed can be used to provide accurate information to users and potentially assist search and rescue planning efforts.