On May 27, 2021 a first field test was carried out to verify the evolution of the IOPES project (“Indoor-Outdoor Positioning for Emergency Staff”, funded by the Directorate-General Humanitarian and Civil Protection, call UCPM-2019-PP-AG, coordinated by the CTTC). The test took place at the BCN Drone Center, located at the facilities of CATUAV, one of the partners of the project, in Collsuspina, Barcelona (Spain).
The IOPES project aims at strengthening the preparedness of civil protection and emergency teams involved in disaster-related operations. The targets are (1) to provide continuous, time-tagged information about the location of these teams, either indoors or outdoors (2) as a new feature of an already operational emergency management system, (3) relying in existing cartography, or new maps (fast mapping + Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems) (4) using its own communication system to avoid the need of existing (possibly damaged/inoperative) infrastructures (5) to better the decision-making process.
Besides the CTTC itself, six more partners constitute the IOPES consortium; these are ATHONET S.R.L. (Italy), CATUAV S.L. (Spain), Scarabot Technologies GmbH (Germany), SAREYE EHF. (Iceland), Fundació d’ecologia del foc i gestió d’incendis Pau Costa Alcubierre (Spain) and Frederiksborg brand og redning (Denmark). Together, these companies and institutions provide the necessary expertise to drive the IOPES project to a successful end.
Due to the restrictions due to the COVID pandemics, mainly only partners and stakeholders located in Spain attended the event. A total of 5 institutions / companies were present, including Bombers de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Mossos d’esquadra, Agents Rurals, l’Associació per la Defensa Forestal and the Centre de Telecomunicacions i Tecnologies de la Informació making a total of 14 attendees. Nonetheless, the last part of the test was broadcast via internet so other stakeholders, partners and the project officer could follow it live.
The whole test, however, was recorded in video and broadcast via Youtube on June 16th, 2021. A total of 80 attendees followed the presentation. This recording may be viewed here: https://youtu.be/0JYG5hj9wwk
