FASTER

FASTER is a three-year project funded through European Union’s H2020 programme for Research and Innovation. It addresses the challenges associated with the protection of first responders in hazardous environments, while at the same time enhancing their capabilities in terms of situational awareness and communication.

FASTER will employ a set of important supporting technologies that will be deployed to circumvent special conditions that manifest during disasters and hamper the deployment and effectiveness of traditional disaster response systems. These are:

  • UAVs and UGVs for their mapping and transportation capabilities to increase overall situational awareness, deliver important resources and even offer firefighting solutions, resilient communications, as disaster conditions may disrupt and hamper communications or even prevent operational networking conditions;
  • Technologies for companion K9 units and mini-UAVs for obstacle bypassing, improved inspection and navigational capabilities;
  • AR tools for improved situational awareness by making immediately visible, in-situ and in real-time, information that was previously unavailable or difficult to get.

These supporting technologies will expand the first responders’ arsenal and allow them to operate in most situations and conditions while protecting them in hostile environments and improving their overall effectiveness and operational capacity.

Crisisplan’s role in this project (like in most EU projects) is the identification of user requirements and creation of use cases, which guide the technical development. Moreover, we are responsible for defining the scenarios that will be used to test and demonstrate the developed tools, as well as for planning the demonstration events. Finally, we are in charge of training first responders on the use of the FASTER tools.

For more information on the FASTER project, please contact us. This project has received funding from the European Union’s H2020 Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no. 833507.

Please visit the FASTER website.