COORDINATORs: Future Directions Extended Abstract
John Phelps · 2004
Introduction We have developed a system to assist first responders called COORDINATORs(Wagner et al. 2004b; 2004a). COORDINATORs are coordination managers for fielded first responders and their commanders. Each fielded first responder or first responder team is paired with a COORDINATOR coordination manager which runs on a mobile computing device. COORDINATORs provide decision support to first response teams, assisting them reasoning about who should be doing what, when, and with what resources. COORDINATORs respond to the dynamics of the environment by integrating building system reports, situation assessment information from coordinating to determine the right course of action for constantly evolving circumstances. COORDINATORs have been implemented using commodity workstations, wireless PDAs, and proprietary first responder location tracking technologies. Buildingon our existing COORDINATORs system, much exciting work remains to enable them to adapt to dynamic, large-scale crises such as a those caused by natural phenomena (earthquake or hurricane) or by a terrorist attack, where the crisis is characterized by multi-point concurrent incidents spread across a large geographic area and where multiple organizations or teams responding presents an enormous challenge that we are addressing with current and future work.