1. Drexel University, Dept of Computer Science, Philadelphia, PA Demonstration: Disaster Evacuation Support Christopher J. Carpenter, Christopher J. Dugan, Evan A. Sultanik, Joseph B. Kopena, Robert N. Lass, Duc N. Nguyen William C. Regli, Pragnesh Jay Modi

2. Drexel University, Dept of Computer Science, Philadelphia, PA Disaster Response A major task in disaster relief is evacuating the emergency site FEMA photo Emergency personnel need to determine and coordinate evac routes and reception centers

3. Drexel University, Dept of Computer Science, Philadelphia, PA Problem Definition Goal: Support first responders and disaster relief workers in planning and managing evacuations –Aiming to be applicable at neighborhood, city, and regional levels Approach: Model the task as a distributed constraint optimization problem (DCOP) running on mobile, wireless systems –Reporting state & assigning evacuation relief centers based on available capacity

4. Drexel University, Dept of Computer Science, Philadelphia, PA Adopt Agent Approach Agents represent convoy or group leaders choosing evacuation destinations –For this demonstration, each agent is running on a TabletPC connected over a wireless ad-hoc network Adopt is used as the basic DCOP technique –Provides optimal, distributed constraint solving Decentralization reduces infrastructure, fragility –No servers or Internet; peers solving common problem –Potential tolerance to node failure, limited networking

5. Drexel University, Dept of Computer Science, Philadelphia, PA Evacuation DCOP Groups have various sizes and evacuation needs. Constraints are the capacities of the shelters and the services provided.

6. Drexel University, Dept of Computer Science, Philadelphia, PA Destinations Assigned Using the Adopt algorithm, each agent coordinates in a decentralized, asynchronous fashion to optimally distribute evacuees.

7. Drexel University, Dept of Computer Science, Philadelphia, PA AAAI 2007 Demo This work demonstrates: –The application of DCOP modeling and Adopt to emergency management –Research extending Adopt to incorporate network awareness and dynamic worlds Exhibit requirements: –Space & power for ~6 tablet/laptop computers and an external screen or projector (all of which will be brought by the demo team)