On 20/21 September 2022, an project test was conducted at the Integrated Control Centre (ILS) in Schweinfurt under the joint leadership of the Bavarian Red Cross (BRK), Department of Rescue Services - Safety Research and the DLR/ZKI as part of the BMBF-funded AIFER project.
Left: Juergen Dippold (Head of Department Integrated Control Centres of the BRK) visits the AIFER exercise; Konstanze Lechner (DLR, ZKI), Marc Wieland (DLR, AIFER Project Manager); center: situational picture prepared for the exercise; Right: Conducting the test in different operation rooms
During this test, automated remote sensing and web data analyses of the DLR and the University of Salzburg could be provided via the Cadenza software of the company disy and tested by the colleagues of the ILS Schweinfurt and the ÖRK (Austrian Red Cross). The added value of the generated crisis information as well as the interactive situation picture could be tested on the basis of a former real case scenario, the flood disaster in the Ahr valley in 2021.
Participants of the AIFER test in Schweinfurt
The test has been organized in the context of the German-Austrian research project AIFER (Artificial Intelligence for Emergency Response). AIFER develops machine learning methods to extract and fuse crisis-relevant information from satellite-, aerial and UAV-images as well as geo-social media in support of emergency response. Besides technical and scientific tasks, the project specifically tackles legal, social and ethical aspects of the use of artificial intelligence and focuses strongly on integrating end-user’s needs into its developments. The main objective of the project is to contribute to dynamically updated situational awareness and support targeted decision making in emergency response. The project is funded by the German Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) as part of the programme „Forschung für die zivile Sicherheit“ and by the Austrian Bundesministerium für Landwirtschaft, Regionen und Tourismus (BMLRT) as part of the „Förderungsprogramm für Sicherheitsforschung (KIRAS)“.