Category: Events

Athonet was proud to present its PPDR solutions at the Critical Communication World event, which took place in Madrid from Nov. 3rd to 5th. Athonet advertised the European projects with a focus on critical communications in which they participate, including RESPOND-A. The project’s flyers were distributed, and the project’s video was projected on a screen visible to the booth’s visitors. Athonet’s solutions for private networking and critical communication attracted the attention of experts from Europe, Asia and South America who visited the stand. There was a lot of interest in European projects as well, highlighting that cooperation among continental stakeholders is the right way forward.

On 2 November 2021, the RESPOND-A project (Next-generation equipment tools and mission-critical strategies for First Responders) conveyed its second in a series of webinars addressing new technologies for first responders. This edition, focusing on Sensors and Smart Wearables, namely featured the participation of SIXTHSENSE, FASTER and INGENIOUS, three EU projects also funded under the Horizon 2020 research programme seeking to enhance the capabilities and safety of First Responders through innovative technologies. The programme was initiated by an introduction to RESPOND-A and included a practitioner’s perspective on the wildfires that hit Cyprus last summer. The webinar generated great interest, attracting around 80 participants from Europe and worldwide.  The organisation of the event also coincided with a statement issued on 29th October by the European Commission on the cybersecurity of wireless devices and products. The adoption of the delegated to the Radio Equipment Directive “aims to make sure that all wireless devices are safe before being sold on the EU market. This act lays down new legal requirements for cybersecurity safeguards, which manufacturers will have to take into account in the design and production of the concerned products. It will also protect citizens’ privacy and personal data, prevent the risks of monetary fraud as well as ensure better resilience of our communication networks.” (source: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_5634)  From monitoring in real time the health status and other bio-indicators of first responders in mission to enhancing first responders’assessment of dangerous situations, Sensors and smart wearables have the potential to greatly enhance the operational capacity and safety of first responders. The webinar provided a platform for exchanging knowledge and allowed projects and experts to share their experience in designing and/or integrating these technologies. The essential role of practitioners in defining needs and testing solutions as well as their possible deployment were also discussed.  The presentations and recording of the webinar are available at https://respond-a.ianus-technologies.com/ 

On the occasion of the Congrès National de Sapeurs-Pompiers de France (127th National Congress of Firefigters of France), on 13-16 October, in Marseille, RESPOND-A, together with the project partner Airbus, had the great opportunity to present the project to over 250,000 French and international firefighters. Several players from the public safety sector attended the Congress and were eager to learn what we are doing to develop enhanced technologies for first responders. We have detailed our latest activities such as our workshop on Augmented Reality, our joint trial in Athens and our recent training in Cyprus. All of these activities involve previously thought scenarios and the use of technologies designed to enhance capabilities and situation awareness during crisis and emergency situations. On the last day of the Congress, we had the pleasure of welcoming in our booth the French Minister of Interior, Gérald Darmanin. The French President Emmanuel Macron also attended the event, delivering the concluding remarks on the importance of public safety and the rise of natural disasters, in particular, addressing the RESCEU, part of the EU Civil Protection mechanism: “Disasters know no borders, and with their increase in number and intensification in kind, we need a European vision to prepare ourselves for the future. That is why civil protection must be a priority for the French Presidency of the Council of the EU“. Closing the 127th National Congress of Firefighters of France, Macron left some announcements: ➜ The creation of a single platform bringing together all calls to emergency numbers. It will be tested from 2022 and for two years across a wider region. ➜ The elimination of the employer wage premium on the fire premium allowing an average monthly gain of 45 euros. ➜ “The extension of the new loyalty and recognition bonus to all those with more than fifteen years of service. The event:The National Congress of Firefighters of France in 2021 was a unique occasion highlighting the 250,000 firefighters in France but also a landmark event for the national civil security projet. A project under the aegis of the National Federation of Firefighters of France, led by the association “Organizing Committee of the 127th National Congress of Firefighters of France”.

On 29 and 30 September, the EU-funded RESPOND-A Project has organised its second training session in Limassol, Cyprus, to familiarise first-responders with the use of RESPOND-A technologies. In the first week of July 2021, a massive wildfire erupted in Cyprus, burning an area of around 55square kilometers and causing the death of 4 people. With the support of several other nations which provided assistance and firefighting aircraft (Greece, Israel, Italy, UK), the blaze was fully under control 48 hours later. “Wildfires are a permanent threat in countries such as Cyprus. It is important for us to be aware of existing innovative technologies that could help us to tackle these disasters more rapidly and effectively” Christophoros STYLIANOU, Head of the Limassol Fire Station RESPOND-A (Next-generation equipment tools and mission-critical strategies for First Responders) is an EU-funded research project aimed at enhancing the capabilities of first responders through the use of innovative technologies. Training is also a key component of the project to familiarize first responders with innovative solutions using realistic use case scenarios. After a first edition that took place fully online in December 2020, this second training was held both online and on-site on 29-30 September 2021. The innovative technologies presented during the training included (name of the technology provider under brackets): –  MAESTRO: a Real-time disaster area management system (IANUS) –  Tag & Trace: Easy-to-use Patients’Triage & Tracking System (PROMETECH) –  XBELLO: Secure 5G Application for real-time information exchange (8BELLS) –  BELL/DFF: Data Format Fusion System (8BELLS) –  UAV-based Communications System (ATMOSPHERE) –  Interactive multi-view VR360 video tool for enhanced situation awareness (I2CAT) –  Next Generation Connectivity Platform (ATHONET)First responders had the opportunity to use and experiment these technologies, namely in a virtual reality (VR) fire scenario and field exercise. This exercise was not only a way for practitioners to experiment with these new technologies, but it is also a great opportunity for technology providers of RESPOND-A to collect feedback on the usability of their solutions.“This second training was a very good opportunity for RESPOND-A to present and train first- responders with the technologies developed and used as part of our project. We look forward to our next training early 2022 in Greece.” Guillem CANALETA, Pau Costa Foundation.

RESPOND-A joint pilot with FASTER in Athens On June 25th 2021, RESPOND-A will be participating to a joint pilot session In Athens in collaboration with the FASTER project. RESPOND-A technologies and components will be tested incuding 5G System, MCX, UAV system, Thermal Camera, Body Sensors, Emergency Van. Stay tuned! 

RESPOND-A First Training session was successfully held online the 10th and 11th of December 2020 under a virtual environment due to COVID-19 restrictions. A total of 69 attendees participated in the presentations, exercises and discussions. The first training session was focused on addressing maritime accidents in coastal and port areas by using RESPOND-A novel technologies adapted to port and maritime authorities protection plans. Two separated incidents were tackled: The first incident was a crash of two trucks in the port area close to Valencia city producing a fire and releasing toxic gases in the affected area. This accident provokes the emanation of toxic gases that force the evacuation of the inhabitants of the surrounding neighborhoods. It also considers the usage of robots to support in the rescue and evacuation of people in danger. Both, technical providers and First Responders organisations followed the table top exercise conducted by SIDROCO, were some key questions in regards to the incident management and the usage of the different tools were put on the table. Technologies to address the situation were the Tag&Trace injured people triage system (PROMETECH), TALENT software to enhance the incident coordination (I2CAT) and the DRONSTER, a robot to remotely visualize the area, detect toxic gases as well as help First Responder to evacuate injured people (VALLFIREST). The second day had a similar structure. After hearing hte presentation of the user story and the technologies, the table top exercise started. It was focused on an oil spill accident that occurs in the neighboring coast of the port from a vessel that crashes with port’s breakwater. This scenario includes the usage of tailored technologies to improve the response capacity under a safe environment, increase the situational awareness during the accident, to support the evacuation of coast from bathers and monitoring vital and stress signals of FR. Technologies to address the situation were a private 4G/5G mobile network to ensure First Responders communication in a devastated area (ATHONET) as well as the SUMMIT-XL robot able to deploy all the necessary equipment in the damaged area (ROBOTNIK). After performing both exercises, a discussion session to improve the coming trainings and the training methodology under COVID-19 restrictions was done. The main conclusions were: Group trainings are better than individual trainings. However, to ensure an active participation of all FR organizations, individual trainings will be considered. It is important to distribute training materials in advanced, particularly among first responders. The reason is that it is not easy to develop a discussion-based exercise without the opportunity to prepare the answers in advanced. Field trainings are needed as soon as the restrictions allow us to do so. To increase the quality of trainings as well as generating new training methods under safe environments we need: serious games, simulations and table-top exercises. Since FR need to learn the specific usage of each technology, there is the possibility to organize webinars sessions before the training session with the objective of presenting the new technologies.

“On 27th/28th January 2021, our project partner Athonet will host the first edition of the UPTIME conference at VIlla Griffone, Italy and briefly present the RESPOND-A project.  The conference is free of charge and celebrates 10 years of the Private LTE industry. The aim of the event is to look forward to the next decade of Private 5G with abundant shared and unlicensed spectrum for deployment. Invited speakers will come from end-user Industries, mobile network operators, specialist operators, cloud hyperscalers, and device manufacturers.  For more info, please visit UPTIME 2021 – The Annual Private 5G & LTE World Community Conference Tickets, Wed 27 Jan 2021 at 08:00 | Eventbrite”

RESPOND-A will organize its first training session on 10th and 11th of December 2020, based on the “Use-case 3: Port of Valencia”. The current restrictions of the different participant countries due to COVID-19 made impossible to organize a face-to-face event. That it way it was decided to prepare a training session in an online environment by taking advantage of new technologies. The training session will focus on the study case of Valencia Port, where two separate incidents occur: an oil spill and a crash between two trucks producing a fire. In this sense, the different technical partners provide technological solutions to address both situations while First Responders are going to handle the situation in a virtual environment by following a discussion-based decision-making process. The first day will be dedicated to the “User story 2: Crash of two trucks” and the second day will focus on the “User story 1: Oil spill”; both days will run tools presentations, training exercises and questionnaires and open discussions. If you are interested, please contact Guillem Canaleta (Pau Costa Foundation): gcanaleta@paucostafoundation.org The programme of both days is available below.

Dr. Georgios Boustras, Project Coordinator and Director of The Centre for Risk and Decision Sciences (CIRES), has presented RESPOND-A in the Clustering Webinar on New Technologies for First Responders, organized by Public Safety Communication Europe (PSCE). The Clustering Webinar gathered 6 other projects (Search & Rescue, CURSOR, ASSISTANCE, RESPONDRONE, SIXTHSENSE and INGENIOUS) and about 120 partners form the consortia, to present the projects and discuss on the topic of end-user requirements for first responders technologies.

Dr. Anastasios Kourtis Technical Coordinator of RESPOND-A and Research Director of the Institute of Informatics & Telecommunications of NCSR DEMOKRITOS has presented RESPOND-A in the “5G Trials in Europe – 5G Experimentation Facilities and Vertical Trials” workshop https://5g-ppp.eu/event/5g-experimentation-facilities-and-vertical-trials/.