About
FireEscape is a system that displays a clear path out of the building in the event of a fire: it updates in real-time with the safest and fastest path out, relative to where fire hotspots have been detected by our nodes. We aim to decrease the chaos in the event of and reduce the likelihood of people trying to exit a building, only to find their path blocked. Our hope is that this could feasibly be installed in all buildings as a complement to existing fire detection and prevention systems such as smoke detectors and sprinkler systems.
Design
We will have nodes installed at key hallways, intersections, and stairwells of a building; each node will have heat and smoke sensors, and LEDs to indicate the recommended path to exit a building. Each node will run its own pathfinding based on the information received from all other nodes on the node mesh, to determine the safest possible path out of the building from the current node’s location.
To be compliant with fire safety code, the nodes will be hard-wired into the electrical of the building, but there will be battery backup on all nodes. The nodes will also communicate on their own network because relying on WiFi would fail in the event of a power outage during the fire.