The Fundación Valenciaport participates in the RESPOND-A project, which will provide the best technologies to the immediate response teams in emergencies

The RESPOND-A project involves thirty-four partners from thirteen countries and has a budget of more than 7,000,000 Euros.

Within the framework of this project, the Fundación Valenciaport, in collaboration with the port of Valencia and together with the Local Police of Valencia, will carry out a pilot project that will complement the current self-protection plans in and around the port in contingency scenarios, disaster mitigation, as well as the search and rescue of people.

Valencia – 28.07.20. Thirty-four partners from thirteen European countries, including the Fundación Valenciaport, have joined together with the common objective of improving the information management systems of first aid professionals by combining different cutting-edge technologies.

The actions that will contribute to this will be carried out within the framework of the new European project RESPOND-A (Next-Generation Equipment Tools and Mission-Critical Strategies for First Responders) co-financed by the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 programme, with an amount of more than 7,000,000 euros for its development, which began last June.

With the growing threat of climate change and the consequences of industrial accidents, which are becoming increasingly serious, there is a growing need for first aid professionals to have access to reliable and agile information management systems that offer greater situational awareness and a better common operational image.

The RESPOND-A project will develop holistic and easy-to-use solutions for first aid teams, bringing together the complementary strengths of the expert partners the following technologies: 5G wireless communications, augmented and virtual reality, autonomous robots, remote drone coordination, smart wearable sensors, smart monitoring, geo-visual analysis and immersive geospatial data analysis, passive and active location and tracking, and interactive 360° video transmission with multiple views.

The synergy of these cutting-edge technological advances will provide continuous, high-end flows of data, voice and video information to first responders and their control centers to easily and reliably predict and assess various incidents and save lives more efficiently and effectively, while maximizing their own protection, before, during and after disasters. To this end, RESPOND-A plans to exercise first responders to become familiar with the technological results of the project and to demonstrate their performance and effectiveness in the real world at the classified training facilities of various project partners in hydrometeorological, geophysical and technological disaster scenarios.

Specifically, the Fundación Valenciaport, in collaboration with the Port of Valencia and together with the Valencia Local Police, will carry out a pilot to validate the technologies developed during the project to complement the current self-protection plans within and around the port in contingency scenarios, disaster mitigation, as well as the search and rescue of people.

More specifically, the pilot includes:

– The immediate evacuation of cruisers through the support of drones, which carry advanced thermal sensors.

– The use of smart helmets and goggles with augmented reality capabilities by first aid teams to support the evacuation of bathers on shore, by extending their visual range to know in real time: the location of other rescue bodies (while monitoring the stress signals of the professionals thanks to smart vests) and the location and distance to the nearest spills of flammable liquids and corrosive substances to prioritize help to bathers.

– Early diagnosis of damaged people carried out remotely by medical first aid staff, thanks to the use of drones and augmented reality glasses. Early diagnosis of injuries will be achieved by connecting the reconnaissance drone to the emergency medical services staff in real time.

– Identification of the source of the spill through IoT sensors.

RESPOND-A has thirty-four partners: European University Cyprus (coordinator); Airbus DS SLC; Triagnosys Gmbh; National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos”; Fundación Centro de Tecnologías de Interacción Visual y Comunicaciones Vicomtech; Fundació Privada I2CAT, Internet i Innovació Digital a Catalunya; Atmosphere Gmbh; Probotek Ltd; Robotnik Automation Sll; Athonet Srl; Nifakos Sokratis; 0 Infinity Limited; Hellenic Instruments IKE; Prometech BV; Eight Bells; Sidroco Holdings Limited; Cyberlens BV; Vallfirest Tecnologías Forestales, S.L.; Csi Center For Social Innovation Ltd; Fundació d’ecología del Foc i Gestió d’incendis Pau Costa Alcubierre; Fundación Valenciaport; Public Safety Communication Europe Forum AISBL; Ayuntamiento de Valencia – Valencia Local Police; Cyprus Police; Municipality of Egaleo; Institut po Otbrana BG; Smartex S.R.L.; Uprava Pomorske Sigurnosti I Upravljanja Lukama; Ministry of National Defence, Greece; Ministério da Justiça; Universitetska Mnogoprofilna Bolnitsa Za Aktivno Lechenie “Sveti Georgi” – University Multiprofile Hospital for Active Traitment “Saint George” IV; Software Company Eood; Innovative Energy and Information Technologies Ltd; and Ianus Consulting Limited.