Emergency response operations are critical for ensuring public safety during disasters and emergencies. First responders (FRs) , including firefighters, paramedics, and police officers, are on the front lines of emergency situations, where they often face immense risks to their health and safety.

The iMARS project is designed to address the significant challenges FRs encounter by leveraging the latest technological innovations to create a safer, more effective emergency response framework. iMARS seeks to address these issues through the development of a combined theoretical and complementary experimental research programme. The primary objective of iMARS is to establish a functionalized, robot-assisted intelligent system tailored for First Responders (FRs). This system incorporates an embedded decisionmaking interface, enabling advanced capabilities such as dynamic simulation and a priori perception of robots and human adaptive cyber-physical systems (CPS) in hazardous environments with limited visibility. Additionally, iMARS aims to enhance dexterity, specifically in the context of conducting search and rescue operations. These will be achieved through the development of a robust and well-validated dynamic simulation and human-robot interaction framework, which can integrate a combined swarm of autonomous robot vectors, and decision-making infrastructures. iMARS goal will provide quantitative data through a complementary experimental programme for decision making and training FRs.

Project Consortium

• Institutul de Mecanica Solidelor, RO
• Edinburgh Napier University, UK
• Technische Universität Wien, AT
• Universita degli Studi Di Palermo, IT
• Stimpex SA, SA RO
• Pompiers de l’urgence internationale,  FR
• Edelweiss – Protezione civile IT
• Scottish Ambulance Service NHS Board UK