Disaster determination system and disaster determination method

• US 10,127,789 B2
• Filed: 06/09/2017
• Issued: 11/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SMK Corporation
• Original Assignee: SMK Corporation
• Inventors: Abe, Rie, Kondo, Haruhiko, Kim, Junsoo, Ito, Natsumi, Tanaka, Tsubasa
• Primary Examiner(s): Zimmerman, Brian
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lau, Kevin
• Application Number:
  US15/618,159
• Publication Number:
  US 20170278371A1
• Time in Patent Office: 522 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 17/00 Fire alarms; Alarms responsive to explosion
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/10 responsive to calamitous events, e.g. tornados or earthquakes
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/007 Details of data content structure of message packets; data protocols
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/009 Signalling of the alarm condition to a substation whose identity is signalled to a central station, e.g. relaying alarm signals in order to extend communication range
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/10 using wireless transmission systems G08B25/009 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/14 Central alarm receiver or annunciator arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 31/00 Predictive alarm systems characterised by extrapolation or other computation using updated historic data

Abstract

A plurality of sensing terminal devices and a disaster determination processing device are dispersedly placed at different positions. Each sensing terminal device is configured to send, when occurrence of disaster has been sensed, disaster sensing information to which terminal identification information for specifying the sensing terminal device itself is added, and the disaster determination processing device is configured to determine a disaster status based on the received disaster sensing information. The sensing terminal devices and the disaster determination processing device are connected together via a mesh network. A disaster determination section of the disaster determination processing device is configured to determine a disaster occurrence position and a disaster expansion direction from a placement position and a disaster sensing time for at least two or more of the sensing terminal devices having sent the disaster sensing information.

Claims

1. A disaster determination system configured such that a plurality of sensing terminal devices and a disaster determination processing device dispersedly placed at different positions are connected together via a mesh network utilizing multi-hop communication and that the disaster determination processing device determines a disaster status based on disaster sensing information sent via the mesh network from at least one of the plurality of sensing terminal devices having sensed a physical change at a placement position due to occurrence of disaster, wherein

each sensing terminal device includes

a disaster sensing section configured to monitor a physical change amount at the placement position and sense occurrence of the disaster when the physical change amount exceeds a predetermined set value, and

a transmission unit configured to send the disaster sensing information to the disaster determination processing device via the mesh network when the disaster sensing section has sensed occurrence of the disaster, terminal identification information for specifying the each sensing terminal device itself being added to the disaster sensing information,

the disaster determination processing device includes a disaster determination section configured to determine the disaster status based on the disaster sensing information received from the at least one of the plurality of sensing terminal devices via the mesh network,

the disaster determination section

obtains, for the at least one of the plurality of sensing terminal devices having sent the disaster sensing information, the sensing terminal device placement position specified from the terminal identification information and a disaster sensing time at which the at least one of the plurality of sensing terminal devices has sensed occurrence of the disaster every reception of the disaster sensing information, and

determines a disaster occurrence position and a disaster expansion direction from the placement position and the disaster sensing time for at least two or more of the plurality of sensing terminal devices having sent the disaster sensing information, and

the disaster determination processing device

assigns a warning rank based on a number of hops included in a route record contained in the received disaster sensing information, the warning rank indicating a higher level of dangerousness in an order of transferring of the disaster sensing information to the at least one of the plurality of sensing terminal devices, and

transmits, via the mesh network, to the at least one of the plurality of sensing terminal devices having sent the disaster sensing information, warning information corresponding to the assigned warning rank and the disaster status containing the disaster occurrence position and the disaster expansion direction determined by the disaster determination section.

2. The disaster determination system according to claim 1, wherein

in addition to the disaster sensing information, the transmission unit sends, as the disaster sensing time, the time at which the disaster sensing section has sensed occurrence of the disaster to the disaster determination processing device.

3. The disaster determination system according to any one of claim 1, wherein

the transmission unit of the at least one of the plurality of sensing terminal devices sends the disaster sensing information at a predetermined interval after the disaster sensing section has sensed occurrence of the disaster, and

even when the disaster sensing information is not received for a period of equal to or longer than the interval from the at least one of the plurality of sensing terminal devices having sent the disaster sensing information, the disaster determination section regards the at least one of the plurality of sensing terminal devices as sending the disaster sensing information.

4. The disaster determination system according to claim 1, wherein

the transmission unit of the at least one of the plurality of sensing terminal devices sends the disaster sensing information containing the physical change amount exceeding the predetermined set value when the disaster sensing section has sensed occurrence of the disaster, and

the disaster determination section determines the disaster occurrence position and the disaster expansion direction based on the placement position, the disaster sensing time, and the physical change amount for the at least two or more of the plurality of sensing terminal devices having sent the disaster sensing information.

5. The disaster determination system according to claim 1, wherein

the plurality of sensing terminal devices is dispersedly placed in a building.

7. The disaster determination system according to claim 1, wherein the transmission unit performs multicast communication to adjacent sensing terminal devices so as to send the disaster sensing information to the disaster determination processing device via the mesh network when the disaster sensing section has sensed occurrence of the disaster.

8. The disaster determination system according to claim 7, wherein

each of the sensing terminal device includes a routing table that is dynamically updated using an ad hoc routing protocol.

9. The disaster determination system according to claim 8, wherein the routing table includes at least one communication path that is identified by at least one route reply command frame (PREP) received from the disaster determination processing device via the mesh network.

6. A disaster determination method in which a plurality of sensing terminal devices and a disaster determination processing device dispersedly placed at different positions are connected together via a mesh network utilizing multi-hop communication and the disaster determination processing device determines and analyzes a disaster status based on disaster sensing information sent via the mesh network from at least one of the plurality of sensing terminal devices having sensed a physical change at a placement position due to occurrence of disaster, comprising:

(1) monitoring, by each sensing terminal device, a physical change amount at the placement position of the each sensing terminal device and sending the disaster sensing information to the disaster determination processing device via the mesh network when occurrence of the disaster has been sensed from the physical change amount exceeding a predetermined set value, terminal identification information for specifying the each sensing terminal device itself and a disaster sensing time at which occurrence of the disaster has been sensed being added to the disaster sensing information;

(2) for the at least one of the plurality of sensing terminal devices having sent the disaster sensing information, obtaining, by the disaster determination processing device, the sensing terminal device placement position specified from the terminal identification information and the disaster sensing time at which the at least one of the plurality of sensing terminal devices has sensed occurrence of the disaster every reception of the disaster sensing information via the mesh network;

(3) determining, as a disaster occurrence position, an area surrounded by the placement positions of at least two or more of the plurality of sensing terminal devices having sent the disaster sensing information;

(4) determining, as a disaster expansion direction, a direction in which the placement position of the at least one of the plurality of sensing terminal devices having sent the disaster sensing information moves in an order of two or more disaster sensing times of the disaster sensing information;

(5) assigning a warning rank based on a number of hops included in a route record contained in the received disaster sensing information, the warning rank indicating a higher level of dangerousness in an order of transferring of the disaster sensing information to the at least one of the plurality of sensing terminal devices, and

(6) transmitting, via the mesh network, to the at least one of the plurality of sensing terminal devices having sent the disaster sensing information, warning information corresponding to the assigned warning rank and the disaster status containing the disaster occurrence position and the disaster expansion direction.