EUSAS recently organised a successful online European Conference on the topic ‘Artificial intelligence in fire detection and security – without the hype’. It showed once again the importance of technological development for an industry endeavoured to protect lives with a particular relevance to the fire and security industry.

The conference opened with a discussion on what Artificial Intelligence (AI) is. The general concepts as well as the history and starting blocks of AI were discussed. Also, the current application fields for AI in Smart Living, as well as important requirements for the realization of intelligent Smart Living services were presented. A focal point for the fire industry were the presentations during the session on the benefits and opportunities of AI for fire detection and security.

Artificial Intelligence and Fire Safety

In his presentation Guillermo Rein of the Imperial College London presented an innovative fire protection system that combines building sensors, computer modelling, and artificial intelligence (AI). It is called The Fire Navigator and aims to forecast the movement of a fire inside a large building, providing the fire brigades with essential information about flames and smoke ahead of time. It bridges the gap between fire safety and Building Information Modelling by making use of the data already produced by high-rise building sensors such as smoke and heat sensors. A fast and simple cellular automata model assimilates sensor data, and via inverse modelling and genetic algorithm techniques it uncovers the ignition location, time, flame spread rate and smoke velocity. A test case with synthetic data was shown for a real iconic building in London. The Fire Navigator concept would be specially suited for the protection of higher risk buildings like high-rise and hospital, or key infrastructure like tunnels and power plants.