LAENTIEC: Laboratory and Experimentation Area in New Technologies for Emergency Intervention
The Laboratory and Experimentation Area in New Technologies for Emergency Intervention (LAENTIEC) is an initiative of several research groups at the University of Malaga whose activities are related to security and emergencies. These groups, as well as government and non-government organizations in the area of civil protection, security and emergencies, need to submit the results of their R&D to a benchmarking process that ensures the results of their research in a controlled environment and subject to appropriate monitoring. With this purpose, the University of Malaga has arranged 90,000 m2 of land for conducting experiments considering different outdoor scenarios in natural and urban environments.
Partial view of the LAENTIEC Area, shown as a digital elevation model obtained usign drones.
The Experimentation Area constitutes the first phase of the LAENTIEC project, which will be extended by the construction of a workshop hall adjacent to the land, which is planned to be completed throughout the second half of 2020. LAENTIEC is located in the expansion of the Teatinos Campus of the University of Malaga (UMA), next to the building of the Escuela de Ingenierías Industriales (EII). The area (https://goo.gl/maps/EC2v2y1LtbRvBu4M7), with a very varied orography, has a stream bed and a false tunnel of about 100 meters in length, for tests under GPS-denied conditions. It consists of a testing ground in unstructured environments, with terrain of different access difficulties, which is used within the group's activities in mobile robotics applied to emergencies.
This area is also the exercise site for the annual Emergency, Security and Rescue Workshop, in which the research group actively collaborates. These exercises are participated by members of the Red Cross, State Security Forces the Spanish Armed Forces, and other government and non-government organizations. The annual exercises, which consist of large-scale simulations of natural and man-made disasters, are an exceptional framework to test navigation methods in unstructured environments, including the participation of vehicles of different nature, and people.
The LAENTIEC project includes a communications and security infrastructure (WIMAX 5 GHz with 2.4Ghz Outdoor WIFI connection, a network with 10 PTZ cameras for area coverage and 10 bullet cameras for perimeter surveillance). Besides, the deployment of a basic network of wireless sensors on GSM and LoraWan technology (environmental, meteorological, gas, radiation, ... sensors) allows monitoring the environment remotely and provide communications and perimeter and interior security coverage for the whole of the 9 ha of extension in natural terrain as well as another 9 ha of the urbanized environment in the vicinity of the EII. Additional infrastructure includes robotic systems for testing driverless / autonomous vehicles, a vehicle robotization kit, a remote-controlled / autonomous platform for extreme terrain and amphibians (ARGO j8), a lightweight collaborative manipulator KUKA RLB, as well as high-performance computing equipment for NVIDIA cognitive robotics applications.
Collaboration with the UMA Chair of Security, Emergencies and Catastrophes
The LAENTIEC project was born as a response to the expectations of different companies, institutions and professionals related to risks, security and civil protection, shown during the exercises in the framework of the annual Workshop on Security, Emergencies and Catastrophes organized by the chair throughout 12 years. The highlight of these workshop are the exercises include multidisciplinary rescue cases in realistic situations. The participants exceed 250 professionals, such as Pompiers Sans Frontières, Firefighters of the Community of Castilla la Mancha, the Rescue Group of the Spanish Civil Guard, the bomb disposal group of the Civil Guard ( GEDEX), Local Police Special Operations Group, the Spanish Military Emergency Unit (UME), SAR (Search and Rescue units from the Air Force), 112, Samur, Red Cross, and Civil Protection (Civil Defense), to name a few.
Video gallery
Use of the LAENTIEC lab, robotic platforms and experimental area in different editions of the exercises in the framework of the annual Workshop on Security, Emergencies and Catastrophes:
Funding
UNMA15-CE-3186 (2016) MINECO
Infraestructura para el Area de Experimentación en Nuevas Tecnologías para
la Intervención en Emergencias
EQC2018-004299-P (2019) MINECO
Plataformas robóticas para el Laboratorio y Area de experimentación en nuevas tecnologías para la intervención en emergencias y catástrofes (LAENTIEC).
Nº 5808-15 Expte: 1152401 (2019) JUNTA DE ANDALUCIA.
Infraestructura para dar soporte técnico en la experimentación en campo abierto a aquellos grupos de investigación cuyas actividades están relacionadas con el área de la seguridad, catástrofe y las emergencias.
