NIST · Federal Reserve (FED) · NIST AI
New AI Model Indicates How to Evacuate for Fires One Safe Step at a Time
Compiled by KHAO Editorial — aggregated from 1 source. See llms.txt for citation guidance.
★ Tier-1 Source
A fire alarm jolts you from your office desk, and you head for the nearest exit.
Key facts
- Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their colleagues have developed a new AI model called Safe Step that can redirect occupants to the safest evacuation route
- Researchers estimate that technologies like Safe Step could start appearing in five to 10 years, though widespread adoption will depend on regulatory approval, reliability testing and integration
- Paper: Hongqiang Fang, Wai Cheong Tam, Ruggiero Lovreglio, Md
- Their model, Safe Step, uses a type of AI known as reinforcement learning
Summary
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their colleagues have developed a new AI model called Safe Step that can redirect occupants to the safest evacuation route in a fire. “Fires can grow and spread,” said Hongqiang “Rory” Fang, a research associate at NIST and first author of the journal paper. Safe Step can be used in “smart” buildings, where sensors monitor real-time environmental conditions, such as temperature and air quality. Previous research has proposed using traditional algorithms to find the shortest path for safely evacuating a building fire.