- PCP Challenge Brief -...

SMART@FIRE-PCP model Challenge Brief

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- PCP

Challenge Brief


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SMART@FIRE PCP CHALLENGE BRIEF

CONTENTS AMENDMENT SHEET

Amend. No. Issue Date Amendments Initials Date

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Contents Contents ............................................................................................................................................. 3

Definitions .......................................................................................................................................... 4

1 Background and preparation of the Smart@Fire PCP ................................................................. 5

1.1 Positioning of the PCP-tender ................................................................................................. 5

1.2 Pre-commercial Procurement in phases ................................................................................. 6

1.2.1 Preliminary stage: Needs assessment, defining end-user requirements, state-of-the-art

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1.2.2 First stage: Innovation Platform as market consultation instrument ............................. 6

1.2.3 Second stage: Joint Pre-Commercial Procurement: development of innovative

Smart@Fire Personal Protective Systems ....................................................................................... 7

1.2.4 Third stage: Final Joint Procurement of Smart PPS ......................................................... 7

1.3 Stage 1: Needs Assessment – Priority User needs .................................................................. 8

1.3.1 Consultation of body functions (heart rate, body temperature…) by the firefighter him-

/herself 9

1.4 Stage 2: The State-of-the-Art .................................................................................................. 9

1.4.1 Context ............................................................................................................................ 9

1.4.2 Approach and results ....................................................................................................... 9

1.4.3 Main challenges to be tackled in the scope of Smart@Fire .......................................... 11

1.5 Stage 3: The market consultation - Innovation Platform ...................................................... 12

1.5.1 Timing ............................................................................................................................ 12

1.5.2 Objectives ...................................................................................................................... 12

1.5.3 Synthesis of the innovation platform insights ............................................................... 12

1.5.4 Conclusions of the innovation platform ........................................................................ 14

2 Smart@Fire Challenge: scope of the Pre-commercial Procurement Tender ........................... 14

2.1 General objective of the PCP tender: development of a prototype and first batch of testable

products ............................................................................................................................................ 14

2.2 Plan of attack ......................................................................................................................... 15

2.2.1 Solution exploration phase ............................................................................................ 15

2.2.2 Prototype Development phase ..................................................................................... 16

2.2.3 Production and testing phase of 1st batch ..................................................................... 17

2.3 Smart@Fire PPS pre-commercial tender scope .................................................................... 20

2.4 PPS prototype design constraints.......................................................................................... 24


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Definitions Personal Protective System (PPS): all parts of the equipment worn by an individual fire fighter

including auxiliary elements and that protect the individual from hazards to his health and

safety. All parts from head to toes and from skin to outer layer are included. The PPS includes

(non-exhaustive list) : Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), non PPE clothing (i.e. non

certified clothing), ICT hardware and software, data logging, monitoring sensors, warning

systems, localization equipment, … Accurate monitoring and warning for both the individual

fire fighter and the incident management are part of the PPS.

Throughout the document PPS may also be referred to as smart PPS, highlighting the

technological ICT aspects

Throughout the document the scope of the PCP tender is referred to as PPS nerve system, an

associative term reflecting both the standard PPE turnout gear and core ICT subsystems like

communication network and data transfer, feedback mechanisms towards the firefighters and

intervention coordinating officers, and intelligent processing units monitoring measured

parameters and generating alert recommendations.


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1 Background and preparation of the Smart@Fire PCP

1.1 Positioning of the PCP-tender Few public services exist where personal safety is more important and the potential for

technological innovation to improve the provision of services is higher than with the fire fighters.

The introduction of ICT solutions (sensors, processors, cameras, wireless transmission...) in

the personal protective system of the fire fighters is complementing the textiles they are

wearing to a smarter integrated system, and can thus greatly increases both their own safety,

the safety of people trapped in a fire and the effectiveness of their intervention and most of all:

it can save lives!

Although research for smart textiles and Smart PPS has already been conducted through

numerous research projects on local and European level, none of these programs have advanced

to the state of being able to present a working prototype that is ready for practical day-to-day

use. While many technological approaches and initial building blocks exist in different maturity stages,

first technological advancements are finally finding their way into this field. Today however, for

fire and rescue operations there is no complete system on the market, due to the specific trade-offs

of the fire and rescue niche:

1. State-of-the-art problems like indoor penetration of communication and localization are broader technological problems than just for fire and rescue applications. As such in affiliated research projects and commercial system developments, more attractive sectors such as defense, security, retail or utilities are chosen by manufacturers.

2. The fire and rescue market consists of a fragmentized procurement landscape with in general rather limited budgets (at least compared to military, security, etc.). Under these conditions it is hard to unite on selected user requirements and push these onto vendor development roadmaps.

3. The operational environment of the firefighter varies from a complex intervention in an urban confined environment to a forest fire in an open area to a technical intervention on the highway. All these specific conditions have a common need for an underlying system architecture (for communication of data for example). However, this architecture should be made flexible to allow for other functional configurations, which is under normal market conditions not easily achieved.

4. These user requirements cover all together robust operation, easy maintenance and high performance, at relatively low cost. These trade-offs are just not simply balanced.

In Smart@Fire we start from a concrete need for which the market at the moment cannot

offer a suitable solution and R&D efforts remains to be performed by suppliers. The situation

is even more complex as the procurers have no clear idea about functionality and required

performance of the solution: at best, fire brigades and first responders can describe the desired

outcome or effect of the innovation, which is a more general requirement than a functional ICT

requirement. In this case the procurers cannot enter into a regular procurement exercise, but

have to spur the suppliers to enter into an R&D development by launching a PCP.

Pre-commercial procurement aims primarily at reducing the risks inherent to R&D in order to

avoid1:

1 Wilkinson report, “Public procurement for research and innovation: developing procurement practices

favorable to research and innovation”, 2005


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procurers to purchase the development of technologies already available on the market,

but not responding to their real needs;

procurers to purchase R&D that is technically/technologically too challenging and

unrealistic to result in an industrial cost-effective application.

Taking these two points into account a phased approach is not only needed but also required in

order to achieve the goals of a PCP.

1.2 Pre-commercial Procurement in phases For the Smart@Fire-PCP we adopted a methodic approach, covering following subsequent

stages, described hereafter:

Preliminary stage: Needs assessment, defining end-user requirements, state-of-the-art

First stage: Innovation Platform as market consultation instrument

Second Stage: Joint Pre-Commercial Procurement: development of innovative

Smart@Fire Personal Protective Systems in three stages (Solution Exploration,

Prototyping, Test series of first products)

Third Stage: Final Joint Procurement of Smart PPS

In subsequent chapters of this document the syntheses of the outcomes obtained through the

needs assessment, state-of-the-art-study and innovation platform are described.

Preliminary stage: Needs assessment, defining end-user requirements, state-of-

the-art

The objective of this phase is performing a needs assessment in order to detect updated end-

user requirements and innovation expectations of the purchasing partners (fire fighters brigades/

first responders/ central procuring entities). In the proposed methodology, innovation is driven

by the end-user, more in particular the end-user requirements and needs. It is important to

perfectly understand these pain points and fully describe new functional solutions, existing

alternatives and quantified added value.

From a technological point of view a state-of-the-art study is carried out to allow defining the

actual highest level of development in the sector. Given the numerous projects and studies

concerning the development of Smart PPS that have been carried out during the past decade,

this phase starts by going through these works in depth, gaining insights, and distill all elements

that may lead to a pin-point formulation of the firefighter’s real and unanswered needs.

The outcome and findings of this phase allow setting up the Innovation Platform.

First stage: Innovation Platform as market consultation instrument

The Innovation Platform is organized as a consultation platform, bringing together the buyer

side (the public purchasers expressing a specific need or request) and the supplier side (private

companies, R&D organizations, Research Centers, industry sector organizations) in a series of

plenary meetings, group work sessions and bilateral contacts. The primary goal of an Innovation

Platform is the identification of the innovation potential form an end-user perspective and from

a technological point of view. The convergence between good understanding of and access to

the state-of-the-art with the innovation expectations (end-user requirements of fire fighters and

first responders) kept in mind will allow us to identify the innovation potential.

By setting up a consultation platform a bridge is created between the demand and the supply

side, and an opportunity emerges for a structured interaction between the market and


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contracting authority. The suppliers acquire knowledge about the interest and intentions of the

procurers. On the other side the procurers obtain the necessary information to evaluate whether

their own needs are matching with the possibility for the market (suppliers) to fulfil these needs.

Second stage: Joint Pre-Commercial Procurement:

development of innovative Smart@Fire Personal Protective Systems

The findings and insights gathered throughout the Innovation Platform are translated into a final

report and allow the preparation of the Joint PCP. The PCP tender documents cover primarily

the prototype scope, the priority user requirements to address, functional specifications of the

underlying prototype modules, etc. The objectives of this phase are organized in 3 phases:

1. perform solution exploration and design: during this stage of typically 4 to 6 months, a

number of selected suppliers (or consortia of suppliers) further elaborate the detailed

design of their proposed solution (or set of solutions).

2. develop joint-workable prototype(s): during this stage of typically 6 to 12 months, the

chosen suppliers with the best solution design (as assessed by an evaluation committee)

develop their own prototypes in parallel.

3. produce and test initial batch of finalized PPS prototypes ( (10 items): during this stage

of typically 4 to 6 months, at least 2 remaining suppliers remain to ensure a future

competitive market. Their final productized solution batch of 10 items is validated

through field tests.

Note that suppliers which are not withheld throughout the evaluation and selection points during

the Joint PCP can still participate in the Final (Commercial) Procurement call.

Section 6 ‘Scope of the Smart@Fire PCP: plan of attack’ elaborates these stages and affiliated

timeline/activities/deliverables.

Third stage: Final Joint Procurement of Smart PPS

A joint procurement is placed by the project partners and other joining procurers of Smart PPS

within the European Union to acquire these newly developed innovations in commercial

volumes.µ


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1.3 Stage 1: Needs Assessment – Priority User needs For the determination of needs and requirements of the end users, a combined approach is

applied:

- large-scale survey

- in-depth discussion sessions with user groups

The survey is sent to approximately 4.000 contacts from all Member States of the European

Union. The survey received 961 end users responses from 16 EU member states.

In parallel, in-depth discussion sessions were organized together with representatives from fire

brigades from Belgium, UK & France to list firefighter needs with regards to smart PPS and

starting from the vision below (as expressed by the fire fighters themselves):

“We are looking for a solution that allows

to monitor and measure the environment (persons, equipment, external

conditions)

to determine the hazard-level (safe, hazardous, threatening)

by both passive (running in background) and active (deployed on demand)

systems

that translate in alerts or alarms being given

and accordingly adjust the safety by whatever means necessary (e.g. textile)

so that safety and comfort are optimally balanced

irrespective of the context (fire in building, fire in forests, highways, …)”

A list of 54 use cases was collected from representatives of different user groups representing

the actual user needs. The added value and relative priority of use cases were estimated by fire

brigades themselves. From Belgium ~20 officers/fire fighters from different cities participated,

in France ~15 officers/fire fighters from dept. Bouches-du-Rhône, and in UK ~35 officers/fire

fighters from all over UK.

By using the Planning Poker methodology, use cases are objectively validated & prioritized as it

stimulates people to voice their opinions, thoughts and concerns. This way, drivers/reasonings

behind use case validations are revealed and understood.

The conclusions of the needs assessment are unfolded hereafter.

In conclusion, a smart PPS is highly innovative for the end-users. End-users encompass

different actors, the firefighters, intervention coordinating officer, PPS manager, etc. This is

proven by the high amount of “WOW” use-cases, signifying a high added value compared to the

present alternatives today. Next to that, these needs are common across European firefighters

as high commonality is noted between the distinctively consulted user-groups across Europe

through in-depth working sessions and via the survey. Primary user requirements hold:

- Localization of the firefighter and his team, in buildings and open areas, displayed on a

map, made available to the firefighter and the intervention coordinating officer.

- Remote parameter monitoring and historical logging, making the info accessible via an

intuitive dashboard for the officer (e.g. a map), enriched with the status of the team,

their PPS, and the environment, enabling to set thresholds, generate (automatic) alerts.


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- Monitoring the environment, more in particular temperature, temperature evolution,

hotspot detection and presence of explosive gasses.

- Specific PPS requirements as: avoiding sweat being turned into steam inside the turnout

gear and active illumination to be seen as first responder.

- General requirements as robustness under mechanical friction, maintenance, repair,

cleaning, with easy mounting/dismounting of the ICT and ideally with self-assessment.

Use cases that were distinguished as ‘low priority’ were:

Consultation of body functions (heart rate, body temperature…) by the firefighter him-/herself

PPE enhancements such as a protective airbag, additional cooling/heating, walking markers…

Consultation of building fire detectors by the firefighter

Firefighters setting safety thresholds for themselves;

Department head setting safety thresholds.

Access for representative of internal affairs to similar information as the department head

1.4 Stage 2: The State-of-the-Art

Context

The envisaged innovation as summarized by the needs assessment intends to be a breakthrough

compared to the actual field systems. Many, if not all components to be used, will be new and

have to be integrated in a way that guarantees optimal protection in real life situations. This

translates into expectations of substantial R&D to be carried out at integration level, with certain

implications and R&D at component level.

Approach and results

The state-of-the-art study comprises following dimensions:

- An investigation of all projects logged within the EU and national databases to locate

projects related to smart textiles, Smart PPS, high-end sensors, life support monitoring

with a focus on final results and lessons learned.

- Execution of an IP scan, analyzing patents in order to understand the major players,

recent developments and breakthroughs...

- Evaluation of relevant recent developments published in scientific journals

- Web search to identify existing available products and suppliers

Results are conclusive. A lot of activity is spotted around the priority user needs domains of

localization, environmental sensing, remote monitoring and data relay, both in research domains

as by commercial product/system providers:

- EU and nationally funded research projects: at least 40 recent projects are identified

regarding firefighter smart textile and/or equipment research, of which 14 are directly

related to firefighter PPS. But very few smart textile innovations come to the market,

for sure not in the area of PPE/PPS. These research projects focus primarily on:

o Positioning and localization: integration of existing localization systems using

GPS, inertia-based relative localization devices (incl. accelerometers,

gyroscopes, etc.)

o Environmental sensing: primarily temperature and toxic/explosive gasses

o Physiological parameter sensing (body temperature, heart rate, breathing rate,

sweat,…) and health monitoring


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o Active illumination, walking markers, and heating/cooling

o Data processing and logging to generate alerts, including simple control

functionalities for the firefighters

o Intuitive visualization

o Communication and remote alert generation

- Multiple patents in this area are filed. However, the minority of these applications is

granted so far. These mostly European and US patents focus on:

o Positioning sensors,

o environmental parameter monitoring (temperature and explosive gasses),

o physiological parameter monitoring (body core/skin temperature, heart rate,

sweat levels, etc.),

o communication technology and remote alert generation

o intuitive control (UI) functions for the firefighters

- Over the last decade research into smart textiles has exponentially emerged, as indicated

by the large number of scientific publications that are found on the subject of smart

textiles. Across the more than 200 publications extracted from the online academic

database Web of Science provided by Thomson Reuter, the 50 most appearing words in

the keywords are visualized in the Wordle below.

- Multiple developed prototypes show promising results. An exploratory websearch reveals

rapidly multiple industrial initiatives active on fire & rescue applications and a multitude

of technologies. However, nearly all face a major problem of day-to-day practical

usability. A suit full of working ICT is no good if you cannot wash the suit after an

intervention.

These developed prototypes primarily encompass following functionalities and

technologies

o Positioning within buildings and localization of colleagues in the field

Technologies: GPS, inertial sensors, beacon/antenna-based solutions, etc.

o Environmental sensing and monitoring of temperature and toxic/explosive gasses

Technologies: standard sensor technology

o Physiological sensing and monitoring of body temperature, heart rate,

dehydration levels

Technologies: standard sensor technology

o Intuitive feedback and control functions for the firefighter

Technologies: audio, visual feedback via lights or even via Head-Up Displays,

Head-Mounted displays (but at conceptual level…), etc.

o Alert generation

Technologies: auditory sirens, auditory speech, flashing lights on sleeve/waist,

etc.

o Intuitive visualization for the remote intervention coordinating officer

Graphical user interface (GUI), ruggedized laptops/tablets, etc.

o Remote intelligent data processing

Rule-based reasoning, artificial intelligence (learning, neural networks), etc.


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o Communication relay

Mobile Professional Radio (Tetra), Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (Manet), Zigbee,

Bluetooth, MyriaNed, WiFi, etc.

o ICT and textile integration

Woven-in electrical fibers, glued-on cabling, integrated sensors, designed-in

cabling, etc.

o Efficient and safe power supply

IP67 safe power supply to wear underneath the turnout gear, etc.

Main challenges to be tackled in the scope of Smart@Fire beyond the state-of-

the-art.

Technology wise, the Smart@Fire Project goes beyond current state-of-the-art in the following

ways:

- Collect a comprehensive list of end-user requirements as well as technological feasibility

aspects (taking into account projected technological progress).

This will be realized in the Innovation Platform

- Identify and report on gaps and R&D needs.

This will also be realized in the Solution Exploration phase.

- Specification and building developments of actual prototypes combining departing

from state-of-the-art technologies and going beyond these on well-identified sources of

technological risk. (as explained in subsequent sections)

This will be realized in the Prototyping phase.

- Testing the feasibility of (small scale) production of complete products.

This will be realized in the Batch production phase.

This project aims to develop a final product which incorporates all the functionalities of the

developed prototypes, but which is also a completely finished, ready-to-use product through

PCP. In that sense it is complementary to previous projects by offering two novel aspects:

- Clear focus on the integrated practical usability of the developed solution. Practical

usability meaning: durability, reliability, ergonomics, in compliance with overall list of

firefighters tasks (e.g. as specified in BE by KB XYZ). . Integration meaning (i)

collaboration between the different technological devices on functional level; (ii)

potential integration of different technological components into 1 housing; and (iii)

intelligent coupling between the technological devices and a traditional PPE turnout

gear.

- Focus on mass production feasibility and keeping this in mind from the beginning.

In conclusion, sufficient projects, market actors, etc. have been identified which are active in

the fire and rescue field, and more in particular on the common user priorities (positioning,

environmental sensing, remote monitoring…). It is observed that nearly all identified projects,

prototypes, market actors operate internationally, beyond Belgium, France and UK. Often a

direct/indirect link with military initiatives is notified. However, as military application

requirements are much more demanding, these market solutions come at a much higher

manufacturing cost, and hence out-of-market pricing for civil applications like firefighting. These

market solutions need to be redeveloped, redirected towards fire and rescue applications and

its buying market.


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1.5 Stage 3: The market consultation - Innovation Platform

Timing

The Smart@Fire innovation platform is organized during the months September and October of

2013. The final presentation of the gathered insights was held October 10th 2013.

Objectives

To better protect firefighters, the Smart@Fire project envisions the next generation Smart

Personal Protective System (PPS): an integrated system covering ideally localization and

positioning, environmental sensing, body monitoring, data transfer and visualization for remote

coordination, data interpreting intelligence, intuitive audiovisual feedback, smart textiles, etc.

in order to successfully address all the priority user needs. However, not all these functionalities

are necessarily withheld in the scope of the smart PPS pre-commercial tender, given the PPS

prototype only focuses on a well-defined scope, delineating the innovation potential.

Principal objective of the innovation platform is to determine these priorities of a smart PPS

prototype throughout the innovation platform discussion sessions with demand and supplier side.

The priorities are presented hereafter.

Synthesis of the innovation platform insights

A smart PPS holds a high innovation potential from technological perspective. This innovation

potential is identified across the different angles of a smart PPS, in line with the key user

requirements, listed below:

Focus area 1: ICT localization systems embedded in PPS

Focus area 2: PPS sensors/active subsystems and their integration in smart textiles

Focus area 3: ICT solutions for remote connectivity & visualization systems in PPS

Focus area 4: Integration of ICT solutions with textile

Platform sessions focusing on these areas allow understanding the vendors’ capabilities to satisfy

the most important & commonly shared user needs. The common needs in terms of robustness &

maintainability will be applied in all sessions as a boundary condition. If necessary, all constraints

imposed by any of the procurers’ countries (i.e. the minimum requirements set), are taken into

account in a similar way.

Putting these angles together, the overall innovation potential of a smart PPS results in a number

of clustered challenges, of which 1 principal and 4 smaller, summarized below and explained in

more detail hereafter.

CHALLENGE 1: PPS central nerve system: system architecture, communication, localization &

interfaces

Challenge 1 covers multiple elements listed hereafter. For each element a number of insights

are described, reflecting the main sources of complexity.

The PPS central nerve system architecture:

Communication network with sufficient indoor penetration and near real-time update

rate towards the intervention coordinating officer

Balanced trade-offs between distributed and central processing, scalability of system,

local performance vs. remote responsiveness (online vs. offline operation), interfaces,

etc.


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Limited integration with textile (underwear, turnout gear, …):

Woven-in, layered-on ICT-textile integration comprises too many risks w.r.t

manufacturing costs, durability, etc. and is left out of the scope of the PCP tender.

Limited integration between the ICT subsystems and the standard turnout gear is

preferential.

Cabled and/or wireless. When cabled: easy mounting/replacing of cables/connectors;

durability of cables/connectors; dealing with different turnout gear sizes; integrating

UIs. When wireless: limiting interference; easy start-up and self-assessment of correct

operations via minimal # UI’s

Electromagnetic shielding of the different devices (sensors, processing unit,…), without

implementing military-grade measures.

Localization engine:

A hybrid localization system (preferentially GPS with inertial subsystem) with limited

indoor drift.

A relative track & trace map, enabling ‘meet point’ and ‘recovery path’ instructions.

Available Cartesian coordinated maps (e.g. Google maps) used as overlay.

Beacon-based solution instead of inertial at increased risk, principally fast & accurate

deployment and TCO.

Intuitive user feedback (restitution, visualization):

For the intervention coordinating officer: intuitive UI dashboard, conform way of

working.

For the firefighter: multimodal combination of audio, simple UI (button/lights) and haptic

belt. Risk reduction should focus on automated feedback modality selection and

ergonomic use.

Coupling via defined application interfaces (e.g. Bluetooth application profile) with

(Standalone) environmental temperature measurement device

Optional, when available: (standalone), cheap, simple and robust explosive gas detector

(e.g. indicating the presence of explosive gasses without measuring ppm details)

CHALLENGE 2: Sweat absorbing multilayer underwear

A pure textile issue, needing effort to convince firefighters and procurement agencies to review

tenders and firefighters’ comfort balance (e.g. skin resistance). Note that it is not the goal to

develop a new better performing sweat absorbing multilayer material, these materials exist.

Underwear in this context reflects anything worn underneath the turnout gear.

CHALLENGE 3: IR thermal hotspot detector

Finding the balance between a cheap, miniature IR thermal imaging sensor/camera with relevant

resolution and detection range in high temperature environments holds significant risk.

CHALLENGE 4: HMD/HUD firefighter visualization system

Providing visual feedback to the firefighter via helmet mounted displays (HMD) or head-up-

displays (HUD) in the helmet visor holds major risks in balancing trade-offs between cost,

ergonomic use (brightness, contrast, “see-through”, etc.), robustness.

CHALLENGE 5: “BE SEEN” omnidirectional active illumination

Active illumination to achieve omnidirectional “be seen” could be simply solved via a cheap,

standalone clip-on/Velcro system (limited integration with textile). The risk is to make it usable

to allow for easy operation (somewhere fixed on the firefighter suit), but not being destroyed in


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an intervention due to the increased temperature or mechanical friction. An alternative cabled

solution impacts design and integration complexity (durability of connectors, cabling, etc.).

Note that explosive gas detection and physiological monitoring are not withheld within the

innovation potential from technological perspective of a smart PPS, as for these building blocks

mature technological solutions exist on or close to the market. It is not the goal to develop a

next generation of better, smaller, cheaper explosive gas detectors or physiological monitoring

devices. The real added value is the coupling with the PPS central nerve system, captured in

Challenge 1.

Conclusions of the innovation platform

The conclusions of the Smart@Fire innovation platform situate on three levels:

- As first conclusion: a smart PPS is highly innovative for the end-users, as already

described in section Error! Reference source not found. ‘Needs Assessment’.

- As second conclusion: a smart PPS holds a high innovation potential from

technological perspective, as described in previous section.

- As third and final conclusion, given the high innovation potential both in terms of added

value for the end-user as in terms of risk from technological and implementation

perspective, significant research and development effort is needed to reduce the risks

associated to the technologically innovative elements to enable the high-value use-

cases for the end-users, firefighters and officers. As today a commercial smart PPS is

not available on the fire and rescue application market, it is recommended to initially

launch a pre-commercial development phase. During this phase, focus is laid on

reducing these risks with limited means.

In consensus with the end-users (i.e. firefighters and affiliated public procurement agencies) and

the European Commission, the priority challenge for the PCP tender scope covers primarily

CHALLENGE 1, PPS central nerve system (incl. standard turnout gear ‘integrated’ with ICT

subsystems covering system architecture, communication, localization, visualization,

interfaces, etc.). CHALLENGE 2, sweat absorbing multilayer textile solution, is left out by the

European Commission as being a pure textile challenge. Regarding CHALLENGE 3 and 4, the IR

thermal hotspot detector and the HMD/HUD firefighter visualization system, it is recommended

to dedicate a similar but different project to solving these. CHALLENGE 5, “BE SEEN”

omnidirectional active illumination, qualifies to be withheld within the minimal scope of the

prototype, but it is currently left out, taking into consideration the project budgetary and timing

constraints.

2 Smart@Fire Challenge:

scope of the Pre-commercial Procurement Tender

2.1 General objective of the PCP tender: development of a prototype

and first batch of testable products Developing a prototype aims at solving the primary sources of risks or implementation

complexities during a pre-commercial phase and clearing the obstacles in order to launch a

subsequent traditional final procurement procedure. Solving/reducing the sources of risk implies

addressing these complexities on a clever and cost-effective manner in a reasonable timeframe

without jeopardizing the innovation potential and added value for the end-user. That is the


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essence of a prototype. Al the classical, expensive and exhaustive effort on known

implementation/development activities is referred to the development process of the final

product. All aspects of a PPS bearing too high risk are not kept in scope, as it is unlikely to reduce

the associated implementation complexities on rather short notice.

It is recommended to adopt an iterative approach during this prototype development track of

building an integrated solution. Incremental, realistic steps should be made towards the final

PPS prototype. During the development of the prototype, it should be kept in mind that the

prototype as such is not the final deliverable of the PCP tendering procedure. In a third phase,

the prototype should be further elaborated into a first batch of practically testable ‘products’.

2.2 Plan of attack In order to successfully realize the ambitious potential of the project, the necessary budgets and

efforts will have to be put forward. From the discussions with industry experts, it is noted that

a number of distinct technologies and building blocks seem to exist in different maturity stages

(R&D Demonstrator, Prototype, Commercial Product). The innovation platform learned that

significant research and development effort is needed to reduce the risks associated to the

transformation/elaboration of these partial building blocks/technologies and integration into to

a working practically usable prototype and first product batch, enabling the high-value use-cases

for the end-users, primarily the firefighters and the intervention coordinating officers.

As a result of the previous minimal scoping, the PPS pre-commercial tender scope covers

CHALLENGE 1, the PPS central nerve system. During the pre-commercial development phase this

minimal scope will be further elaborated to perfectly respond to the needs of the firefighters.

Elaboration involves solution exploration, prototype development and producing a first batch of

test products, continuously balancing focus between reduction of the technological risks while

securing the added value as described by the high-value use-cases is effectively realized.

The plan of attack with envisaged timing, key activities and deliverables are presented below:

The envisaged timing of the subsequent phases is:

- Solution exploration phase: 4 months

- Prototype development phase: 8 months

- Creation of first batch of prototypes (10 items): 6 months

Following sections elaborate on the required activities and expected deliverables of the

subsequent phases. In his answer, the supplier shall further specify how these activities will be

fulfilled in his plan of attack.

2.2.1 Solution exploration phase

Timing

The Solution Exploration phase is launched after selection of suppliers (or consortia of suppliers)

via the PCP tender awarding procedure and spans approximately 4 months.

Starting point

The starting point of the Solution Exploration phase is the supplier’s answer to the awarding

criteria of the PCP tender. In essence, a supplier’s answer to the awarding criteria is in fact an

initial iteration of the solution design.


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Key activities

Main objective is to elaborate the initial design of the supplier’s proposed solution (or set of

solutions in case multiple valid conceptual options are being distinguished) to a detailed design.

In order to establish this progress, a number of key activities are recommended to be performed:

- Understand the user needs: as explained in detail throughout the PCP tender documents

and the additional reports found on the Smart@Fire website.

- Deepen insights in user needs (via contextual inquiry interviews): given the user needs

have been captured using use-cases, they can be further deepened by setting up user

focus groups or interviews to fully grasp a firefighter’s context, pain points, needs, way

of working, procedures to follow, etc.

- Elaborate initial functional spec: based on the initial solution idea, the supplier can

already update significant parts of the functional specifications based on in-house prior

knowledge.

- Elaborate sources of risks (as identified during Innovation Platform): assess the identified

sources of risk with internal expertise.

- Collect ideas of solution concepts: set-up brainstorm sessions to come up with solutions

to creatively overcome potential sources of risk.

- Screen solution concepts on technical feasibility (high-risk elements), business case

analysis: further assess the solution ideas towards feasibility using websearch and

reasoning, simple/cheap tests, etc., impact on value creation vs. manufacturing cost

(business case)

- Select best solution concept(s) to elaborate further: final assessment or merge of

multiple parallel ideas of solutions to come up with 1 or more ‘final’ solution designs.

- Detail functional design specs for each concept: wrap-up of all gained insights, translated

in again more detailed functional design specifications of the envisaged solutions.

Deliverable

The deliverable of the Solution Exploration phase covers a complete report describing the final

solution design(s), with elaborated detailed functional specifications, ready for prototyping, and

with up-to-date answers on the awarding criteria of the PCP tender (given the gained insights).

2.2.2 Prototype Development phase

Timing

The Prototype Development phase is launched after selection of suppliers (or consortia of

suppliers) via the PCP tender awarding procedure for this phase and spans approximately 8

months.

Starting point

The starting point of the Prototype Development phase are the supplier’s deliverables of the

Solution Exploration phase: a full report on the final solution design with elaborated functional

specifications, ready for prototyping, and detailed answers to the awarding criteria of the PCP

tender. Suppliers are selected via an intermediate evaluation and selection milestone. Note that

the awarding criteria do not change in between the phases, but merely the relative importance

of the different criteria evolves as the PPS solution gains maturity.

Key activities

Main objective is to develop the prototype departing from the final design of the supplier’s

proposed solution (or set of solutions). In order to establish this progress, a number of key

activities are recommended to be performed:


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- Prioritize sources of risk in solution concept(s), as the final solution design shall still

contain certain issues, uncertainties w.r.t. technological performance for example. Some

of these are more impacting and should be tackled first.

- (Identify non-overlapping development sets: in case the supplier desires to apply the

principles of set-based design and prototyping)

- Apply an ‘agile-based’ development process, performing incremental, iterative risk

reducing sprints while safeguarding added value for the user. Each sprint should focus on

the prototype delivery of a specific use-case by applying prototyping techniques as proof-

of-concepts, mock-ups, user-feedback sessions,…

- Include regular user-tests and demonstrations to capture from the beginning on real user

expectations and safeguard usability of the solution.

- Once risk is reduced to acceptable level, merge different sets in 1 final system

specification which starts to resemble a functional datasheet with details on production

specifications.

- Finally, apply standard product/system development process to finally develop the final

prototype, by using techniques as waterfall with reference architecture, specified

interfaces and sub-systems and integration phase or others

- Set-up prototype tests to verify performance under test scenarios as prescribed in the

functional specifications document (addendum to the tender documents).

Deliverable

The deliverable of the Prototype Development phase covers a complete report describing the

final prototype datasheets and functional specifications ready for first test batch production, the

prototype solution first test results (knowing it is still a prototype, not yet a ‘product/solution’),

and up-to-date answers on the awarding criteria of the PCP tender (given the gained insights).

2.2.3 Production and testing phase of 1st batch

Timing

The Production and Testing phase of the 1st batch is launched after selection of suppliers (or

consortia of suppliers) via the PCP tender awarding procedure for this phase and spans

approximately 6 months.

Starting point

The starting point of the Production and Testing phase of the 1st batch are the supplier’s

deliverables of the Prototype Development phase: a full report on the final prototype datasheets

with elaborated functional specifications, the actual physical prototype and test results on the

prescribed testing scenarios (keeping in mind it is still a prototype, not a ‘product/solution’ yet),

and detailed answers to the awarding criteria of the PCP tender. Suppliers are selected via an

intermediate evaluation and selection milestone. Note that the awarding criteria do not change

in between the phases, but merely the relative importance of the different criteria evolves as

the PPS solution gains maturity.

Key activities

Main objective is to produce and test a first batch of ‘products’ departing from the final

prototype. In order to establish this progress, a number of key activities are recommended to be

performed:

- Apply standard product/system development process (waterfall)

- Safeguard economic feasibility of large-scale production


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- Set-up final tests of first batch of production items under prescribed testing conditions

and test scenarios

- Collaborate with notified bodies to perform the recommended PPS conformity assessment

procedure (as explained in the design constraints section) in line with existing

standardized testing procedure for PPE.

- Industrialize production by applying lean manufacturing principles

Deliverable

The final deliverable is a first batch of tested and assessed PPS systems (including the turnout

gear). The final datasheets of the PPS system form the basis of the final commercial tender.


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2.3 Smart@Fire PPS pre-commercial tender scope

CHALLENGE : PPS central nerve system

The PPS central nerve system, an associative term, reflects both the standard PPE turnout gear

and core ICT subsystems like communication network and data transfer, feedback mechanisms

towards the firefighters and intervention coordinating officers, and intelligent processing units

monitoring measured parameters and generating alert recommendations. These functional

modules hold the innovation potential for the firefighters and as such form the PPS pre-

commercial tender scope. Main objective of this pre-commercial tender is, as already mentioned,

to tackle, solve or significantly reduce the affiliated complexities and sources of risk and to

transform the functional concept of the PPS central nerve system to a practically usable

prototype and first batch of test products, that effectively enable the priority use-cases for the

firefighters.

For an exhaustive description of the priority use-cases to enable, the functional reference

architecture of the PPS pre-commercial tender scope, the detailed functional specifications

(as identified today) and the testing prescriptions, reference is made to Addendum 1 –

Functional Specifications.

Note: the reader is also referred to the final report on the Smart@Fire website

www.smartatfire.eu.

Following sections elaborate on the functional elements of the PPS central nerve system.

The PPS ‘central nerve’ system encompasses following building blocks and affiliated innovation

potential from technological perspective. In other words: the PPS pre-commercial tender scope

(prototype & first batch) comprises a number of functional modules and should aim to

solve/reduce following sources of complexity/risk.

(For all details regarding the insights and conclusions on the Smart@Fire prototype scope, the

reader is also referred to the final report on the Smart@Fire website www.smartatfire.eu.)

The overall central nerve system architecture:

- Communication network with sufficient indoor penetration (sufficient to successfully

realize the envisaged test scenarios), optimized data rate, data model, data

preprocessing, and near real-time update rate towards the intervention coordinating

officer (by maximizing the scalability trade-off of deployed network nodes vs. update

rate).

Different communication technologies exist, but all with different intended usage:

intended use of Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) is for trunked mode operation (TMO) and

direct mode operation (DMO) voice and limited data. Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANET)

for data and selected compressed images, Ultra Narrow Band (UNB) for small data sets

at low update frequencies.

- Setting-up the right architecture is key and holds significant risk. Main sources of risk

comprise defined the data model, setting the balance between distributed and central

processing taking into account trade-offs between local processing performance of

selected data and responsiveness when remote relay of data (e.g. in case of physiological

alerts), defining interfaces for hierarchical aggregation and escalation, building the

suited data model, allowing for online and offline operation with careful consideration

of polling and synching events, coping with the multimodality in firefighter user

http://www.smartatfire.eu/

http://www.smartatfire.eu/


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restitution means, modularity allowing for coupling with new peripherals (e.g. sensors),

scalability of the system, etc.

The objective is not to develop a ‘usine-a-gaz’ allowing for endless flexibility, merely it

is the goal to ’do the right things’ allowing for some future improvement and coupling

with new peripherals. It should be thought through which future peripheral devices might

be coupled. Also start-up of the system should be in line with present routines when

preparing for an intervention and arriving at the scene. Additional manipulations by the

firefighter should be minimized.

Limited integration with textile (underwear, turnout gear, or …):

- Woven-in, layered-on ICT-textile integration implies too many risks w.r.t manufacturing

costs, durability, etc. and as such is left out of the scope of the PCP tender. Integration

between the Smart PPS technological ICT equipment and standard PPE turnout gear shall

be kept to limited integrative measures such as well-designed pockets, inner-shell

cabling textile tubes, inner-shell velcro strips, inner-shell belts, inner-shell slip knots,

etc.

- Cabled (internally in the PPE turnout gear or between the PPE turnout gear layers) and/or

wireless integration are allowed, with careful consideration of respective risks:

o when cabled: easy mounting/replacing of cables/connectors; durability of

cables/connectors; dealing with different turnout gear sizes; integrating multiple

UIs.

Under the assumption that the total duration of replacing the cabling designed in

into the layers of the turnout gear can maximally take 15 minutes to not heavily

impact the workload of the PPS maintenance crew, it is key to keep cabling as

simple as possible. Ultimate goal is to reduce the risk so that a PPS maintenance

responsible can easily carry out the replacement task, without specialized help

of a textile specialist.

Durability and robustness of operations refers both to the normal operational

conditions (heat, chemicals, etc.) during interventions, as to the cleaning

operations. Throughout the lifecycle of a turnout gear (5 to 8 years), around 20

to 25 cleaning operations are carried out, during which the turnout gear is

subjected to special treatments, like restoring waterproofness, etc. This is not

easily resolved. Easy (dis)mounting (and recuperating) the cabling could lighten

the risk severance, but connectors remain an issue, especially those used to

connect external sensor devices. As such, these externally exposed connectors

are not preferential for the PPS prototype.

Concerning the multiple sizes of turnout gear, the assumption is taken that 3

variants will suffice for the 8 turnout gear sizes. The constraint is that impact on

ergonomics is nihil. Furthermore, ‘only’ 3 variants do not impact manufacturing

costs too much. Solutions incorporating “stretchable cables” are not envisaged

given a higher risk severance on ergonomics, durability, etc.

o when wireless: limiting interference (cfr. data connectivity); easy launch, start-

up and assurance of correct operations via minimal # UIs.

Starting up the system should be straightforward, even in case there are several

wireless interlinked devices on the firefighter. The firefighter should as fast as

possible know that the system is fully operational in line with his time to arrive

on site (order of magnitude of 5 to 10 minutes). Compared to a centralized

system, a wireless approach is more complex, especially when the aim is to

restrict the amount of UI’s to a minimum.


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Next to start-up and launching the system operational, this should be launched in

the right configuration, with auto-detection mechanisms, etc. Again with minimal

operations/manipulations required from the firefighter. Typically to select the

right gear (and hence configuration) the firefighter relies on the intervention

briefing by the security officer.

Finally, tests need to be performed to make sure that the frequency spectrum is

optimally used, balancing communication between sensor devices (body and

environment) on the firefighter’s, localization system and radio communication

towards the remote intervention coordinating terminal.

- Electromagnetic shielding of the different devices (sensors, processing unit,…), without

implementing military-grade measures.

Localization engine:

- A hybrid localization system (GPS + inertial) with limited indoor drift is preferential. It

is agreed by the state-of-the-art industry experts that in order to achieve a limited drift

of maximum a few meters after 10 to 20 minutes without reference position update,

thorough testing should be set-up in indoor environments during fire and rescue

applications. (10 to 20 minutes suffices, given the capacity of a compressed air bottle

amounts around 25 minutes.) These tests will further clarify any implications on design

of the device and motion tracking modeling. It is believed that by implementing smart

measures (e.g. transferring absolute position updates between team members or re-

calibrating fast when standing still) the required performance level can be approached,

within tradeoffs of the envisaged Smart@Fire PPS.

Of course anything is possible for the right price, given the capability of navigating fighter

jets through valleys for hours relying primarily on inertial measurement units.

- A relative track & trace map should enable ‘meet point’ and ‘recovery path’

instructions. In case a map of the environment is available (e.g. Google maps, or offline

map created by UAVs) and the map is referenced w.r.t. absolute Cartesian coordinates,

it should be used as e.g. an overlay.

- Beacon-based solution for localization can be incorporated at increased risk in terms of

ease of deployment without losing accuracy and TCO.

Note that it is not envisaged to deploy this solution over the complete building. Merely,

the aim is to gradually, locally and virally grow the beacon network within the

intervention area.

In ideal situations (reasonably vast areas or rooms with wide angle of sight) when the

beacons have been deployed in a good way, attaining an indoor accuracy of the order of

magnitude of 1 meter is feasible, and hence the risk is relatively acceptable. Given that

reality is often far from the ideal situation and taking into account the human error factor

in the deployment of the beacons the real risk is estimated significantly higher and risk

reduction is required.

A precondition for a fast and qualitatively good deployment of the beacons requires

insight of the firefighter in the context of the environment, e.g. to immediately

determine the needed amount and maximal spread of the beacons to deploy. As it

requires lots of field trials to train the firefighters and consolidate the approach in a

reproducible deployment procedure, the estimated risk is significant.

Intuitive user feedback (restitution, visualization):

- For the intervention coordinating officer: an intuitive User Interface (UI) dashboard,

aligned with way of working should be developed


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In France for example, the way of deploying firefighters occurs as follows: per truck there

is a “penetration officer” coordinating typically 2 teams of firefighters. At a second

coordination level, 1 “group commanding officer” coordinates up to 4 penetration

officers. In parallel, a “security officer” who disposes of own firefighter couples focuses

on the safety and potential rescue of colleague firefighters. So the GUI needs to be

adaptive in the level of data aggregation/escalation and visualization.

- For the firefighter: a multimodal combination of audio, simple UI (button/lights) and

haptic belt should be developed. Risk reduction focuses on automated feedback modality

selection and ergonomic use (mainly of the haptic belt).

Haptic belts refer to belts worn under the turnout gear generating local vibrations to

indicate an alert, a direction to go to, etc. While commercially available and used in

military navigation tasks, the main source of risk is that the belt should not impact

ergonomics and toleration level given the stress of the intervention.

Coupling via defined application interfaces (e.g. Bluetooth application profile) with

- (Standalone) environmental temperature measurement device, as the goal of the PCP

tender is not to develop a new environmental temperature sensor, but merely interface

with it via a standardized interface.

- Optional, when available: (standalone), cheap, simple and robust explosive gas detector

(e.g. indicating just the presence of explosive gasses). Note that will not develop a new

environmental explosive gas detector, but merely interface with it via a standardized

interface, under the precondition that a qualitative cost-efficient gas detector is

identified, as all deployed firefighters should ideally be equipped with such a device.

The innovation potential for the firefighters of the PPS central nerve system is captured through

the priority use-cases listed below. The objective of the PCP tender is to deliver a first batch

of PPS solutions that can effectively realize these use-cases for the end-users. (Note that in

the table below ‘ICO’ refers to ‘Intervention Coordination Officer’, ‘FF’ to firefighter, ‘T’ to

temperature, ‘RCA’ to ‘Root Cause Analysis’)

For an exhaustive description of the priority use-cases, the functional reference

architecture of the PPS pre-commercial tender scope and the detailed functional

specifications (as identified today) reference is made the Functional Specifications.


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2.4 PPS prototype design constraints

It is important to know as tendering supplier that throughout the innovation platform, 2

main design contraints have been determined, the first with respect to bying budget

orders of magnitude, the second with respect to applicable standardisation and

conformity assessment procedures. These design constraints are elaborated below:

Price of PPS: Today firefighter turnout gear prices vary around 600-750€ per piece (i.e.

vest, trousers). In line with budgetary provisions, the price of the envisaged PPS final

system is expected to amount ~1500€ (order of magnitude) per firefighter PPS, including

technological components, turnout gear garment and excluding helmet, additional

hardware/software (ruggedized tablets/laptops, application servers, licenses, etc.) for

the intervention coordinating officer.

Standardization and guaranteeing safety: At all times the Smart@Fire PPS prototype and first

batch of products should fulfill basic health and safety requirements. For the PPE turnout gear,

health and safety requirements are safeguarded through existing directives and harmonized

standard testing procedures (EN469). These directives do not apply to smart textiles, where ICT

cables, sensors and actuators are integrated within the PPE textile.

On the other hand, for fire and rescue ICT-related products and systems, multiple levels

of directives and standards are commonly complied with by suppliers: e.g. environmental

standards for intended use in explosive environments (ATEX, IEC-Ex), radio &

communication standards (RTTE), material related standards (REACH, RoHS), etc.

To omit any potentially blocking discussions, in the envisaged Smart@Fire PPS system,

integration between the PPE turnout gear (textile) and the ICT technological systems is

kept to a minimum. Some ICT technological systems (such as localization device,

processing unit, batteries) may be worn underneath the inner shell of the turnout gear

and can be decoupled from the turnout gear. As such known directives and standard test

procedures apply (e.g. Ingress Protection Rating of IP67). Other ICT technological systems

like sensing devices will equally be exposed to extreme conditions, but still not really

integrated with the PPE turnout gear (as the technological risks are estimated too high).

Again the different known directives and standard testing procedures apply.

Nevertheless, in addition to the known standards and directives for PPE and for ICT

related firefighting products and solutions, it is recommended that the conformity

assessment procedure of the Smart@Fire PPS prototype and first batch of products

describes a selected set of testing procedures to be performed with the PPS

prototype/product as a whole (i.e. PPE turnout gear on manikin equipped with the

supplementary ICT technological subsystems.

The additional tests can directly be derived from the most common standard tests used

on fire fighter suits (as defined in EN 469). Structured from relatively easy to fulfill

towards more challenging, the Smart@Fire PPS as a system should be subjected to

following system tests:

Heat resistance ISO 17493 5min at 180°C No melting, no dripping, no ignition, remain functional, able to remove Radiant heat EN ISO 6942 40kW/m²

Convection heat EN 367 80kW/m²

Flame engulfment SCBA EN 137 …

In addition to these tests, 2 additional lab tests are recommended: the rain tower test,

and sweating manikin test.


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Whether the results of these tests will be used as knock-out criteria during the evaluation

of the PPS prototypes and first batch of products, is yet to be decided. At least the results

should be known to the user community. As such this is part of the pre-commercial

procurement tender. Tenants will be asked to clarify their view on the conformity

assessment procedure of the PPS prototypes and first batch of products and will be

qualified on the test results as described in the functional specifications and awarding

criteria.

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