Using AI To Train Firefighters 67
Roland Piquepaille writes "Computer scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) have developed DEFACTO, a training program which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help firefighters practice simulated emergency situations. The system is currently used by the Los Angeles Fire Department. DEFACTO has committees of AI 'agents' which can create disaster scenarios with images and maps seen in 3-D by the trainees. The software agents also evaluate the trainees' answers and help them to take better decisions. As one LAFD captain said, 'You can see if you're heading toward a mistake much more quickly.' Read more for additional details about this AI project and a photo
of a LAFD Fire Captain using the system."
Re:Wrong focus. (Score:5, Interesting)
I used to write and run crisis training for a large multi-national, and we expected that the participants would make mistakes. The basic thing we tried to do was to give them a chaotic situation and to teach and re-enforce their roles and responsibilities. The main thing was that they knew what their role was, and that they stuck to it. All crisis situations are basically getting something under control. It is a bit different for first responders, but not much.
In our case it was a bit different because we were dealing with people who had a role within the corporate crisis structure, but it was not their actual job within the organization (normally they might head legal, HR or finance - for example). So we had to make sure they were periodically trained so that they would be familiar with how everything worked in the event that the crisis mechanism was activated.
Training for firefighters is a bit different because it is their main job, and it is reinforcing skills they will use regularly.
Out of focus. (Score:3, Funny)
"Using AI to Fire Transformers"
Wow, that's deep. Oops.
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Has everyone stopped bitching about him because there's now some way of filtering his submission out of the front page?
If you ask me... (Score:4, Funny)
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"America's Firemen"? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not suggesting that it would be a shame for all this hard work to go into just training guys to save lives and property :) but the screenshots suggest that there could be elements of strategy (which block to approach from, consideration of wind conditions) and some cool FPS with the water cannon. Possibly some riot quelling action too ... are there any firefighting sims out there? Perhaps a multi-player which pits firefighters against arsonists?
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Is *getting over* a fear of fire really a good thing? I think my fear of fire is a pretty healthy attribute, alongside my fear of lions, cyanide and axe-wielding nutjobs.
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Personally, I don't think it's possible to 'get over' a phobia. I think you can control it, and learn to make yourself control the situation instead of letting the situation control you, but a pyrophobe will -never- stop being afraid of fire.
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Read up on the Emotional Freedom Technique. [wikipedia.org] (Although it's difficult to prove it works, as wiki mentions, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that it helps people.)
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Rangers [wikipedia.org]
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Wrong AI challenge... (Score:2)
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Questionable Results (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Questionable Results (Score:4, Interesting)
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I don't think there is any theoretical training that can replace the hands-on experience. When I did the SCUBA Rescue diver course, we had to - first - get over the theoretical part (check for dangers, approach, evaluate, check for breathing etc.), and - second - go through with actual exercises.
I think all courses (shoul
Re:Questionable Results (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem with such an environment is that it's limited in size, and has a fixed layout. This is no problem for initial training, but experienced firefighters will go in knowing what to expect, which skews the results.
With the simulator, you can present scenarios that are guaranteed to be unfamiliar to the trainee, and on a much larger scope than physically feasible.
Similar systems are used in the army: they have lots of hands-on weapons training for the soldiers, but also "command post exercises" where the trainee commanders just shuffle paper, issue radio orders etc. and no bullets are involved. In such an exercise the commander can learn how to manage his division, in scenarios that can't be played out in real life (e.g. because there's no training ground big enough to do battles with an entire division, plus there's the cost factor).
Different Approach (Score:3, Informative)
The real advantage of this system of the previous version is it no longer ties up an entire fire team in order to run the simulation, it comes up with truly random situations (a person is more likely to train peo
Simulators are important (Score:1)
This will not give you that much practical experience compared to being in a more traditional controlled test environment.
The advantages of simulated training environments extend into the metaphysical realm by enabling capabilities unavailable to us in the real world: Repeatable scenarios with zero reset time and zero physical impact, multi-variable scenario configurations, visually replayable and multi-angle post motum analysis, time dialation and multiplication, etc.
Simulators give trainees a chance to work on specific skills without having to go to the time, expense, and danger (in this case) of dealing with the real t
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1 will they use this to make a few AI firemen?? (some of the current ones need upgrades)
2 how well does it train on the Trivial > interesting > Fun > Break out the marshmellows > RUN LIKE HXXX! part of the exercise?
Not really AI (Score:2)
I heard of that before... (Score:2)
Burning Rangers ? (Score:1)
Better prep for the future of FireFighting
http://www.theghz.com/br/br/br.html/ [theghz.com]
The land of kangaroos and drop bears (Score:3, Informative)
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VecorCommand have been doing this for Years (Score:1)
Perhaps, but... (Score:2)
That said, simulations could help to weed out the ones that sign on as a result of the 'fever' and excitement that attracts a certain type looking only f
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And by the way djupedal... nowadays we wear this nifty new-fangle technology call "SCBA" which helps prevent that whole choking on smoke thing.
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A you land up in an area that went from trivial to interesting (could you last long enough to mask up?)
B what happens if that nifty tech breaks on you (chunk of wall manages to smash your airpack or you time out because you managed to get trapped)?
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Filter breathing, wall breeching, bailouts, RIT, all sorts of things you should be training on regularly if you are on the line. How many chiefs need those hands-on skills? They need to have an understanding of their team's capabilities, and how to best utilize the resources they provide.
As a fire officer myself -- this looks limited (Score:5, Interesting)
It is NOT about the individual firefighter on the line doing his job -- he's not meant to be focused on the big picture. He's got to focus on his local task as assigned -- search, vent, attack, etc.
The important thing, is that the person running the drill has a situation in his head about what caused the fire and how it will progress through the building, and can adjust the progression as a result of the decisions made by the officer making decisions. Once done, a great benefit of the experience is the discussion. Another huge benefit is the practice at simply making best use of radio traffic and keeping the situation in mind all at once.
The only advantage I see to this software they're showing is that it requires less people so you could have more people being in charge of the scenario and learning. They lose the experience coordinating the radio traffic, and the discussion at the end of how their tactics impacted the results would not benefit as many people.
Who is... (Score:1, Offtopic)
Using AI Trains to Fight Fires (Score:1, Offtopic)
You'll forgive me for not caring to read the article, but it's a Roland Piquepaille job. Is that wrong of me?
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AI (Score:1)
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Where is the AI exactly? (Score:1)
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obligatory (Score:2)