The Architecture of EVAGUIDE: A Security Management Platform for Enhanced Situation Awareness and Real-Time Adaptive Evacuation Strategies for Large Venues

The EVAGUIDE H2020 project envisions a safer and more comfortable experience for people in large venues like the stadia around the world. In the case where an unpredicted event takes place, all the people in the stadium will have a complete picture of how they will evacuate the venue, while the spectators will only have to worry for their team’s performance and not their safety. The EVAGUIDE project focuses on the development of a ready-for-market product that will integrate all subsystems into a commercial EVAGUIDE platform (TRL8). This paper reflects on the architectural cornerstones of the EVAGUIDE solution demonstrating the approach followed towards the integration of all the components developed within EVAGUIDE’s life span. The main components constitute (a) the Communication Middleware, to enable the different subsystems and sensing elements of EVAGUIDE to communicate between them; (b) the EVAGUIDE Core System, to handle the interconnection with sensing elements, the alarm raising mechanisms and the control of active exit signs and actuators; (c) the algorithms for real-time crowd modelling and the calculation of the evacuation route in real time; and (d) the mobile platform, for the safety of spectators as well as for the dispatch of safety personnel/stewards. The EVAGUIDE project will change the way security companies operate within large venues for sports and entertainment by providing a novel security management platform for enhanced situation awareness and real-time adaptive evacuation strategies. Initial results from testing the system at PAOK’s stadium in Thessaloniki are presented. EVAGUIDE has received funding from the European Union’s H2020 for Research and Innovation under GA No. 831154.