# Providing Situational Awareness to Emergency Responders Using Drones

Juliana França, Jacimar F. Tavares, Angélica Silva Dias, Marcos Borges

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Juliana França, Jacimar F. Tavares, Angélica Silva Dias, Marcos Borges. Providing Situational Awareness to Emergency Responders Using Drones. 7th International Conference on Information Technology in Disaster Risk Reduction (ITDRR), Oct 2022, Krisitansand, Norway. pp.69-85, 10.1007/978-3-031-34207-3_5. hal-04680549

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# Providing Situational Awareness to Emergency Responders using Drones

Juliana B. S. França<fnref n="1" />, Jacimar F. Tavares<fnref n="2" />, Angélica F. S. Dias <fnref n="3" />, Marcos R.S. Borges <fnref n="4" />

**Abstract.** Crises and incidents are threatening conditions that require urgent action. In emergencies, the lack of relevant information can affect and increase the risks of the crisis scenarios. In this context, response time is crucial for responding to the needs of affected individuals and environments. This study presents an analysis of six awareness criteria applied in emergency response and how these criteria could improve the technological and collaborative solution supported by drones, called "Drones to the Rescue". This research aims to understand how awareness criteria are considered in real emergency response and how incorporating those into the solution would improve it. To evaluate the potential improvement, we carried out a survey with experts from the Firefight Department, Civil Defense, Military Police, and Armed Forces from the states of Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais – Brazil. This research concludes that awareness criteria bring new possibilities and provide new alternatives in emergency response situations.

**Keywords:** Emergency, Information System, Collaborative Systems, Decision-making, Drones.

## 1 Introduction

In recent disasters, we have observed the need for increasingly intelligent systems to support emergency response [1]. Initiatives that make computational results and their processing closer to human reasoning have been stimulated and carried out. The need for these systems has been shown, given the increasing volume of data that need to be processed, originated by popular content produced on the internet and by the knowledge of specialists; expert systems that demand more and more accuracy in their results; decision support systems in complex domains that increasingly need results sensitive to human reasoning and its awareness, and transparency introduced in government systems [2], [3], [4].

Lindell [13] report that the concept of emergency concerns harmful events of low intensity; those that cause a limited amount of damage to property or individuals. The response to these events, given their small scale, is the responsibility of the fire department, police department, or medical institution. The term emergence may also refer to the imminence of the occurrence of a particular harmful event; such as the forecast of a hurricane in the next 48 hours. The urgency of this situation calls for swift and timely action. Broadly, an emergency is an unexpected event that threatens people, communities, property, or business continuity. Emergency, therefore, requires immediate action, efforts, and resources to minimize or even nullify adverse consequences.

According to França [4], in a world where information is completely spread by the world wide web, we can know very fast, in a general way, about emergencies that happen on the other side of the world. Every situation like this has a great impact on society, so there is a need to interpret the signals that are generated and happen imperceptibly. In this way, the response teams, in emergencies, should be able to act immediately and effectively immediately after being called. Response time, therefore, is critical for controlling the adverse situation [2]. However, response actions can become confusing due to the lack of

<footnote n="1">¹IC/UFRJ, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil PPGE/UFRJ, Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil</footnote>

<footnote n="2">²Programa de Pós Graduação em Informática, Departamento de Ciência da Computação, Instituto de Matemática, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³Inst. Tércio Pacitti/NCE (UFRJ), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴TECNUN, University of Navarra, Donostia/San Sebastián, Spain</footnote>

<footnote>julianabsf@ic.ufrj.br</footnote>

<footnote>jacimar.tavares@gmail.com</footnote>

<footnote>angelica@nce.ufrj.br</footnote>

<footnote>mborges@ppgi.ufrj.br</footnote>
reliable and integrated information about the emergency scenario. Thus, the coordination of actions loses efficiency as the lack of information and its fragmentation contribute to the inefficient allocation of the resources involved. Complementarily, Vivacqua and Borges [5] state that there is often a lack of information regarding the region around an emergency.

Some authors present [6], [7], in a superficial way, the lack of awareness of sensitive systems to support emergency response. The lack of aerial vision of the site and its surroundings brings limitations to the agents responsible for the response. Often the scenario encountered in these situations presents several risk factors, both for the team responsible for the response and for people who need some support in this environment. In addition, response times associated with effective actions are vitally important in reducing or even eliminating existing risks.

According to [19] designing for awareness is fundamentally about finding ways to convey the sense of collaboration into interdependent activities. Designing an awareness technological solution is a way to provide a common frame of reference, taking into account the importance of often creating a common ground for the users. [20] extend the definition of awareness bringing a statement that joins the system, collaboration, and feelings concepts. For these authors, collaborative systems implement awareness mechanisms in their functionalities and allow an action or effect that enables the understanding through sensations, intelligence, or intuition. Awareness has always been associated with systems, but not with protagonism. Awareness has been treated peripherally for a long time. However, it changed when technological systems migrated to the internet, being called web systems. In this case, the systems started to be supported by awareness and gained more space and prominence with users, markets and new processes such as data analysis, which, in this work, can be seen, in the proposed solution, as an integral part of the technology that works on the use of drones.

In this scenario, the opportunity to apply a solution involving drones was envisioned, aiming to support decision-making in emergency environments by obtaining and communicating useful information to the response teams through awareness solutions. Drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are machines that are gaining popularity and are currently widely used. They can be standalone, remotely controlled, or equipped with cameras; allowing real-time recording and viewing. Until recent years, UAVs use was directly associated with military use, particularly armed attacks [2]. However, researchers, enthusiasts, and other users have contributed to the use of this equipment exceeding military employment and that's why a regulation needs to be discussed [8], [9].

This research aims to support emergency response by raising awareness of a technological solution. The focus is on investigating six awareness criteria and how they can be introduced into a drone technology solution to support decision makers in responding to emergencies. To reach this result, a survey was launched for specialists in emergency response from the Army, Civil Defense and Fire Department. Despite the fact that several corporations were reached by the survey, it is not possible to conclude exactly the number of professionals who received it (much in favor of the means by which it was disseminated: social networks and sending via e-mail to groups). In this sense, we had feedback and direct participation from 30 experts, from which it was possible to collect relevant data. The main objective of this research is to understand how awareness criteria are considered in responding to real emergencies and how these criteria can improve the Drones to the Rescue solution. [10], [11].

This paper is structured into four sections. Section one introduces the main goal of this paper, section two presents the backgrounds related to emergency, disasters, and crisis, besides emergency management, drones, and awareness. Section three present and discuss the technological solution Drones to the Rescue. The following one provides information about research design, methodology, and discusses the results achieved. And to finalize, section four presents and discusses the limitations of this research and highlights the next steps.

# 2 Background

## 2.1 Emergency, Disaster and Crisis

The society can undoubtedly be considered as a living complex system and from an organizational perspective are born in a certain place and have their structural dynamics, where it is possible to distinguish two independent structures: the organization itself and its environment [12]. The authors emphasize that the modifications are triggered by the disturbing agent but determined by the structure of the disturbed system. Consequently, the environment and the organization in observation act as mutual sources of disturbances and trigger mutual changes of state. However, the routine of human life may lead us to believe
that nothing other than usual will happen. Surprisingly, this apparent normality may suddenly change with one or more traumatic events. These events give rise to dramatic situations capable of transforming the previous state of harmony into a troubled environment, where scenarios of disorder and chaos are presented. This dramatic and potentially traumatic environmental transformation introduces the concept of emergency. An emergency or crisis is a threat condition that requires urgent action.

The concept of disaster is associated with sudden and severe natural disasters such as droughts, forest fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, windstorms, or volcanic eruptions that end up causing damage and harm to the environment, individuals, and property. But the definition of a disaster involves much more than the mere occurrence of these events and is the result of a phenomenon, which may be natural, caused by man or arising from the relationship between them. The phenomenon itself is called an adverse event, and this is the cause of the disaster. Disaster can also be understood as a sudden, a progressive natural or a man-made event that severely affects the community, manifesting the total or partial disruption or destruction of the social system or livelihoods. As a result, the disaster imposes an allocation of resources beyond the normal scope of a jurisdiction or segment of government to address it through exceptional measures or to restore the normality of that community [13].

Responding to a disaster or emergency is enhanced by the actions envisaged in the preparation phase. Relief actions are performed during the response and, finally, the reconstruction phase begins. During the reconstruction, lessons learned feedback the prevention actions envisaged in the preparation phase to refine these preventive measures. Prevention is the first phase and covers actions aimed at preventing disasters or reducing the impact of the consequences. Preparedness is the second phase of disaster management and includes actions to increase the responsiveness of individuals and organizations so that they can act more effectively. The answer is the third phase in emergency and disaster management. It covers the set of actions taken to help and assist the affected parts (people, animals, environment, properties, etc.), reducing damage and losses, to ensure the functioning of the main systems that make up the community infrastructure. Vivacqua and Borges [5] state that this is the most complex and also the most studied phase of all. These authors also report that this phase presents as characteristics unpredictability, high speed of events, a high number of people involved, little time for decision making, unavailability of resources, uncertainty about the situation, and stress on those involved. Reconstruction is the fourth and final phase and encompasses actions for the recovery of the affected parts, such as rebuilding a community, allowing the restoration of the normal state.

## 2.2 Emergency Management

Over time, individuals and communities have always tried to find a way to deal with disasters. However, organized and systematic attempts at disaster management are relatively recent. As such, the range of situations that could involve emergency management or the emergency management system is extensive. This reinforces the premise that emergency management is a complex and fundamental process for the safety of everyone's daily life and should make daily decisions and not just critical moments [14].

Emergency management encompasses the entire planning and intervention process aimed at minimizing the impact caused by extreme events, as well as the implementation of response and recovery actions to mitigate the social, economic, and environmental consequences that impact the community. It is a multidisciplinary, progressive process, both reactive and preventive. It covers several areas of knowledge such as risk management, leadership, and collaboration [14]; [8].

Vivacqua and Borges [5] affirm the existence of four factors that underline the importance of emergency management: (i) public awareness of risks, emergencies and disasters has increased as the cost of disasters has increased dramatically in recent years; (ii) companies understand that disasters can disrupt their operations and even cause bankruptcy. (iii) there is rapid population growth in high-risk areas. This increases the potential for damage caused by a potential disaster; (iv) Emergency management is increasingly requiring specialized training. In fact, to respond quickly to complex incidents, managers must make coordination decisions in a short time; which leads to restrictions on the ability to analyze issues related to the coordination [15].

## 2.3 Drones

Drone, also called UAV - Unmanned Aerial Vehicle is a globally recognized English term for a remotely controlled unmanned aircraft. It can be used, for example, for surveillance, delivery, or leisure. This generic term may refer to various vehicles, such as airplanes, helicopters, multi-engines, or any other type of vehicle capable of flying and meeting the above characteristics. The drone may be of various sizes and its ability to fly autonomously may vary, may be completely autonomous, or may depend on human interaction during a flight [8].
Indeed, aerial imaging technology associated with coordinated autonomous flight can quickly reshape disaster response capabilities. Drones are already used around the world in disaster response, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, landslides, floods, and are involved in other stages of the emergency life cycle. This equipment is much more used in the trauma response phase than in other emergency phases; however, it is observed that they are still underused. There are many possibilities of applications, among them, in the emergency context, it is relevant to mention: (i) recognition and mapping, (ii) structural integrity analysis, (iii) temporary delivery of groceries and parts of the infrastructure, (iv) detection and fire extinguishing, (v) fire response in high-rise buildings, (vi) chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or explosive events, (vii) search and rescue operations, and (viii) risk assessments and logistic support [15].

In fact this equipment is very versatile and offers benefits yet to be explored, among them it is worth mentioning: (i) reduction of exposure of risk response agents; (ii) increased effectiveness of response agents; (iii) clear vision at low altitudes difficult to achieve by manned aircraft; (iv) portability and few requirements to put them into action; and (v) great value for money [16], [25], [17]; [18].

## 2.4 Awareness

According to [21],[22]; [23] awareness involves cognitive aspects related to the ability of human beings to perform tasks and reason them using their natural ability. Having in hand the information from the awareness achieved, it is also possible to trace the work context between those involved and make the coordination of actions feasible, aiming to transform the communication and work efforts into cooperation between those involved. Different individuals have different skills, knowledge, and contribute with different awareness characteristics to the task. Taking into account different individuals, who work together, it is possible to make their analyses complementary, conflicting, or converging. It brings diversity to the results, improving it.

Awareness has different elements that enable the analysis of a context. Gerosa [22] defend the contextualization of actions and those involved, allowing everyone to situate themselves and obtain an understanding of the whole. To achieve this common understanding, the authors suggest some questions, as follows in the 5W1H structure: (1) who performed a certain action? (2) what was done? (3) where was the action taken? (4) when was the action taken? (5) why was the action done? (6) how was the action carried out? In addition to the 5W1H structure, the authors suggest other contextualization questions in order to strengthen the awareness development, as:

* What is the common goal of those involved?

* What is the role of each involved in the context?

* What can be done by others?

* How to proceed in a given scenario?

* What is the impact of the actions implemented?

* How far can I go in my participation?

* Who is around and acting in the actions performed?

* Which locations are being considered?

* What is the source of the problems being discussed?

* How important is the action?

* What relationships exist between those involved?

* What is being analyzed?

* Who did what in past actions (authorship)?

Other aspects being defended by researchers of the emergency response field and awareness to contextualize an action are the tools and resources able to represent the scenario analyzed and the discussions conducted during a real emergency [10]. These artifacts can be physical things such as paper and maps, or even technological systems or electronic devices [24].

Awareness brings to collaborative technological solutions a common ground, and a real understanding of what is being presented. In the next sections, a technological solution based on drones will be presented and a discussion of how awareness resources could support emergency response will be stated too.
3 Drones to the Rescue: A Technological Solution

Drones to the rescue is a collaborative and technological solution designed and implemented to support decision makers into their practical action through drones [10]. This artifact was developed having in mind three aspects: (i) the professionals cannot go to the location of the accident to explore what happened, (ii) time saving, and (iii) the necessity for more special details of the scene, when an in-person exploration can cause damage or hurt for the professionals.

Time is a precious variable in emergency management. However, decision makers need reliable information about the current event to direct efforts. Eventually, in order to support the emergency response, it is necessary to call in specialists from specific areas, such as those who have knowledge of fire or liquid or gas leaks, radioactive leaks, among others. In this context, when there is the possibility of aerial visualization of the scenario, as in some cases of fires, landslides or floods, it is possible to be much more assertive in decision making.

Generally, it is recommended that data captured at the emergency scene go through an analysis process. In the event of aerial image capture, these should be forwarded to specialists; which may, in the course of the analysis, make relevant observations and notes of the situation, and then be directed to the decision makers. Currently, several computational technologies have been used to support the decision-making process, such as: (i) capture tools, (ii) image processing tools (2D / 3D mapping for example) and (iii) collaborative tools that can handle photos, text and files, instant messengers, email applications and cloud file storage services (remote server).

*Drones to the Rescue* solution, when fed with aerial images of the emergency scene, allows in its first version: (i) to make the content available on the web; (ii) share the content; (iii) display the images in an organized manner; (iv) insert graphic markings on images; (v) view and edit comments; (vi) display map content and (vii) responsive operation (desktop and mobile). This solution seeks to support agents involved in emergency response as well as decision makers through the availability of images, analyzed by experts.

This proposed solution involves two modules responsible for drone capture images, where the images are available in the cloud and a third developed module. This latter is a web system, the central theme of this work, which allows responses and collaborative editing of captured images. Considering an emergency scenario, this solution proposes that agents involved can act according to the following steps. **Fig. 1** illustrates it.

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 1.** Technological Solution Overview</figcaption></figure>
1) A qualified agent takes off a drone from the emergency location.

2) The agent commands the drone flight over emergency location.

3) After finding scenes of interest, the agent remotely triggers photo capture by the drone camera.

4) The agent downloads the captured images to your mobile phone through the application.

5) The downloaded images are recognized by a second application present on the pilot's phone.
This app starts the process of uploading images to a cloud folder.

6) The images are available on a cloud storage service.

7) Experts and other contributors access the page of a third application, available on the Web.

8) Users view the images obtained and their locations; use the app's features to edit images (inserting and / or changing comments) to aggregate information to support decision making.

9) Users view changes made by other collaborating agents and can make new considerations and edits to images.

10) Decision makers access the platform and refer to the original and edited content to support decision making regarding subsequent actions.

In this solution, the camera attached to the drone is the source of the images, which serve as the central element in the solution. Fig. 2. represents the flow made by an image. The solution allows visualization and collaborative interaction, and also provides full support for images taken by other means such as smartphone cameras, satellite images, drawings, among others. However, in this paper we emphasize only drone images. This solution, applied in an emergency scenario, requires: a drone, a smartphone with web connection and drone compatibility, and a web-connected device for use by the third module.

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 2. Image's capture and treatment flow.</figcaption></figure>

In an emergency's situation reliable information needs to be obtained in a short time. Therefore, the existence of a technology resource that allows the capture, visualization and processing of data in a collaborative way, will subsidize the decision-making process.

After the development of *Drones to the Rescue*, this technological artifact was validated considering the applicability of this software to support specialists in emergency response actions. Details of this validation can be found in [10]. The next step of emergency response through drones' investigation is the identification of how awareness criteria could support decision makers. In the next section, we present how the investigation was conducted through a survey and discuss how the results will improve *Drones to the Rescue* solution.
# 4 Emergency Response Through Awareness: A Survey to Investigate Awareness Criteria in Drone's Solution

As presented in the background section, some research [21]; [20]; [23]; [24] defend the contextualization of actions in a situation to improve awareness development. Based on it, some questions were proposed, and, in this research, we raised six awareness criteria that follow (Table 1).

<table><caption>Table 1. Awareness Criteria.</caption><thead><tr><td>Questions to contextualize situations</td><td>Awareness Criteria</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>What is the common goal of those involved?</td><td rowspan="2">Common Goal</td></tr><tr><td>What is being analyzed?</td></tr><tr><td>How important is the action?</td><td>Common Goal</td></tr><tr><td>What is the source of the problems being discussed?</td><td>Common Goal</td></tr><tr><td>Which locations are being considered?</td><td>Common Goal</td></tr><tr><td>What is the role of each involved in the context?</td><td>Role definition</td></tr><tr><td>How far can I go in my participation?</td><td>Role definition</td></tr><tr><td>How to proceed in each scenario?</td><td>Role definition</td></tr><tr><td>How to represent the situation scenario and analysis?</td><td>Artifact use</td></tr><tr><td>What relationships exist between those involved?</td><td>Authority impact</td></tr><tr><td>Who is around and acting in the actions performed?</td><td>Authority impact</td></tr><tr><td>What can be done by others?</td><td>Authority impact</td></tr><tr><td>Who did what in past actions (authorship)?</td><td>Preview analysis being applied</td></tr><tr><td>What is the impact of the actions implemented?</td><td>Correlate current analyzes</td></tr></tbody></table>

The main goal of this research is to investigate how awareness criteria are considered in real emergency response and how these criteria can support a drone's technological solution, especially *Drones to the Rescue* [10]. To do it, we planned, executed and analyzed the answers of a survey conducted with real experts from the Firefight Department, Civil Defense, Military Police, and Armed Forces of Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais - Brazil. In the next sections we provide the details of this survey and discuss the results achieved.

## 4.1 Survey Planning

This survey was designed by three researchers and experts in the field of emergency response. It was designed considering the contextual question to support the awareness investigation and the six criteria presented in Table 1. To collect data with experts, the researchers designed a questionnaire with six main questions, in addition to identity questions, and scenarios to illustrate an emergency supported by drones. In summary, for each question, a contextual aspect (scenario) was presented to support the respondents' understanding.

Each main question was considered taking into account the six sensitization criteria. All questions aim to understand awareness considering a real case of emergency. Table 2 presents the questions answered by the experts and their relationship with the awareness criteria.

<table><caption>Table 1. Correlation between scenario/questionnaire and awareness criteria.</caption><thead><tr><td>Scenario (S) and Question (Q)</td><td>Awareness Criteria</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>S1: It is known that it is possible, for an emergency, to define the main objective of the team before attending to it (ex: it was defined that the main objective is to identify survivors, or that the main objective is to identify possible points that can lead to new disasters within a disaster, etc.).</td><td>Common Goal</td></tr><tr><td>Q1: What level of importance do you give to the definition of the team's goal in an emergency response?</td><td>Role definition</td></tr><tr><td>S2: Consider that there is someone (a professional involved) with the role of acting in charge of the main actions to be taken during the emergency and that there is a clear definition of the</td><td>Role definition</td></tr></tbody></table>
role of each of the professionals involved in the occurrence.

Q2: How important is the clear definition of roles in an emergency response situation?

S3: Imagine that, if any of the professionals involved in the emergency, who are viewing the drone images, identify a possible victim. Aware that the web system (where the generated images are viewed) that accompanies the drone also allows the point in the generated image to be marked with an observation and that the others involved in the occurrence can later signal at that marked point that they agree or disagree with what was flagged (thus giving a view of consensus or dissent).

Artifact use

Q3: How important would you rate the use of a web system to identify a victim in the scene?

S4: It is considered that, in an image generated by a drone, about a disaster, it is possible to signal an area (a stretch of ground or a set of points in coordinate) as having already been analyzed by all professionals involved in the emergency, giving the awareness to everyone that the area has already been the target of everyone's analysis effort.

Preview analysis being applied

Q4: What level of importance would you attribute to the use of a system that allows a signalization of an area analyzed by others specialists?

S5: Consider that there is a definition of the role of each of the professionals involved in the analysis of the images of the disaster, and that each one of those involved is marked with a symbol (icon) that explicitly characterizes him (eg, risk analyst, etc.).

Authority impact

Q5: Do you think that viewing the representation of each of those involved can change your awareness of the facts reported by them?

S6: Consider that, when analyzing the facts presented in an emergency, it is possible to identify and mark some relevant point in the images generated by the drone and that these points can be related (if there is a relationship) by each of those involved, still allowing you to have access to information that shows what was related by whom and why of the relationship.

Correlate current analyzes

Q6: What level of importance would you attribute to the use of a system that would allow you to relate analyzed points?

The questionnaire presents closed questions, and for each of them the respondents could choose between the following options: prime, very important, important, not very important, indifferent and irrelevant. The data collection was planned to be open during seven days: from 01/17/2022 to 01/24/2022. The researchers sent the survey's invite for known specialists and groups by Email, WhatsApp and social media.

## 4.2 Survey Execution and Results

The questionnaire was open for data collection over the seven days initially planned. In total, we had 30 answers from specialists with experience in emergency response with drone's solution. Among them, 40% firefighters; 20% police; 26,67% civil defense; 3,34% navy, and 10% expert civil servants in Brazil. The graphics below (Fig. 3, Fig. 4, Fig. 5, Fig. 6, Fig. 7, Fig. 8) present the data collected for each question of Table 2 and show the position of this sample.
Question 1: What level of importance do you give to the definition of the team's goal in an emergency response?

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 3. Data of Common Goal.</figcaption></figure>

Question 2: How important is the clear definition of roles in an emergency response situation?

<figure><img src="image_6.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 4. Data of Role definition.</figcaption></figure>

Question 3: How important would you rate the use of a web system to identify a victim in the scene?

<figure><img src="image_7.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 5. Data of artifact use.</figcaption></figure>

Question 4: What level of importance would you attribute to the use of a system that allows a sinalization of an area analyzed?

<figure><img src="image_8.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 6. Data of preview analysis being applied.</figcaption></figure>

Question 5: Do you think that viewing the representation of each of those involved can change your perception of the facts?

<figure><img src="image_9.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 7. Data of Authority impact.</figcaption></figure>

Question 6: What level of importance would you attribute to the use of a system that would allow you to relate analyzed points?

<figure><img src="image_10.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 8. Data of Correlate current analyze.</figcaption></figure>
As can be observed in the graphics above (Fig. 3, Fig. 4, Fig. 5, Fig. 6, Fig. 7, Fig. 8), all the respondents believe that criteria like common goal, role definition, artifact use, preview analysis being applied, authority impact, and correlate current analyzes, will influence, in a significant way, the emergency response actions. This result, from real specialists, indicate that a solution that offers real and instant aerial images of a region via drone to support physical rescues and decision-making, must provide awareness resources.

Analyzing the suggestions above, and the results of this survey, we can confirm that awareness criteria are present in emergence response actions. These criteria are demanded by specialists in technological solutions that operate or are operated by drones. Functions that provide, for instance: (a) a tracking of images, (b) communication between co-workers, or (c) a different perspective for a known scene; are a way to improve the understanding of actions in an emergency scenario.

Scenarios and the questions defined are correlated in this work to web application functionalities (an integral part of the Drone ao Resgate solution) can implement, aiming to promote aspects of awareness to its users. With the result of the answers given through scenarios and questions 1 and 2, it is possible to define that it is important that there are mechanisms for coordinating teams in an emergency, and that, with them, the objectives of the rescue mission can be clearly defined, as well as which stakeholders are responsible for the strategy part of the operation (strategic level), coordination (management level) and for the operationalization part (operational level). Having, in the web solution, clear indications of this information, can speed up the process of identifying each one of those involved and the nature of the contribution that each one can make in the execution of the rescue operation. The scenario and question 3, in turn, showed that the implementation of features that, in a possible rescue coordination, are useful to inform those involved that a signal made by one of those involved in the rescue, is corroborated or not by others involved, signaling that more than one involved, in this case, had the same awareness about a fact. The scenario and question 4 brought results that show the need to implement functionalities aimed at the awareness, individually and collectively, that all others involved in the operation have already directed their efforts to a certain analyzed area, thus suggesting that multiple perspectives were used in the analysis of an area impacted by a disaster. The results generated with the scenario and question 5 show that it is relevant to implement features whose association with iconographic elements allows those involved in the rescue to quickly perceive that the feedbacks given in the application are specific to some type of professional, which can impact their analysis and conclusion of the facts through different insights generated instantly. Finally, there is the scenario and question 6, which show the relevance of the awareness of the correlation analysis generated between information placed in the system by those involved in the emergency. This awareness of correlations can lead to the creation of new information that will feed the system, generating new awareness for those involved, which can restart several of the analysis activities and awareness generated so far, in an emergency.

In [26][27] the concept of situational awareness is worked on, which concerns the awareness of elements and possible events in a disaster, for example, correlating temporal order and space where they occurred, thus managing to make predictions of possible actions in future actions. The model presented [26] shows the representation of the impacted environment whose observation leads to situational awareness with the selection of a mental model that works with objectives and plans, enabling a set of steps that will originate actions to be taken in the analyzed situation, considering time and space where they occurred. In this research, it is possible that
situational awareness is worked on while new information is entered into the web system from
the analysis of those involved in the rescue. Such information may be specific to individual anal-
ysis, image capture by drone equipment that flies over the affected area or resulting from the
perception of the perception of some other individual, when faced with a situation with which
they have extensive experience.

5 Conclusion and Future Work

This research presents a study of an emergency response through awareness making use of Drones. The focus is the investigation of six awareness criteria and how they can improve a technological drone solution to support decision makers and physical rescue. To achieve this result, a survey was conducted with specialists in emergency response from the Army, Civil Defense and Fire Department.

The results show that awareness criteria are important to emergency response based on
drone's technological solution. They can bring a better understanding of an emergency scenario
and support innovative solutions.

In Correia [10], some suggestions were made by specialists to improve the Drones to the Rescue solution, in a work effort that can be considered the basis of the research presented in this article. Analyzing these suggestions, combined with the results obtained and with the observations of possible implementations for Drones to the Rescue, made at the end of subsection 4.2, it becomes possible to present the points listed below, as items that must be considered in the implementation of a web solution that supports awareness:

* Access control is captured and edited, preventing leaks of content restricted to those involved in the operation. Therefore, it will be necessary to develop a specific module for this purpose. In this sense, coordination and awareness of coordination can be better worked with different levels of access and functionalities.

* Optimize the organization of captured images by grouping them according to their origin and image versioning, allowing their tracking. This will help the web solution to display captured images with good performance, allowing quick awareness based on available images, including the historical evolution of events by the history of available images.

* Treatment not only of images, but also of videos captured by the drone. The clear and objective awareness of the items identified in an image must not contain dubiousness, which can impact the awareness of those involved.

* Live streaming, where it will be important to have low latency and no streaming delay, so a good internet connection is essential. In this sense, the awareness may change as new information is seen and analyzed by those involved.

* Display the geographic coordinates of the drone on the map. It reinforces the idea of the awareness that those involved in the rescue are having access to the same points analyzed by all those involved.

* Report new captured data via email or SMS using an active message triggering system to stakeholders. This will allow the awareness that information has been sent, that it has been viewed or not, or that it has not been considered in an analysis.

* Support autonomous flight for 3D mapping, together with an app connected to the drone, so that the drone operation takes place autonomously, so that it is possible to form a 3D
map after processing the images. At this point, sizing information is added that can help in different analyses, based on the awareness of specific stakeholders. As an example, you can change the awareness of a place in the disaster based on relief information, steep or difficult to access areas.

Awareness can be achieved even in distributed teams [28], if there is a data network that has databases accessible by different mechanisms that work in a distributed way, constantly updated by different nodes of the same network. In this sense, the participating group, each contributing with their perception of the facts, will create a sharing community, generating, as the work suggests, a sense of belonging. In Drones to Rescue, group work is essential and indispensable in an emergency. All the research carried out showed that the implementations that were suggested in this and other sections, corroborate so that those involved have a clear perception of the impacts and contributions of their actions during the emergency, reinforcing the feeling of community.

As a limitation of this study, it is important to highlight that it was carried out in a situation simulated emergency response. In this sense, the daily and real challenges faced in environments of uncertainty and scarce time, such as a real emergency, were not taken into account. This can impact the responses obtained by the participants, although those involved are professionals linked to this type of emergency, several of them with practical experience with the use of drones (this information was not collected). In future research, the different times of experience in rescues should be considered in the research.

In the next steps, all six investigated criteria (common purpose, role definition, artifact usage, applied visualization analysis, authority impact, and correlated current analyses) will be introduced as new functional requirements in the Drones to the Rescue solution, starting with the functional requirements highlighted in the previous section. Also as a next step in this research, we are planning to evaluate the Drones to the Rescue solution enhanced by other experts, in real emergency scenarios, in addition to increasing the interview samples to validate the identification of new criteria to be considered. Our interest at this stage is to assess the quality of rescues and decision making based on an awareness solution.

## Acknowledgments

We thank all the specialist's team for their commitment and availability during this research development. This research was supported by Faperj - E-26/211.367/2019 (248406).

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