Overview of an Implementation of an Android-Based Disaster Management System
Implementation of an Android-Based Disaster Management System
By: Jovilyn Therese B. Fajardo and Carlos M. Oppus The Philippines is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world, and is constantly in the threat of some type of natural disaster. The article by Fajardo and Oppus describes how they were able to develop an android based application to save lives before, during, and after a disaster. A combination of several algorithms were used together to take information and determine best escape routes and alert rescuers of a person’s location. One of the algorithms used was a genetic algorithm, a model that gives a solution to a changing problem, similar to evolution. This was implemented to solve a “Travelling Salesman Problem” like situation where disaster conditions would be constantly changing. The Salesman problem determines the best route based on distance to the next location. The algorithm takes in information such as a person’s location and determines the best route from Geo-location information. There was a need for urgency of situations to be placed higher in the route queue. This is taken care of by the Elitism and Tournament Selection Algorithms. The Elitism algorithm takes the solutions from the Genetic algorithm and determines which solution is best. These solutions are then fed into the Tournament selection algorithm to find the optimum solution. The optimum solution then gets mapped and delivered to the rescue team. The Algorithms used in this Android application have shown me that you can modify a multitude of algorithms intended for something else and combine them to do something completely different. The use of Google’s Maps to get location information was key as well as the Cellular network. I think, however, that the application could run into a speed bump if service is disrupted by the disaster, effectively taking out the route information and alerts.
Bibliography
Jovilyn Therese B. Fajardo and Carlos M. Oppus,
By: Jovilyn Therese B. Fajardo and Carlos M. Oppus The Philippines is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world, and is constantly in the threat of some type of natural disaster. The article by Fajardo and Oppus describes how they were able to develop an android based application to save lives before, during, and after a disaster. A combination of several algorithms were used together to take information and determine best escape routes and alert rescuers of a person’s location. One of the algorithms used was a genetic algorithm, a model that gives a solution to a changing problem, similar to evolution. This was implemented to solve a “Travelling Salesman Problem” like situation where disaster conditions would be constantly changing. The Salesman problem determines the best route based on distance to the next location. The algorithm takes in information such as a person’s location and determines the best route from Geo-location information. There was a need for urgency of situations to be placed higher in the route queue. This is taken care of by the Elitism and Tournament Selection Algorithms. The Elitism algorithm takes the solutions from the Genetic algorithm and determines which solution is best. These solutions are then fed into the Tournament selection algorithm to find the optimum solution. The optimum solution then gets mapped and delivered to the rescue team. The Algorithms used in this Android application have shown me that you can modify a multitude of algorithms intended for something else and combine them to do something completely different. The use of Google’s Maps to get location information was key as well as the Cellular network. I think, however, that the application could run into a speed bump if service is disrupted by the disaster, effectively taking out the route information and alerts.
Bibliography
Jovilyn Therese B. Fajardo and Carlos M. Oppus,
Bibliography: Jovilyn Therese B. Fajardo and Carlos M. Oppus, "A Mobile Disaster Management System Using the Android Technology," WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on COMMUNICATIONS , Issue 6, Volume 9, 2010, pp. 343 to 353, ISSN: 1109-2742, June 2010.