Emergency exit signs have an important role in the fire safety of buildings. Exit signs help evacuees rapidly escape fire by following the fastest and safest escape routes immediately after the detection of fire. In other words, evacuation can greatly vary according to environmental factors regarding evacuation within the building. In this study, change in the evacuation speed by exit signs and environmental conditions was analyzed through experiments with 138 subjects. Four environmental factors in the experiment are visibility, distance between exit sign and evacuees, spatial configuration, and size and brightness of exit sign. In conclusion, changes in the spatial conditions around exit signs influenced the evacuation speeds of the subjects in poor visibility, and the changes in physical conditions of exit signs exerted more influence when the visibility was relatively better.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been employed to perform aerial surveys in many industries owing to their versatility, relatively low cost, and efficiency. Ground control points (GCPs) are used for georeferencing to ensure orthophoto geolocation/positioning accuracy. In this study, we investigate the impact of the number and distribution of GCPs on the accuracy of orthophoto production based on images acquired by UAVs. A test site was selected based on regulatory requirements, and several scenarios were developed considering the specifications of the UAVs used in this study. The locations of GCPs were varied to obtain the results. Based on the results obtained for different numbers of GCPs per unit area and distribution of GCPs, it is shown that UAV-based platforms can be more extensively utilized in a range of applications. The findings of this study will significantly impact the development process of GCP automation algorithms and enable a more cost-effective approach when determining target sites for UAV-based orthophoto production.

A Study on Improving Safety Performance through Efficient Prioritization for Fire and Evacuation Safety in Commercial Buildings

Background: Safety assessment of fire protection system is very important. Especially, Fire Protection system is central to minimizing damage to human lives and property. They're not in demand at normal times but are definitely needed in times of fire or other disasters. Concerns of performance loss or failure owing to yearly variation remain but the nature of fire protection system challenges users from detecting equipment failure or defects early on. Methods: This study sets a certain inspection score to defect probability, which is calculated by quantitative defect probability arising from yearly variation in fire protection systems by part of fire protection systems observed by time and use the score as the basis to determine replacement and inspection of parts. This study also aims at suggesting hazard calculation associated with aging based on criticality and yearly variation of fire protection systems. This method can realize active and quantitative management and the old fire protection system. Findings: Presented in this study Performance Assessment Tool allows a more effective replacement and inspection of firefighting equipment in structures and eventually calculate hazard of firefighting equipment performance in a quantitative manner, thereby serves as an effective diagnosis tool for maintaining and improving performance of aging firefighting equipment. Improvements: For improvements of this study, data on defect rate of fire protection systems should be recorded to deliver higher reliability and aging of fire protection systems arising from time variance should also be monitored by building detailed data to come up with a methodology that ensures reliable management.