Guidelines | E-PreS

Prior to each experiment

Prior to an drill it is necessary to study in detail evacuation plan of the building in order to put the necessary check nodes on the most appropriate positions that will not affect evacuation process and will serve to check weakness and gaps.

Prior to each experiment:
If you are using external router to create E-PreS Wi-Fi network, power on device and put in an appropriate position. Then install wi-fi extenders if necessary (you can check with a mobile device the strength of the signal)

Log in
Open a browser window (preferably Chrome) and wait. The whole system will load.
Log in with the username and password provided to you by UoA.
If you create E-PreS wi-fi network by laptop, you should create the network by clicking on the Network connection icon and press “create” to create E-preS wi-fi network. If you are using external router you should connect to E-preS wi-fi by clicking connect from the same Network icon.
Power up each node, the antenna reader and the raspberry.
Visit http://localhost:8000/antenna-status and make sure that all nodes are active and connected.
Pass the testing tag from each node. In the http://www.localhost.gr/init-tags you will be able to see the tag passing from node to node. Upon passing from the nodes, they are ready.
Design a drill and Register nodes in the system. After having installed the nodes in the building you have to design the drill and insert check points. You have to go to http://localhost:8000/building and add the floors of the building that will be used for the drill. You can upload an image of the floor plan in jpg, png or else format. Then you will be asked to “Insert new Drill”.
From the bottom of the page you go to “Insert new drill”, by adding the necessary info (name, reason for evacuation). You will be asked then to “Select drill to insert checkpoints”. By clicking the drill you are transferred again to the floor view. You just click on the image of a floor and add the checkpoint on its position. Each checkpoint corresponds to an installed node. For each node you can give a name, add the expected flux of pupils, and if it is an exit, click the nearby box. You should then press Save in order to register and continue with another checkpoint. Be careful though that the number of the Checkpoint should correspond to the numbering of the nodes you have used (i.e. the first checkpoint to register should represent the node with No 1, the second to register the no 2 etc.)
Design evacuation paths. In order to design the evacuation paths of the drill you have to click “back to Building details” (or go to http://localhost:8000/building) and under the drill name you can find the option to “insert new evacuation path”. Note that for each classroom you need to create one evacuation path. You give a name (normally the name of the classroom it refers to) and you insert the path. You are transferred again to the floor plans where for each path you have to click the order of the checkpoints that the path will follow by clicking one by one the checkpoints. After finishing you press “save”. On top of page you can modify path settings by clicking “Update path settings”. There you can add more info on the path like the order of path execution (prior or after another path if desired), evacuation time, and most important and necessary for drill implementation, to correspond a tag leader (a teacher) with the specific path.
If you skip this last setting you will not be able to execute the drill. Settings can change also after inserting all paths.
After updating settings of a path you can insert “new evacuation plan” and so one, till you have inserted one path for each participating classroom.
Go to http://localhost:8000/building, choose a building and press “Real time” next to the corresponding drill.
If everything is ok, the “Start” button will appear along with the name of the drill.
Press “Start” (The “Start” becomes “Stop”) and check the first node.
As soon as the first dot appears on the graph, it is an indication that the drill has started and the school bell can signal the start of the drill.
At the end of the trial press “Stop” and navigate to the result page of the experiment to get the results and a list of all the recorded events. If you accidentally pressed the “Start” and need to reinitiate the experiment, press the “Delete all analytics”. The measurements will be deleted and the drill can be initiated again.

Tag Initialization

Tag initialization is a process that has to be implemented for each building and for each drill execution. After having inserted the check points on a building you need to initialize the tags that will be used during the drill.
The following procedure is advised to be done only once. Do not repeat it before each drill. To initialize the tags and associate a teacher’s tag with the students’ tags, you should:

Mark a tag to be used as a testing tag (e.g. using a marker). This tag will not be used for any other purpose. This is the only tag that will be used before each evacuation drill to make sure that the nodes are setup and functioning correctly.
Group the tags per classroom (e.g. make groups of 26 tags. 1 tag for the teacher and 25 for the students). Mark the teacher’s tag clearly so that you can find it easily among the students’ tags.
Assemble one node, power it on, start the laptop and wait until the server starts.
Using a browser, navigate to http://localhost:8000/antenna-status and make sure that the active node is visible, thus ensuring that it functions correctly and communicates with the server. Navigate to http://localhost:8000/init-tags
Place the tags far away from the antennas of the node to avoid accidental detection. 5.1 You can skip steps 3, 4, and 5 if you are in the building and have already installed in situ the check points (See: Prior to an experiment instructions)
You can skip steps 3, 4, and 5 if you are in the building and have already installed in situ the check points (See: Prior to an experiment instructions)
For each group, place the teacher node in-between the antennas. The tag will be detected (multiple times). Check the corresponding box to show that this is the teacher’s tag and press “save”. Don’t reload the page.
Place each of the student’s tags of the same group in-between the antennas and just press “save”.
Check the tag leader (teacher) and make sure that it is showing first along with the corresponding student’s tags
Move the tags at a safe distance.
Refresh the page. The tags that are registered will not show up again. A “Sequence” of cards is thus created starting with “Sequence 0”, followed by “Sequence 1” and so on.
Repeat the above process for every group.

During the preparation phase of every drill assign each sequence of tags to a specific evacuation path (and thus with each classroom – since the evacuation path is unique for every classroom). In the following pictures we chose Sequence 0 for the specific evacuation path. Needless to say that for another drill the assignment of the sequences of tags may be different.

Tips

The cables of the checkpoints at the exits and stairways might be a problem for the evacuees. They must be well secured on the floor to avoid falling accidents.
The checkpoints at the exits and the staircases should be placed in such a way to avoid narrowing the evacuation path and to prevent damage by accidental kicking during evacuation.
It is better to insert the RFID tags into corresponding card holder in order to protect them.
The tag holders should be secured in the clothes to prevent tags from falling during evacuation.The participants of the drill should wear the RFID tags near to their shoes.
The participants of the drill should wear the RFID tags near to their shoes.
The antennas are very sensitive, so attention must pay in their placement, in order to avoid records “noise”.
Sometimes the estimated duration of the evacuation in the platform is larger than the actually recorded. This happened due to the fast moving rhythm of the evacuees. The participants should have a normal pace during the evacuation not a running pace.