The Disaster Response Project
Carnegie Mellon University


The Future of Disaster Response


The ability to respond effectively to disasters is essential for every modern-day society. Effective response to large-scale disasters requires efficient coordination of large heterogeneous teams with access to limited information, and also requires planning for smaller sub teams engaged in critical operations with tighter coordination. These teams will include trained personnel in a variety of professions (fire fighters, medical personnel, military personnel, volunteers, etc. In the future, these teams will also include automated agents such as robots and software agents. Effectively coordinating these highly diverse teams in dynamic and uncertain conditions is a very difficult task that is crucial for responding to disasters in a timely and efficient manner.