Orchid Project

Technologies > Disaster Response

  • Augmenting the Bird Table
Augmenting the Bird Table

A video describing how ORCHID researchers applied ethnographic research methods to study the work practices of Emergency Responders from Rescue Global in order to develop the Augmented Bird Table technology.

  • Multi-UAV Coordination for Disaster Response
Multi-UAV Coordination for Disaster Response

A demonstration of our capabilities in multi-uav coordination. We show how human operators can allocate tasks and supervise the real-time coordinated task allocation process that is implemented by the UAVs using the max-sum algorithm.

  • HAC Disaster Response
ORCHID HAC Disaster Response demo

This video proposes a novel disaster management system called HAC-ER that addresses some of the challenges faced by emergency responders by enabling humans and agents, using state-of-the-art algorithms, to collaboratively plan and carry out tasks in teams referred to as human-agent collectives. In particular, HAC-ER utilises crowdsourcing combined with machine learning to extract situational awareness information from large streams of reports posted by members of the public and trusted organisations. We then show how this information can inform human-agent teams in coordinating multi-UAV deployments as well as task planning for responders on the ground. Finally, HAC-ER incorporates a tool for tracking and analysing the provenance of information shared across the entire system. In summary, this paper describes a prototype system, validated by real-world emergency responders, that combines several state-of-the-art techniques for integrating humans and agents, and illustrates, for the first time, how such an approach can enable more effective disaster response operations.

  • A bird's eye view
Building a Birds Eye View: Collaborative Work in Disaster Response

A video preview of the upcoming CHI paper around ORCHID’s collaborative work in Disaster Response with Rescue Global.

Associated Papers
  • Fischer, J. E., Reeves, S., Rodden, T., Reece, S., Ramchurn, S. D., & Jones, D. (2015). Building a Bird's Eye View: Collaborative Work. In CHI 2015. Get Bibtex Citation
    @inproceedings{
       orchid221,
      booktitle = {CHI 2015},
      title = {Building a Bird's Eye View: Collaborative Work},
      author = {J.E. Fischer and S Reeves and T Rodden and Steven Reece and Sarvapali D Ramchurn and David Jones},
      year = {2015},
    keywords = {Human-Agent Interaction, Human-Computer Interaction, Applications} }
AtomicORCHID – Team coordination in disaster response

AtomicOrchid is a mobile mixed-reality game in which field responders work together with HQ to rescue as many targets as possible, before a spreading radioactive cloud engulfs everything in radiation. The game is a research probe through which we study team coordination, and look at how human responders can be supported by a computational agent that helps with planning and execution of the rescue mission.

Associated Papers
  • Jiang, W., Fischer, J. E., Ramchurn, G. S. C. D., Wu, F., Jennings, N. R., & Rodden, T. (2014). Social Implications of Agent-based Planning Support for Human Teams.. In Proc. of the 2014 Int. Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems (CTS ’14). Get Bibtex Citation
    @inproceedings{
      orchid001,
      booktitle = {Proc. of the 2014 Int. Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems (CTS ’14).},
      title = {Social Implications of Agent-based Planning Support for Human Teams.},
      author = {Wenchao Jiang and J.E. Fischer and C. Greenhalgh Sarvapali D Ramchurn and Feng. Wu and Nicholas R Jennings and Tom Rodden},
      year = {2014},
    keywords = {Disaster Response, Human-Agent Interaction, Applications} }
  • Fischer, J. E., Jiang, W., a. Kerne, Ramchurn, G. S. C. D., Reece, S., Pantidi, N., & Rodden, T. (2014). Supporting Team Coordination on the Ground: Requirements from a Mixed Reality Game.. In Proc. 11th Int. Conference on the Design of Cooperative Systems (COOP ’14). Get Bibtex Citation
    @inproceedings{
      orchid002,
      booktitle = {Proc. 11th Int. Conference on the Design of Cooperative Systems (COOP ’14)},
      title = {Supporting Team Coordination on the Ground: Requirements from a Mixed Reality Game. },
      author = {J.E. Fischer and Wenchao Jiang and a. Kerne and C. Greenhalgh Sarvapali D Ramchurn and S. Reece and N. Pantidi and Tom Rodden},
      year = {2014},
    keywords = {Disaster Response,Human-Computer Interaction, Applications}
  • Human-Multi-UAV Coordination
Human-Agent Collaboration for Multi-UAV Coordination

We demonstrate the application of the max-sum-based coordination algorithm for coordinating multiple UAVs in disaster response applications. Human operators can intervene during the run of the algorithm to adjust the plans of a team and prioritise tasks.

  • ORCHID Disaster Response Overview
Disaster Response Overview

This video, detailing ORCHID’s disaster response research, was shown at the ORCHID AHM 2013.

  • JNCM
Japan Nuclear Crowd Map

The Japan Nuclear Crowd Map (JNCM) is a platform developed by ORCHID researchers to intelligently combine crowdsourced nuclear radiation data recorded since the 2011 Fukushima emergency in Japan. The platform automatically collects raw radiation data from a range of sensors installed by local individuals. Using such data, JNCM computes daily spatial radioactivity predictions over Japan using a Gaussian process learning model to help users find out the radioactivity in their prefecture, neighbourhood or other specific locations. To try out the JNCM platform, go to jncm.ecs.soton.ac.uk or download the Android app from the Google play store.

  • Flexible Control
Flexible Control and Agile Teaming of Unmanned Systems in Disaster Response

This video provides an overview of the research directions we are taking in the use of unmanned systems in disaster response.

  • Coalition Formation
Coalition Formation

This video provides a brief overview on some of the research directions that we are taking in the area of “Coalition Formation”, which allows a group of agents to come together, coordinate their actions and achieve an outcome which is greater than any outcome that could be achieved by them acting individually [1,4]. Some of those directions involve looking at how to efficiently handle any constraints that may exist [2], and how to efficiently distribute the computations among the agents [3].

Associated Papers
  • Rahwan, T., Michalak, T., & Jennings, N. R. (2012). A Hybrid Algorithm for Coalition Structure Generation. In Twenty Sixth Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-12), Toronto, Canada. Get Bibtex Citation
    @inproceedings{
      Rahwan:etal:12,
      author = {Talal Rahwan and Tomasz Michalak and Nicholas R. Jennings},
      title = {A Hybrid Algorithm for Coalition Structure Generation},
      booktitle = {Twenty Sixth Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-12)},
      year = {2012},
    address = {Toronto, Canada} }
  • Rahwan, T., Michalak, T. P., Elkind, E., Faliszewski, P., Sroka, J., Wooldridge, M., & Jennings, N. R. (2011). Constrained Coalition Formation. In Twenty Fifth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). Get Bibtex Citation
    @inproceedings{
      Rahwan:etal:11b,
      author = {Talal Rahwan and Tomasz P. Michalak and Edith Elkind and Piotr Faliszewski and Jacek Sroka and Michael Wooldridge and Nicholas R. Jennings},
      title = {Constrained Coalition Formation},
      booktitle = {Twenty Fifth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI)},
      pages = {719--725},
    year = {2011} }
  • Michalak, T., Sroka, J., Rahwan, T., Wooldridge, M., McBurney, P., & Jennings, N. R. (2010). {A Distributed Algorithm for Anytime Coalition Structure Generation}. In {AAMAS '10: Proceedings of the Ninth International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems}. Get Bibtex Citation
    @inproceedings{
      Michalak:10c,
      author = {Tomasz Michalak and Jacek Sroka and Talal Rahwan and Michael Wooldridge and Peter McBurney and Nicholas R. Jennings},
        booktitle = {{AAMAS '10: Proceedings of the Ninth International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems}
    },
        title = {{A Distributed Algorithm for Anytime Coalition Structure Generation}
    },
      year = {2010},
      pages = {1007--1014},
    location = {Toronto, Canada} }
  • Rahwan, T., Michalak, T., Wooldridge, M., & Jennings, N. R. ({2012). Anytime Coalition Structure Generation in Multi-Agent Systems with Positive or Negative Externalities. Artificial Intelligent Journal (AIJ), 186, 95-122. Get Bibtex Citation
    @article{
      Rahwan:etal:12:B,
      author = {Talal Rahwan and Tomasz Michalak and Michael Wooldridge and Nicholas R. Jennings},
      title = {Anytime Coalition Structure Generation in Multi-Agent Systems with Positive or Negative Externalities},
      journal = {Artificial Intelligent Journal (AIJ)},
      volume = {186},
      number = {},
      pages = {95--122},
    year = {2012}