Autonomic Architecture for Emergency Response to Chemical Disasters

摘要

Emergency response (ER) to chemical disasters involves emergency medical response as well as decontamination and detoxification of the disaster area. It requires timely diagnosis and characterization of chemical agents; maintaining real-time updates of disaster site; facilitating communications, coordination, and cooperation among all agencies involved including emergency medical services, fire, and police personnel; prompt mobilization of emergency responders, public health workers, and health-care providers; rapid procurement and distribution of large quantities of medications and medical supplies; effective management of available resources; and proper medical treatment of victims. Development, deployment, integration, and management of chemical disaster ER systems are complex. To address the complexity issue, we have explored development of multi-agent autonomic architecture for chemical disaster ER systems. Autonomic computing is an emerging computing paradigm that is derived from human body's self-regulatory nervous system. Autonomic systems are envisioned to be self-aware and able to self-manage. This paper presents our design of multi-agent autonomic architecture for chemical disaster ER systems. It also discusses our latest research results and plans for the next phase of this research project.