"Where Did the Bottlenecks Occur?" Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Uses AI to Identify Weaknesses in Evacuation Drills

[Financial News] Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance has developed a system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze employee behavior during evacuation drills and objectively assess the effectiveness of the drills and their vulnerabilities.
Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance announced on the 21st that it had completed development of an "AI-Based Quantitative Evacuation Drill Assessment System." The system links CCTV footage with building spatial data to analyze, using data, who began evacuating and when, which routes they took, and where bottlenecks occurred during an actual evacuation.
Previously, evacuation drills were conducted primarily to confirm whether the drills had taken place and through on-site inspections.
Companies in South Korea conduct regular evacuation drills for employees in accordance with relevant laws, including the Act on the Prevention of Fires and Safety Management, as well as internal standards. However, during actual drills, it was difficult to objectively determine how long it took for evacuation to begin or whether people had crowded into specific routes or emergency exits. As a result, training outcomes and areas for improvement were also difficult to accumulate systematically.
To address these issues, the system was designed to evaluate evacuation behavior across five key areas: evacuation initiation, movement routes, bottlenecks, emergency-exit use, and the spread of evacuation response.
For example, the system can determine how much time elapsed between the fire alarm and the start of an actual evacuation. It can also analyze occupants' movement routes, congestion in specific areas, and imbalances in the use of individual emergency exits. In addition, it examines how quickly the evacuation behavior of people nearby leads to evacuation by other occupants.
In July, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance also filed an independent patent application for the "Method and Device for Evacuation Assessment" used in this technology. The technology quantitatively analyzes and evaluates evacuation behavior using CCTV footage and spatial data. It was recognized for advancing evacuation drills from an approach centered on on-site inspections to a data-based assessment system.
An official from Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance's Corporate Safety Research Institute said, "We will be able to analyze evacuation-drill results more objectively and identify the specific vulnerabilities of each workplace. We will expand the use of effective evacuation-drill systems by improving their applicability in the field and contribute to raising safety standards across society."
Next month, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance will conduct a proof-of-concept (PoC) test involving an actual workplace evacuation drill. The goal is to verify the system's analytical accuracy and applicability in the field. Based on the results, the company plans to expand the system's applications and continue advancing its data-based safety management framework.

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