Resilio: Empowering Communities

Team SAAB’s mission is to design and build a system to enable communication for a minimum of 7 days - following an outage of power and cellular infrastructure - in order to improve the fidelity of the communications between persons and agencies to share individual updates, on-the-ground situations, and damage reports.

Resilio consists of a mobile application, end-user devices, and network hubs that all work in tandem to empower the disaster-stricken community. Using an innovative social media platform that enables disaster survivors to connect with one another, Resilio makes it easier for survivors to form an impromptu community. Through this platform, survivors can share information, resources, and services, thereby decreasing reliance on first responders and increasing aggregate resiliency. They can also view official alerts posted by the local government agency managing recovery efforts.The device allows users to communicate through Resilio’s mobile application in the absence of electricity and a functioning cellular infrastructure. Users can physically charge their smart phones with enough charge to last up to 7 days if optimized properly. Additionally, these devices form their own independent connection using LoRa, a long range wireless communication protocol. Communities can thus come together around this local area mesh network for mutual assistance. Certain more robust nodes within this network, functioning as hubs, can be operated by local authorities. They may be set up at hospitals and tactical operation centers where commercial or backup power is available. In addition to optimizing the data flow within Resilio’s wireless network, hubs enable first responders to collect data from within the Resilio communities in order to receive unfiltered on-the-ground updates and thus target relief efforts more effectively. When hubs are connected to the global internet, loved ones and other non-affected parties can even view and interact with Resilio communities.

Resilio’s vision is thus to provide a platform by which survivors of disasters in places where immediate help is unlikely can easily connect with one another for mutual assistance. In doing so, we aim to connect that disaster-stricken community with external entities so that first responders can better target relief efforts and so that loved ones can receive unfiltered on-the-ground updates and possibly some peace of mind.