Disaster-Rescue Network

About the Project

🌍 What inspired us?

Natural disasters — floods, earthquakes, fires, storms — claim thousands of lives each year, not because there is no technology, but because there is no real-time, coordinated, reliable rescue network. Victims often cannot communicate their location, and first responders struggle to prioritize and coordinate efforts. We were inspired to build something that could literally save lives — leveraging Bolt's IoT capabilities to create a smarter, faster, and more resilient rescue system.

🚀 What we built

We built Disaster-Rescue Network (DRN), an IoT-enabled, AI-powered coordination platform that:

Allows disaster victims to broadcast their location and SOS in one click
Shows real-time victim and rescuer positions on a live map
Uses AI to help rescuers prioritize and route their teams to the most vulnerable
Provides a simple, robust fallback even when traditional networks break down
Integrates seamlessly with Bolt’s IoT modules and cloud

🛠️ How we built it

Bolt IoT module for location, connectivity, and cloud data streams
Bolt Cloud for secure, scalable data communication
React.js frontend for the user interface
Node.js backend for handling data flows
Mapbox for interactive real-time mapping
We prototyped the “panic button” on a simple mobile interface connected to Bolt’s microcontroller
Simulated a command center view with victim/first responder locations
Tested fallback communication patterns for partial network failure

💡 What we learned

Real-time data during disasters is extremely difficult to coordinate under partial network conditions
Bolt’s IoT ecosystem makes it easy to prototype rescue tech, but optimizing for energy usage and resilience is a fascinating challenge
Human-centered design is crucial: keeping the user interface extremely simple (one button) is the difference between life and death

🧩 Challenges we faced

Working with potentially unreliable connectivity to guarantee that the SOS goes through
Integrating a location-tracking system with Bolt Cloud in a way that scales and respects privacy
Designing an AI algorithm that can quickly reprioritize routes based on dynamic, changing danger zones
Testing with realistic disaster scenarios was difficult without live drills