BeiDou-Enabled Personal Rescue Equipment for Urban Disaster Response: Functions, Scenarios and Technical Constraints

Disasters in urban areas are increasingly becoming complicated and this has required resilient positioning, communication and situational-awareness technologies of emergency responders. In this review, the potential of BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS)-based individual rescue equipment in responding to disasters in urban and constructed settings will be discussed. A structured literature review was conducted to study representative rescue devices, including smart helmets, intelligent life jackets and personal positioning terminals, based on their technical functions and uses in disasters. The review combines the current capabilities of BDS-based positioning, satellite short-message communication, sensing integration and emergency information support. The findings indicate that BDS-based rescue systems can be used to enhance responder localisation, emergency communication and operational coordination particularly in situations where the terrestrial communication infrastructure is damaged or unavailable. However, they are constrained by urban signal blockage, multipath and non-line-of-sight effects, indoor positioning, power consumption and system integration problems. It is possible to note that the primary benefit of BDS, when compared to other GNSS constellations, is not necessarily a more accurate positioning in all circumstances, but a set of competitive PNT services and satellite short-message communication service. It also needs to be enhanced regarding hybrid positioning, multi-sensor fusion, low-power device design and integration with smart-city and digital-twin emergency-management platforms. These advances are essential to transform BDS-enabled rescue devices from standalone tools into components of resilient urban emergency-response networks.