Planning: Leveraging Autonomous Vehicles for Resilient and Efficient Evacuation Planning

Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University aims to investigate the feasibility of deploying autonomous vehicles (AV) during emergency evacuations. Through curated convenings with state and local transportation agencies, emergency management agencies, AV developers and operators, community organizations, transit providers, and academic researchers, the project team plans to identify key opportunities, technical and institutional barriers, and operational requirements necessary to ensure a safe, reliable and efficient autonomous evacuation service. The findings will be used to develop a practical roadmap for future research, pilot testing, policy development, and real-world implementation, resulting in advances in public safety, economic competitiveness, community resilience, and a highly skilled technical workforce. The overarching goal of this project is to establish an expanded regional academia-industry partnership focused on enhancing community resilience and mobility efficiency during emergencies. The project’s implementation is organized around three objectives: 1) stakeholder identification and engagement, 2) feasibility framework co-design through a collaborative workshop, and 3) partnership building through field visits and collaborative planning. These efforts will support the development of a follow up proposal, to advance AV-integrated evacuation research toward real-world implementation. Through these objectives, the project will create an actionable roadmap for integrating AVs into evacuation planning. The outcomes will establish a strong collaborative network, align technological innovation with community needs, and ensure that subsequent research efforts are human-centered and grounded in real-world operational feasibility. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.