INTEGRATED SURVEILLANCE ECOSYSTEM FOR EUROPEAN AUTHORITIES RESPONSIBLE FOR MARITIME OPERATIONS LEVERAGED BY RELIABLE AND ENHANCED AERIAL SUPPORT

Project Information

I-SEAMORE

Grant agreement ID: 101073911

DOI

10.3030/101073911

Project closed

EC signature date 28 November 2022

Start date 1 January 2023

End date 31 October 2025

Funded under

• Civil Security for Society

Total cost

€ 7 470 106,12

EU contribution

€ 6 131 432,29

Coordinated by

ATOS IT SOLUTIONS AND SERVICES IBERIA SL
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - I-SEAMORE (INTEGRATED SURVEILLANCE ECOSYSTEM FOR EUROPEAN AUTHORITIES RESPONSIBLE FOR MARITIME OPERATIONS LEVERAGED BY RELIABLE AND ENHANCED AERIAL SUPPORT)

Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The pressure on the European external borders have increased significantly as well as the number of irregular border crossings. A great part of these border crossings are related to maritime routes (roughly 70%), which are usually stage for other types of illicit activities, such as smuggling of goods, piracy and terrorist attacks, illegal and unreported fishing, maritime accidents and environmental crimes (e.g. oil spills). Maritime Authorities face daily an increasing number of unpredictable and complex situations and threats, which require the employment of advanced technological means suitable for the needs of maritime surveillance and search & rescue operations. A great part of the systems currently in use is limited in terms of capabilities for wide area and persistent surveillance (low use of large-endurance unmanned aerial assets and exploitation of information from satellite services). To ensure maritime security, there is strong need in Europe for proper coordination of multiple actors to provide reduced reaction/response times, enhanced cross border and cross-sectoral cooperation through improved information sharing and improved integration environment connecting heterogeneous assets and tools.

I-SEAMORE addresses efficient border surveillance and maritime security. The I-SEAMORE challenge is to build and validate an Ecosystem composed of an advanced platform solution to host and manage the operation of several innovative assets, services and systems to be deployed in Maritime Operation Centres to enhance current situational awareness and operational capabilities for maritime surveillance.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The activities and main achievements of I-SEAMORE in the reporting period (January 2023 - June 2024) are:

WP2: I-SEAMORE Continuous SELP Landscape Assessment & Procedures Definition
Elaboration and implementation of guidelines and monitoring of societal, ethics, legal and privacy issues within the project.
Establishment of the methodological framework for monitoring and evaluation/validation.
Developed a participatory model, to foster an increased awareness and acceptance of EU maritime security systems by citizens and civil society.

WP3: I-SEAMORE Co-Creation & Co-Design Phase
Analysis of the state-of-the-art of technologies for maritime surveillance.
A framework to design (co-design) and create (co-create) technological solutions for maritime surveillance involving: end-users, technical and research partners.
Initial definition of user requirements, and Key Performance Indicators.
I-SEAMORE architecture and technical requirements.

WP4: I-SEAMORE UxVs, Satellites & Payloads
Catalogue of the potential UxVs and payload
Description of the datasets used in the I-SEAMORE project; basically satellite data and UxVs data.
Implementation of several UxVs modifications with the purpose of improving their operational and processing capabilities

WP5: I-SEAMORE Platform & Services
The I-SEAMORE interoperability layer which supports seamless data exchange and system integration across a spectrum of maritime surveillance tools and platforms.This layer is the key for integrating diverse data sources like Automatic Identification Systems (AIS), Unmanned Vehicles (UxVs) and satellite imagery. An important part of the Interoperability Layer is a common data model aligned with the CISE data model.
Implementation and set up of the orchestration platform enabling the first integration and testing activities.
First versions of the I-SEAMORE services and tools: C4I platform adaptation, modelling and simulation tools, UxVs’ mission planner module, mission febrief module and visual analytics tools.

WP6: I-SEAMORE Ecosystem: Integration, Testing and Validation
Preliminary testing activities, evaluation of the functionalities of standalone components and the interoperability layer.

WP8: Dissemination and Exploitation
Initial plan for dissemination and communication. I-SEAMORE website and brand identity.
Analysis of project stakeholders and the value propositions for both project use cases: smuggling of drugs and irregular migaration.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

I-SEAMORE is producing a range of cutting-edge solutions, each addressing key challenges related to the maritime domain, providing border and coast guards with capabilities to monitor EU external borders in order to prevent, detect and react to crime. These solutions entail notable innovations enhancing advanced capability levels concerning detection, identification and tracking. Most components of the envisaged solutions are expected to arrive at high TRL and be demonstrated in actual environments with operations and exercises for validation by end-users.
Improvements are being implementing for the Unmanned Assets, starting with the integration of additional payloads, such as Software Defined Radio (SDR)-based sensor for augmented SIGINT capabilities (UAVs) and InfraRed (IR) camera for enabling nocturnal operations (USVs). Other innovations include developing appropriate algorithms for on-board processing of data from the new payloads, improving the navigational performance of UAVs by using EGNOS, as as well as augmenting the endurance and decreasing the acoustic signature of part of the UAVs by modernizing their current power systems for stealthier operations.
A novel and comprehensive suite of data fusion services based on AI and Big Data Analytics, is being developed. These fusion services support the extraction of high quality and actionable information by correlating and fusing heterogeneous data from existing maritime surveillance sources combined with use of unmanned assets as well as open-source information, with a great focus on Copernicus satellite data for building novel services to allow a proper exploitation of this data for Maritime Surveillance applications.
I-SEAMORE evolves an existing C4I platform towards the modernization of its interfaces and capabilities to create a common operational picture using all types of assets, including additional new modules for planning (UxVs’ Mission Planner), execution (indirect tasking of UxVs) and post-mission phases (debrief module for replaying UxVs data) An open network orchestration platform is configured and will be deployed to manage the entire operation of all assets, infrastructure and software layers. Apart from this, interoperability is achieved with the development of a CISE adaptor for further integration with external compliant systems. In addition, for a successful demonstration of the new operational concepts, I-SEAMORE expands existing Modelling & Simulation capabilities developed in past surveillance projects to support the foreseen activities, acting as a pre-digital twin of the I-SEAMORE Ecosystem.
Furthermore, the project follows Other innovations include the implementation of a systematic co-design and co-creation approach, which allows the integration of research and innovation collaborative processes for the development of new value (ideas, concepts, solutions, products, services, behaviours, processes) with the active involvement of Maritime Authorities and other stakeholders.

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