Project description
Making maritime borders safer while protecting lives
Europe’s maritime borders are extensive and difficult to monitor. This means it is a race against time when migrant vessels encounter difficulties. Illegal crossings often occur far from shore, in unpredictable weather and hazardous seas, where conventional surveillance tools fall short. Coordinating aerial, satellite, and maritime resources is complex and costly, limiting rapid response. Lives are often lost because assistance arrives too late. The EU-funded ORBIS project is developing an AI-driven system that combines satellite constellations, autonomous UAVs, and machine learning. Its goal is to provide real-time monitoring of high-risk zones. By fusing radar, optical, and thermal imagery, it aims to detect threats sooner, guide drones efficiently, and accelerate rescue operations.
Objective
ORBIS aims to deliver a market-fit AI-powered mature and cost-effective solution that integrates constellations of satellites with autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to achieve advanced secure real-time surveillance and fast search and rescue over vast maritime areas where illegal migrant activity could take place. To achieve that, ORBIS’ SMEs will collaborate closely to go beyond the current boundaries of knowledge and technology by: (i) integrating Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites, optical Very High Resolution (VHR) satellites, and thermal infrared sources to achieve a continuous, high-accuracy monitoring system; (ii) leveraging advanced autonomous cost-effective UAVs and push their limits in terms of autonomy and sensing to support maritime border management applications, able to deal with extreme and diverse weather and sea conditions; (iii) exploiting cutting-edge Machine Learning (ML) models to anticipate potential threats in high-risk zones and optimise the surveillance UAV flight plans, making the most out of available flight time and sea area coverage; and (iv) fusing effectively the massive multi-modal data gathered during operation and train distributed ML models for real-time decision making that will ensure faster search and rescue of migration incidents. ORBIS will address early on key market, regulatory, ethical and security requirements towards accelerating access to the civil security market, while engaging with other EU SMEs and key market actors, following a clear innovation management strategy. Finally, ORBIS will document best practices and lessons learnt in clear replicable steps, acting as a successful case study that paves the way for others small innovators to in their go-to-market strategy. Regulatory and policy recommendations will also be elaborated as signposts for facilitating access to the civil security market, aligned with EU security policy priorities.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences economics and business business and management innovation management
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering robotics autonomous robots drones
- natural sciences computer and information sciences artificial intelligence machine learning
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.2.3 - Civil Security for Society
MAIN PROGRAMME
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HORIZON.2.3.2 - Protection and Security
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-IA - HORIZON Innovation Actions
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-CL3-2024-SSRI-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
1066 Nicosia
Cyprus
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.