C2 Advanced Multi-domain Environment and Live Observation Technologies

Project Information

CAMELOT

Grant agreement ID: 740736

DOI

10.3030/740736

Project closed

EC signature date 26 April 2017

Start date 1 May 2017

End date 30 April 2021

Funded under

• Secure societies - Protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens

Total cost

€ 9 922 586,83

EU contribution

€ 8 020 921,26

Coordinated by

EXODUS ANONYMOS ETAIREIA PLIROFORIKIS
Greece

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - CAMELOT (C2 Advanced Multi-domain Environment and Live Observation Technologies)

Reporting period: 2020-08-01 to 2021-04-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The free movement of persons and goods within the EU has led to the gradual abolition of border controls between Member States through the Schengen agreement. This has led to new challenges concerning the security of European external borders, and the need for a more effective cooperation among Member States. At the same moment, we see an increasing rationalization of the public spending in Security, hence an increasing need for cost-effective assets.

It has been within this context that procurement for unmanned vehicles has seen a constant growth. However, typically each Member State has been exploiting its own set of assets to achieve their goal of border surveillance and control. With an increasing cooperation among EU Member States, the need for new, cost-effective and standardized assets is becoming more and more evident. As new capabilities and assets become available and, as current C2 systems (some of which are proprietary, use closed interfaces and are monolithic) become older, practitioners are faced with the increasing challenge of how to integrate new assets and C2 all of them (old and new) in a coordinated and coherent way without having to invest in a completely new C2 systems built from the ground up.

CAMELOT aimed at addressing these challenges by carrying out a number of activities to prototype, test and demonstrate different advanced C2 service modules for multiple platform domains based on a unique scalable architecture.

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

CAMELOT started in May 2017 and ended in April 2021. During the project duration the consortium implemented ll modules and interfaces within the technical work-packages WP3 to WP7, and completed their integration and validation within the overall Camelot platform as part of work-packages WP8 and WP9. The consortium has also boosted all dissemination activities, including the re-design and maintenance of a new website and social media accounts with an active implementation of a communication rotation plan.

In summary, during the RP3 CAMELOT met successfully all the milestones and objectives set for the period by delivering on time the technical deliverables and by advancing the realization of the overall CAMELOT platform. We highlight that the objectives were met during an unprecedented period i.e. during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has and continue to affect all EU countries, where partners operate.

The achievements within each WP are summarized below.

In WP2, after surveying the framework architectures, the consortium decided that the best framework for CAMELOT was the STANAG 4817. During the RP2, the technical partners have finalized the architecture focusing on scalability, availability and security.

In WP3, we successfully implemented the CAMELOT C2, a framework that allows the interoperability among its different system components and external assets by means of adapters and the middleware. The developed framework includes the data analytics and data fusion modules, communications module, CISE gateway and a mental workload assessment module.

In WP4(Automatic asset tasking and control), we redefined and established connections with all assets, computed optimal trajectories with sensor actions for any kind of UxV, and established the sensor remote control between CAMELOT C2 and GCS.

In WP5 (Mission-related modules), we implemented a mission planning algorithm used for dispatching assets to areas to patrol and a UxV Energy Management module that optimizes the transmission rate between the UxV and its GSC and helps to extending the mission duration.

In WP6 (Visualisation and display modules), we extracted metadata from the video streams and computed in real time the location of the projection of the video image while achieving to display that video image projection on a 3D GIS display.

In WP7 (Sensing and detection modules), new algorithms were developed that enable the correlation between AIS and radar range profile information and fusion of all sensor information (RADAR, AIS, camera) coming from all assets. Modules for the automatic target detection and identification and suspicious behaviour detection
were developed and integrated on CAMELOT architecture.

In WP8 (Integration), an integration schema for the services modules developed in WP3, WP4, WP5, WP6 and WP7 based on Docker containers was implemented and a secure integration environment for all partners was deployed. Furthermore, we implemented the RabbitMQ middleware and completed the unitary testing of each module, as we all as the bilateral tests between dependent modules.

In WP9 (Demonstration), we defined and implemented representative scenarios for the maritime and land border pilot demonstrations and a comprehensive testing and demonstration plan that involves all assets. In response to Covid-19 restrictions, we have extended full system integration tests and organized representative pilot demonstration scenarios in a virtual environment.

In WP10 (Dissemination and Exploitation), we have redesigned the project website and established new social media accounts. We have carried our standardization and exploitation activities by developing a SWOT analysis using professional business models and tools. A state of the art analysis, with weaknesses and benefits for each technology has been carried out.

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)

As an Innovation Action CAMELOT possesses an extensive background. In fact, CAMELOT arises from past R&D initiatives that have led to the need for an MSMDC2 framework. In this sense, the contribution of CAMELOT to the current SoA is focused on three lines of research aiming at:
1. Achieving a MSMDC2 station, capable of operating unmanned land, maritime and aerial vehicles;
2. Developing multiple services to enhance the functionalities of current C2 operations; and
3. Enabling seamless integration with legacy C2 systems.

1. Taking into account the recent developments in NATO studies, namely the STANAG 4817, the CAMELOT consortium has decided to base its architecture on the proposition of this study, which is based on the SAE UCS3.4. Being designed for the aerial domain, the main work of CAMELOT lies in the extension of UCS3.4 to the land and maritime domains. To achieve interoperability among all platforms, in spite of their domain, the consortium suggested an adaptor layer, which converts proprietary protocols to the CAMELOT data model. The definition of technical specifications necessary to successfully achieve this (middleware, interfaces and hardware) clearly consists a progress beyond the current SoA.

2. CAMELOT foresees the development of services that will enhance the capabilities of a C2 station and reduce the mental workload of border guards. Such services include automatic tasking and control; mission planning and re-planning; visualisation and display modules; and sensing and detection modules which have already been developed in WP3-WP7.

3. One of the objectives of CAMELOT is to rationalize investments by developing a technological solution that is capable of operating unmanned assets already in the ranks of border guards. Such modules have already been integrated, and successfully demonstrated to several end-user practitioners across Europe.

Figure 1: CAMELOT architecture