Semi-autonomous border surveillance platform combining next generation unmanned aerial vehicles with ultra-high-resolution multi-sensor surveillance payload

Project Information

BorderUAS

Grant agreement ID: 883272

DOI

10.3030/883272

Project closed

EC signature date 30 April 2020

Start date 1 June 2020

End date 31 May 2024

Funded under

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

Total cost

€ 6 997 332,50

EU contribution

€ 6 997 332,50

Coordinated by

SOFTWARE IMAGINATION AND VISION SRL
Romania

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - BorderUAS (Semi-autonomous border surveillance platform combining next generation unmanned aerial vehicles with ultra-high-resolution multi-sensor surveillance payload)

Reporting period: 2022-10-01 to 2024-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The BorderUAS project focuses on the development multi-role lighter-than-air (LTA) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with an ultra-high resolution multi-sensor surveillance payload supporting border surveillance as well as search & rescue applications, and specifically rough terrain detection.
The sensor payload will include synthetic aperture radar (SAR), laser detection and ranging (LADAR), shortwave / long-wave infrared (SWIR/LWIR) and acoustic cameras for direct target detection, as well as optical and hyper-spectral cameras for indirect detection (via vegetation disturbance).
The project will use the ground-based infrastructure of border police units (command & control centres), innovative data models (to identify illegal crossing patterns and preferred routes) and advanced audio/video analytics and storage (to provide additional detection capabilities).
In the initial phase of the project, the consortium focuses on devising the system specifications, based on goals specified in the BorderUAS project proposal and complemented by the requirements of the end users. Initial development of the sensors hardware and analytics software started, at individual, not integrated bases.
The general objectives of the project are:
1: Develop UAS components to support low cost and long duration border surveillance operations.
2: Develop sensors and data processing, fusion and interpretation methods to support detection & tracking in difficult terrain, extreme weather conditions and unstructured environments.
3: Validate and test the solution in realistic border surveillance conditions.
4: Conduct dissemination, communication and exploitations activities.
The project overall activities are grouped by 10 work packages defined in the project scope.

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

WP1 - System Specifications & Architecture
• Definition of BorderUAS use cases and high-level and end user scenarios;
• Determination of the technical characteristics of the sensors;
• Definition of the data processing architecture, split to UAV and ground, including HW specifications;
• Alignment and specification of data processing functionalities relative to individual sensors, fusion and interpretation needs;
• Final decisions for sensor procurement based on the determined technical characteristics of the sensors;
WP2 – UAV Platform
• Design description of each sub-system completed;
• Delivery D2.1 submitted;
• Work on the sub-system production started.
WP3 - Sensorics
• COTS sensor and sensor basic building component selection according to the technical characteristics;
• Preparatory actions and implementation of tenders for the procurement of all sensors (including COTS) and equipment necessary for the sensor development;
• HW architecture design for all sensors under development (T3.2 to T3.4);
• Simulations for Acoustic Sensor behaviour investigation for the design of different setup of the microphone arrays through the use of different beamforming algorithms (related T4.1);
• The graphene microphone membrane is developed;
• Design of acquisition software and first prototypes developed for IR, SAR, Acoustic, RGB and hyper-spectral cameras;
• Design and manufacturing of sensor hosting cases and components (e.g. RX/TX antennas, IR cameras and PTZ platform, Acoustic sensor array).
WP4 - Data Processing, Fusion & Interpretation
• Definition of the basic processing architecture with identified main technologies to be tested;
• Compilation of base datasets for detection started;
• Preparation and testing of several object detection models (DNN based);
• Implementation and testing of different beamforming algorithms for microphone arrays;
• Development of the acquisition software (for raw data) for the L-band SAR;
• Proof of concept for interpretation of base and complex events following underlying ontology;
• Design and implementation start of interactive landcover classification tool;
• Implementation and testing for image processing methods for noise.
WP7 - Communication, Dissemination & Ecosystem Development
• Communication and Dissemination strategy delivered and presented to all partners;
• Website creation and publishing;
• Social media accounts Launch (Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube);
• Press Release No1;
• Newsletter Issue 1 Release;
• Blog posts by partners;
• Project promo videos;
• Communication Kit material & Visual Identity;
• Clustering with FOLDOUT & ROBORDER projects;
• Attending workshops, conferences;
• TV Interview;
• Planning the Market & End user ecosystem development;
• Planning cooperation with NGOs;
• Crisis communication strategy and response team;
• Establishment of crisis communication team response (VICOM, KEMEA, MITLA, SIMAVI);
• Guidelines and best practises to secure good external communication and dissemination of the project’s results.
WP8 - Exploitation & Scale-Up
• Established contact with all project partners;
• All partners interview conducted – D8.1 deliverable input;
• D8.1 successfully submitted;
• Presentation of individual exploitation plan and definition of the common scale up phases.
WP9 - Management
• Execution of bi-weekly PMT coordination meetings;
• Elaboration of internal Quality management handbook;
• 1st amendment preparation and execution;
• Organisation of self-assessment studies by semester;
• Organisation of 1st consortium meeting in May 5 and 7.
WP10 – Ethics requirements
• All partners have contributed by filling in the requested inputs or questionnaires.

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)

BorderUAS consortium will offer a next generation border surveillance solution developing an LTA UAV which will be able to provide the EU MS Border Guard authorities with a mobile, aerial surveillance platform. The information, coverage and resolution required for border surveillance will extent EUROSUR system on information layers, having also impact on technical and operational capabilities of border guard authorities.

BorderUAS platform will be developed in such way to (i) be an efficient multi-sensor surveillance platform able to adapt its payload according to local needs and parameters, (ii) maintain the price and the operational costs at low level, compared to similar multi-payload systems or alternatives for border surveillance such as satellites, airplanes, helicopters, or small UAVs.

After the completion of the project, the UAV platform will be available to be used in future EU funded projects for further research & innovation on border surveillance topics. The final experimental platform will also remain available to FRONTEX and/or consortium end users’ organization after the end of the project.

The project developments of the sensors pave the way for effective collaboration of multiple sensors of diverse modalities, environments of operation and capabilities in a complementary way for robust and effective real-time surveillance. This development provides the algorithmic and hardware capabilities for accessing multiple data at the same time, or distributing operations in high dimensional data to multiple embedded systems.

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