02.04.2012 by Raquel - EDA news
Sunshine and blue skies over Belgium provided the setting for the demonstration of the project Surveillance in an Urban Environment Using Mobile Sensors (SUM). Courtesy of the Belgium Armed Forces, allowing for the demonstration to take place at their Heverlee-premises outside Leuven, this JIP Force Protection (FP) project was launched back in July of 2009. The consortium consisting of GMV (Spain), DLR (Germany), TUM (Germany) and RMA (Belgium) is now in the final stages of the project.
The demonstration, which took place on 28 March, marked an important milestone in the project. SUM sees data fusion from four different sensor types: radar, radiometer, infrared and optical. By fusing their data and applying sophisticated computational algorithms anomalies in the surroundings can be detected. In hostile environments these anomalies can imply the presence of for example Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). Today detecting threats relies almost entirely on the human senses, gut feeling, experience and procedures. While technology will not be able to substitute any of these in the short term, they can provide valuable support. Once developed systems like SUM will be able to reduce the operator’s workload significantly and supply the commander with reliable information that will help ensure the safety and survivability personnel.
The demonstration saw the SUM system, mounted onto a vehicle, be successfully put through eight different scenarios where different types of emulated false and real threats were present. Although relatively simplistic, this proved that the concept works and that the interface is user-friendly as witnessed by an audience consisting of military staff, systems engineers and researchers from the FP contributing Member States.
As the project draws to an end in July 2012, the consortium will now focus its efforts on consolidating the work done into reports and provide recommendations for the potential way ahead in taking the SUM system to the next level.
/fdata%2F4220908%2Favatar-blog-1207340840-tmpphpbvDubc.jpeg){kind=avatar}
