Optimising time-to-FLY and enhancing airport SECurity

Project Information

FLYSEC

Grant agreement ID: 653879

DOI 10.3030/653879

Project closed

EC signature date 29 April 2015

Start date 1 May 2015

End date 31 July 2018

Funded under

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

Total cost € 4 141 375,00

EU contribution € 4 089 500,00

Coordinated by

"NATIONAL CENTER FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ""DEMOKRITOS"""
Greece

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - FLYSEC (Optimising time-to-FLY and enhancing airport SECurity)

Reporting period: 2016-11-01 to 2018-07-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Τhe FLYSEC project addressed the European Union’s research priority for improving the aviation security chain and aligned with the roadmap and recommendations reflected within the IATA/ACI Smart Security programme. FLYSEC facilitates the three main principles specified in Smart Security: strengthened security, increased operational efficiency and improved passenger experience.
FLYSEC project main achievement was to provide the first implementation of the ACI/IATA Smart Security Joint Programme recommendations in the context of H2020 and European Security Research and effectively deliver the corresponding proof of concept and in airport environment validation.

FLYSEC, a research and innovation project funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, developed and demonstrated an innovative, integrated and end-to-end airport security process for passengers, while enabling a guided and streamlined procedure from landside to airside and into the boarding gates, and offering for the first time an operationally validated innovative concept for end-to-end aviation security.

FLYSEC activities included:
• An innovative process facilitating risk-based screening to achieve a measurable increase of throughput at airports,
• The deployment and integration of new technologies and repurposing existing solutions towards a risk-based security paradigm shift,
• The improvement of passenger facilitation and customer service, bringing Security as a Service into the airport of tomorrow.

FLYSEC achieved implementing a seamless risk-based security process combining the deployed surveillance technologies with behavioural analysis and innovative cognitive algorithms. A key aspect in the design of the FLYSEC risk-based security is applying ethical-by-design patterns, maximizing the efficiency of security controls through passenger differentiation ranging from “casual” to “enhanced”, while remaining ethical and fair in the process. Policy, regulatory and standardization aspects were examined in the context of FLYSEC innovative security concept.

By involving technologies from different Technology Readiness Levels (TRL), including in-project prototype development, as well as adaptation and extension of more mature solutions or re-purposing of commercial products, FLYSEC validated the operational value of the provided solution through pilot test in a real operational environment.

FLYSEC initially performed a Proof of Concept test at Schönhagen Airport of Berlin, followed by a final field test at Luxembourg International Airport. The latter was executed in a real operational environment involving active security personnel. The successful Lux Airport field test marked the first implementation of SMART SECURITY within the EU Programme for Research and Innovation.

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 FLYSEC final field test was the first deployment of the innovative airport risk based screening and security concept in an actual operational airport environment with Lux-Airport security personnel, practitioners and security managers operating the FLYSEC system and components.
The integrated FLYSEC System successfully deployed and demonstrated:
• A mobile application for passengers, including features such as routing and navigation, positive boarding and assisted security walkthrough, assisted shopping and time management.
• A mobile application for security personnel with location-based alerts, incident handling capabilities and notifi cations, queue monitoring and assisted passenger and behavior screening
• Intelligent Visual Sensors for behaviour analytics and risk detection
• The TravelDoc mobile kiosk and terminal for travel document scanning, enhanced validity verifi cation and integration of PNR data in the FLYSEC risk classifi cation service
• A SmartQ component for smart security queue management integrated with transparent risk classifi cation assessment algorithms
• The RFID carry-on luggage tracking system for unattended luggage detection and fast retrieval service
• A Beacon-based localization system for enabling location based passenger services, also offering location correlation capabilities to the security fusion algorithms
• A web based command and control portal, providing holistic airport real time monitoring and security checkpoint management as well as communication capabilities which include integrated passenger simulation module for training and decision support
• Risk Classification and Enhanced situational awareness fusion and machine learning services, correlating input from heterogeneous sources, behaviour and risk indicators and generating relevant alerts
• The FLYSEC simulation platform for airport operational flow and passenger/personnel crowd simulation including realistic 3D visualization of Luxembourg Airport Terminal

The project has delivered the Proof-of-Concept and Field Test in Luxembourg Airport in realistic operational environment and has achieved TRL6. This provides a good opportunity to address other support schemes to bring the concept and integrated solution closer to readiness for market.
Components and sub-systems owned by individual project partners are be even more advanced, partially even commercialized products or services.
Adjustments in the existing framework of regulations and technical delivery conditions are required to enable the implementation of the integrated FLYSEC concept at airports.
Dissemination of FLYSEC results and wider adoption and standardisation of the FLYSEC system and paradigm shift is actively pursued by participating companies and the coordinator beyond the end of the project.
Exploitation of FLYSEC results is also pursued in the context of air border checkpoint paradigm shift to other border modalities (land, sea) in the context of H2020 security research priorities and in specific within project TRESSPASS.

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)

The successful Lux Airport field test marked the first implementation of SMART SECURITY within the EU research programme.
Evaluation of the FLYSEC system included a large range of engaged stakeholders, including airport higher management and security practitioners, law enforcement agencies, airport commercial/sales, passengers’ departments and others.
The FLYSEC project may have closed at the end of July 2018, however its impact and next actions are to follow in the short, mid and long term.
FLYSEC validated an innovative concept and identified opportunities in process optimization and regulatory framework.
FLYSEC provides promising and enabling technical solutions which will also be further developed for a closer to market technology readiness level, including low cost privacy enhanced visual sensors, airport and passengers simulation platform, computer vision analytics, AI and machine learning algorithms as well as on the fly identification and screening techniques.
Finally, the alignment between FLYSEC and the IATA/ACI Smart Security programme paved the path for the promotion of FLYSEC into a certified Smart Security implementation.
As the risk-based screening paradigm shift is further adopted and developed in other border modalities and security applications, the FLYSEC project provides the reference validated implementation within the framework of the EU Horizon 2020 and beyond.

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FLYSEC Secure Tunnels Concept