Integrating European border surveillance technologies
The free movement of persons is a basic citizen right within the European Union. The Schengen Agreement, signed in 1985, which enables this freedom largely without border controls, now includes 26 Member States covering 400 million people and 4 312 099 square kilometres. Expanding the Schengen Area over the years has increased the border security challenges faced by authorities. So has the recent refugee crisis with people fleeing Afghanistan, Libya and Syria, crossing the external land and sea borders into Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Member States have increasingly looked to technology solutions for border controls, especially taking advantage of the capabilities of unmanned surveillance vehicles. “The problem is that each State, and even different ministries within them, has set up its own solution for a problem that requires cooperation and standardisation,” says George Karakonstantis coordinator of the EU-funded CAMELOT project. CAMELOT was set up to establish protocols that integrate the range of Command and Control (C2) systems in operation across Europe. The team developed, prototyped, tested and demonstrated different C2 service modules, designed for multiple platforms and based on a scalable and adaptable architecture, built by the project.
Achieving interoperability
Enabling Europe’s various C2 infrastructures to talk to each other in a coordinated and coherent way is important not only for security, but also to save on needless expense. The alternative would be to invest in a completely new C2 system, building from scratch. CAMELOT faced multiple challenges when designing interoperability between Europe’s C2 systems. Some systems were proprietary and so effectively ‘black boxes’ with closed architectures; others were simply older and therefore incompatible with newer systems. “Our solution was to develop a unique framework based on adapters and middleware that connects the different system components and external assets and allows operators to control all of them via a single platform – CAMELOT,” explains Karakonstantis from EXODUS SA, the project host. CAMELOT connects various security assets – ranging from motion and environmental sensors, to cameras and various land, sea or air unmanned vehicles to a centralised C2 station. Operators use this station to plan missions and dispatch assets to areas of concern. The solution also includes a mobile application, giving operators remote access while on patrol, for example. CAMELOT monitors and detects threats in real time using data analytics and data fusion modules to interpret the surveillance data. Communications modules and a common information sharing environment gateway facilitate the flow of information between assets, the platform and its operators. The system is also designed to optimise unmanned vehicle power consumption, as well as communication with the central C2 station, extending battery life to increase mission duration.
Enhanced operational effectiveness
Along the way, the platform design was verified using simulation tools, which ultimately enabled a virtual pilot demonstration running realistic threat scenarios. Representatives of maritime and land border security agencies from Bulgaria, Greece, Ireland, Poland, Portugal and Romania observed these mission scenarios and the system’s responsiveness. Operational effectiveness was additionally verified in workshops which included external participants, such as FRONTEX. “Feedback assured us of CAMELOT’s value as it demonstrated its capacity to improve the situational awareness and decision-making of operators,” adds Karakonstantis. The team has now identified the tools and modules that could be most readily commercialised and is currently exploring continued funding opportunities, especially within the new Horizon Europe programme, to take this forward. “With the expansion of broadband satellites making interaction between dispersed unmanned assets easier, our approach will likely become more attractive,” concludes Karakonstantis.
Keywords
CAMELOT, security, border, refugee, threat, unmanned vehicles, Schengen Agreement
