ASELSAN and STM to work in the security project TALOS

[Bubblegum Crisis]

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ASELSAN and STM to work in the security project of the EU 7th Framework Program


ASELSAN and STM will work in the Transportable Autonomous Patrol System for Land Border Surveillance (TALOS) project, which will be supported by the European Commission (EC) within the scope of the First Call for Security Researches published for the European Union (EU) 7th Framework Program (FP 7) Security Area.

The TALOS Project is one of the 8 integration projects accepted for EC support as a result of the evaluation carried out by the Commission with 140 independent judges; the intensive support and contributions of the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM) and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) played a major part in securing such a vital role for ASELSAN and STM in this project.

The Turkish Ministry of Interior’s Integrated Border Management Project Directorate which takes part in the “End-User Advisory Board” of the TALOS Project undertook an important role in reflecting Turkey’s Border Security needs into the TALOS project.

The works for the project were launched by an international consortium including ASELSAN and STM representing Turkey in “partner” capacity in the thematic area of “security” in EU FP 7; the kick-off meeting for the project took place in the Polish Capital of Warsaw on 12 June 2008 with the participation of project consortium members composed of representatives of 14 companies from 10 countries. The project duration will be four years, with a budget of 20 Million Euros; 13 million Euros of the budget will be funded by the European Commission. ASELSAN’s share in the project workload will be 17.4%, and STM’s share will be 10.6%, bringing Turkey’s total workload share in this critically important work package to 28%.

The Polish Industrial Research Institute PIAP will be the project coordinator, whereas the Israeli company IAI will undertake the technical management, and ASELSAN the C4ISR System Engineering. Apart from Turkey, the project consortium, which includes ASELSAN and STM, also includes Poland, Israel, Finland, France, Estonia, Romania, Belgium and Greece.

The project, which will aim to produce a system for reconnaissance and surveillance in uncontrolled borders and wide areas, has two critical work packages: “Top Level System Architecture Design” and “Development of Command Control Sub-systems”. These two critical packages will be carried out under the leadership of ASELSAN. STM will also assume an important duty in these two packages, under which together with ASELSAN it will compile the system requirements, determine the top-level system architecture and participate in the design activities to be carried out.

It is apparent that the TALOS project, which will be completed in 2012, carries a great significance for its end-users, i.e. the governmental bodies responsible for border control in European countries. When the project is activated, it is expected that a huge development will be ensured in border security through supervision and management of data and images sent from unmanned land vehicles, unmanned aircrafts, sensors and cameras at command control centers, resulting in meeting the demands at the highest level.

Robots on the borderline


30/05 10:42 CET

Protecting maritime and land borders is a daily challenge for Europe. Researchers have been examining how to use lasers, gamma rays and neutron beams to address that challenge.

This is how some new robots are being peacefully engaged on Europe’s last frontier of border protection.

Some very unusual research tools have been arriving in a picturesque port along the Croatian coast.

“This is an airplane bomb. And there is a variety of different bombs like this along the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean,” explained nuclear physicist Vladivoj Valković.

They are in fact fake bombs and present no real risk, even if they contain everything needed to make dynamite.

“Hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen. TNT has only these four elements. So it is easy to make a simulated bomb preserving the proportion of these four elements,” said Valković.

The dummy bombs are being used to test a submarine able to identify underwater explosives.

The prototype has been designed by scientists at a European Union research project aimed at improving security near Europe’s key maritime infrastructures and along sea routes.

“If there are reports of an unidentified object lying on the sea floor, or being attached to a bridge or any other maritime infrastructural element, you can send our surveyor. It will approach the object, position itself, do the measurements, report the results to the mother ship and then move away. The results of the inspection will be the identification of the chemical composition of the material inside,” concluded Valković.

The prototype is being given a real-life test along the Adriatic coast.

The fake bomb is carefully posed on the sandy sea floor, some 10 metres underwater. The robot is placed over it. It then starts emitting neutron beams that will help to see inside the device.

“Neutrons are able to penetrate materials and find out what they are made from. They collide with the material inside the bomb, and the collision produces gamma rays. We’ve developed an electronic detector that allows us to collect a concentrated data stream from a high-power neutron bombardment,” explained UNCOSS project director Guillaume Sannie.

Special software transforms these gamma rays into a graphic readout so researchers can determine the type and quantity of elements inside the bomb.

Analysing the readout physicist Cyrille Eleon told euronews: “We can see a peak here; that’s the carbon. The second peak indicates the presence of oxygen, and the software tells us the relationship between these two readings. If it reveals a potentially volatile ratio, like here, the system has identified that the object we are examining contains explosives.”

After a conclusive first test, the fake bomb is recovered and the submarine is safely towed back for some maintenance. Further tests will help to enhance its underwater mobility and data-acquisition accuracy.

Meanwhile in Poland, there is a very different border challenge.

Researchers are seeing if they can control the European Union’s land borders with the wheels of an autonomous, unarmed gamekeeper.

“The platform drives autonomously to the desired observation point. And the observation system is activated; radars, observation cameras are activated, so they can detect people who are trying to cross the border illegally,” said electronics and systems engineer Jakub Glowka.

Once the vehicle identifies any illegal action along the border, it raises the alarm, while at the same time providing its position and video data so appropriate action can be planned by border guards.

“The system is able to provide video data, including normal video footage but also infrared video, and data coming from radars. The main challenge that we faced was the integration inside the vehicle of complex elements like the autonomous driving system, autonomous tracking and detection of people and vehicles, and the sophisticated control and communication features of the whole system,” added Glowka.

Before going into action, the vehicle is programmed according to the specific weather and environment around the border that it has to survey.

“The platform has an obstacle detection system to avoid obstacles it can find on its way. The vehicle is also able to perform ‘path planning’ by itself. So it will not enter forbidden zones, for example, or it will be able to identify roads where it cannot go. Everything is based in data base systems that have been included in the vehicle,” said electrical engineer Alex Feldman.

Those database systems include accurate topographic simulations of the environment around.

For a series of tests in south-west Poland, 35 different computer-simulated elements were created by the developers.

“It includes topographic data and aerial data. For instance, information on surrounding buildings, its heights, water sources, agricultural areas, fences, trees, roads, buildings,” said remote sensing engineer Eija Parmes from Finland’s Technical Research Centre.

Topographic simulations, data from embedded cameras and radars, and autonomous navigation systems were then integrated into a single, easy-to-use tracking and control unit under the supervision of Polish and Turkish engineers.

“We have created an enormous architecture for this project. This framework allows us to control autonomous systems from one centre. the number isn’t important, we can handle several autonomous systems here,” said electronics engineer Abdullah Inle.

Researchers hope the autonomous technology will eventually be able to provide a less risky, more efficient and reliable way to survey challenging land borders.


Euronews 2012

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Bientôt des robots pour surveiller les frontières

En Europe comme aux Etats-Unis, on envisage désormais d’automatiser la détection des passages de frontière clandestins.

11.02.2010|Paul Marks|New Scientist

En pleine campagne, un homme trouve une faille dans le mur qui le sépare du pays voisin. Il s’y faufile et se retrouve nez à nez avec un robot aux allures de mini-char d’assaut équipé d’une caméra. Alors qu’il passe devant l’objectif, le robot commence à le suivre et la voix d’un garde-frontière résonne dans ses haut-parleurs. L’homme est prévenu qu’il vient d’entrer illégalement sur le territoire et que, s’il ne fait pas immédiatement demi-tour, il sera suivi et filmé par cet engin jusqu’à ce que des gardes-frontières procèdent à son interpellation. C’est ce qui pourrait se passer le long des frontières européennes dans un avenir pas si lointain.

Face aux craintes liées à l’immigration clandestine, au terrorisme international et aux activités de contrebande, plusieurs pays envisagent de surveiller leurs frontières à l’aide de capteurs et de robots. C’est du moins ce que l’on a pu apprendre, en novembre dernier, lors d’une conférence sur la sécurité nationale qui s’est tenue à Leeds, au Royaume-Uni. La nécessité de surveiller ses frontières est la même partout dans le monde : l’Inde est en train de construire un mur de béton (avec barbelés) de 3 mètres de haut et de 3 400 kilomètres de long afin de mieux s’isoler de son voisin bangladais, tandis que la Libye augmente ses patrouilles et les équipe de nouveaux instruments de détection. Le pays a signé un accord avec l’Union européenne afin de limiter le flux de migrants en provenance d’Afrique subsaharienne qui transitent par son territoire avant de traverser la mer Méditerranée pour entrer en Italie. Pour ce faire, le gouvernement libyen a dépensé 300 millions d’euros pour l’acquisition du “système de contrôle et de surveillance frontaliers à grande échelle” mis au point par Selex Sistemi Integrati, une filiale du groupe aérospatial italien Finmeccanica. Selon les responsables de Selex, le système repose sur des capteurs sonores et à infrarouge contrôlés à distance. Disséminés le long de la frontière libyenne, ils fourniront des informations qui seront ensuite traitées au niveau de centres de commandement et de communication.


Une armée de drones à 20 millions d’euros

Aux Etats-Unis, le ministère de la Sécurité intérieure s’est associé à Boeing Intelligence and Security Systems dans le cadre du Secure Border Initiative Network (SBINET), un projet de 8 milliards d’euros.

Ce plan devrait se traduire par l’installation de près de 400 pylônes de 25 mètres de haut, semblables à des antennes téléphoniques, à l’intérieur desquels seront disposés toute une série de capteurs optiques et de caméras à infrarouge télécommandées. Disséminés sur 3 000 kilomètres le long de la frontière, ces pylônes seront en outre équipés de détecteurs à bande X – des radars terrestres opérant dans la bande de fréquences de 10 gigahertz et capables de détecter une présence humaine –, ainsi que de capteurs de sons et de vibrations qui épieront les voix et les bruits de pas. Tous ces appareils pourront prévenir les patrouilles de gardes-frontières en cas d’activité anormale sur un périmètre qui pourra s’étendre jusqu’à 10 kilomètres de la frontière. C’est du moins ce qu’affirme Mark Borkowski, responsable du projet SBINET pour les douanes américaines (US Customs and Border Protection Agency), à Washington.

Le principe est le suivant : les caméras des robots zooment automatiquement sur le périmètre signalé par les radars ou les capteurs. “Ensuite, nous analysons la situation afin de déterminer notre réponse : s’agit-il d’une vache égarée ou d’un être humain ? Si c’est une personne, est-elle en possession d’armes ou de drogue ?” explique Borkowski. En Europe, la société IAI participe au programme TALOS (Transportable Autonomous patrol for Land bOrder Surveillance), qui prévoit d’utiliser des robots-caméras mobiles équipés de détecteurs (comme celui mentionné au début de cet article), ainsi que des drones aériens en lieu et place des enceintes et des capteurs fixes.

La frontière orientale de l’Europe des Vingt-Sept est perméable et ne peut pas être surveillée par des moyens conventionnels, explique Agnieszka Spronska, de l’Institut industriel d’automation et de mesures (PIAP), à Varsovie. Le PIAP est la tête d’un consortium de dix pays qui a consacré 20 millions d’euros à la mise au point d’un réseau de surveillance constitué de robots, de drones et de centres de commandement mobiles. “TALOS sera parfaitement adaptable à la zone à surveiller. Vous pourrez utiliser autant d’unités que vous le souhaitez sans avoir à recourir à des éléments fixes”, poursuit Spronska.

Mais qu’en est-il du respect de la vie privée des habitants vivant à proximité de ces zones surveillées vingt-quatre heures sur vingt-quatre, sept jours sur sept ? “Nous veillons à empêcher tout usage illégal ou non autorisé des caméras et des capteurs, mais c’est effectivement un sujet délicat, reconnaît Spronska. Il est tout à fait normal que les gens se posent ce genre de questions.”

Concept Mission

 

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[BordoEnes]

I still dont get it why join/make another unmanned patrol vehicle program when we already got one to offer. We seriously need to spend our money on things that mather.

 

[Bubblegum Crisis]

Why? Well, huge profit unexpected return experience in robots “Transportable Autonomous Patrol System” in a very large security project, civil but also potential military very certainly in the future “Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV)”, European. Transfer of technology first part then gradually as almost complete after integration on the Turkish territory (by permanent maintenance and need continually updating).

 

[Cirit]

Did anyone notice IAI (Israel Aerospace Industries) logo on the lower left corner of the presentation?

As far as I know Mr. Erdogan said that they stopped all kind of cooperation with Israel after Mavi Marmara incident, if so what is this?

 

[mehmeTcc]

Why? Well, huge profit unexpected return experience in robots “Transportable Autonomous Patrol System” in a very large security project, civil but also potential military very certainly in the future “Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV)”, European. Transfer of technology first part then gradually as almost complete after integration on the Turkish territory (by permanent maintenance and need continually updating).

The matter is, we already have a project like this already (Aselsan İzci)

Did anyone notice IAI (Israel Aerospace Industries) logo on the lower left corner of the presentation?

As far as I know Mr. Erdogan said that they stopped all kind of cooperation with Israel after Mavi Marmara incident, if so what is this?

You really did not believe this kind of statements, did you?

 

[Bubblegum Crisis]

Why? Well, huge profit unexpected return experience in robots “Transportable Autonomous Patrol System” in a very large security project, civil but also potential military very certainly in the future “Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV)”, European. Transfer of technology first part then gradually as almost complete after integration on the Turkish territory (by permanent maintenance and need continually updating).

The matter is, we already have a project like this already (Aselsan İzci)

Yes, but not at this high level of technological sophistication. To several, It's always easier and mostly much lowest price R&D.

 

[mehmeTcc]

Yes, but not at this high level of technological sophistication. To several, It's always easier and mostly much lowest price.

No it isn't. It is not a big deal at all. Even SMEs can produce things like this in Turkey/OSTİM.

Aselsan's share in the project is %28, the biggest one in the project. Goddamn Europeans stole our know-how.

 

[Bubblegum Crisis]

No it isn't. It is not a big deal at all.

You are not realistic.


Aselsan İzci





TALOS

 

[mehmeTcc]

You are not realistic.

I'm quite realistic. We can improve İzci instead of joining in a new project. Waste of resources for me.

And BTW, I did not claim that they are all same. As Turkish know-how increases, EU invites us to projects like this. They did it in Talarion, now they are doing it in this project. I just don't want to give anything Turkish to Europeans.

 

[Bubblegum Crisis]

I'm quite realistic. We can improve İzci instead of joining in a new project. Waste of resources for me.

And BTW, I did not claim that they are all same. As Turkish know-how increases, EU invites us to projects like this. They did it in Talarion, now they are doing it in this project. I just don't want to give anything Turkish to Europeans.

No I do not think. This is a great investment for Turkey.

You will always find your interest. Do not take your leaders to very big stupid people.

 

[Ottoman-Turk]

is there a gun or anything on the talos ? no harm in trying these , the more you try you will get one that will be very good and export

 

[LegionnairE]

Izci was just a technology demonstrator proving that Aselsan can develop unmanned ground vehicles on her own. They probably went for a joint venture in order to cut the expenses. In case you didn't notice these aren't exactly first priority syestems despite the high tech