CALL: 2022/CFP/RIU/01 - Novel Technologies for Border Management (Open Theme)
GRANT AGREEMENT NUMBER: No. 2023/344
BENEFICIARY: Estonian Academy of Security Sciences (Estonia)
DURATION: 1 September 2023 – 31 August 2024
FOCUS AREA: situational awareness, land surveillance, prevention and detection of cross-border crimes, unmanned aerial vehicles, sensors, data collection, data analysis, digitalization of evidence
The project aims to demonstrate the use of unmanned aircrafts, equipped with multiple sensors, to collect data from scenes of land border violations, and to develop a novel methodology for data analysis that ensures its admissibility as evidence in court cases. Different aerial vehicles and sensors will be tested to gather data under various weather and light conditions in experiments simulating different scenarios of border violation. Data analysis will then be conducted with the aid of forensic methodologies.
Foreseeable Outcomes:
The project aims to demonstrate the use, in an operational environment, of portable and cost-effective Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs), easily deployable by border guards to gather data in case of land border violations.
The use of UASs, complemented by a novel methodology for obtaining evidence (from the acquired data) admissible in court, is expected to significantly improve the ability of EU authorities to handle cases even when there is a lack of cross-border cooperation with the neighbouring countries.
