The EU-funded SUNRISE Project piloted its novel Tool for Remote Physical Infrastructure Inspection with selected critical infrastructure operators across three European countries.
The SUNRISE project aims to ensure greater availability, reliability, and continuity of critical infrastructures, to the benefit of all European citizens. Since its inception in October 2022, 41 expert organisations from 15 countries have been developing a suite of new technologies and solutions to safeguard critical infrastructures during pandemics and other major risks.
Drone technology from SUNRISE Project
Over the past two months SUNRISE partners were piloting one of its tools at locations in Spain, Slovenia and Italy working with transport, water and electricity operators across these three countries.
The SUNRISE Tool for Remote Physical Infrastructure Inspection aims to deliver a solution for continuous, data-driven physical infrastructure inspection using satellite images, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and machine learning methods for anomaly detection.
Using these technologies, it will help detect any issues and rectify them without the physical presence of workers in the area under inspection, improving safety for the people involved.
The piloting work began in Slovenia where partners worked with electricity utility company ELES and Slovenian Railways. The next location was in Italy working with hydroelectricity company Hydro Dolomiti Energia (HDE). The final pilot was implemented in Marbella, Spain with water utility company ACOSOL.
Speaking about the piloting work, SUNRISE project coordinator Aljosa Pasic said:
“Piloting the suite of SUNRISE tools in real world scenarios is a crucial milestone in the project. Getting the opportunity to work with critical infrastructure operators across Europe and taking their feedback and inputs on board is extremely valuable as we continue to develop each technological element – in this case the remote infrastructure inspection tool.
SUNRISE project partners at XLAB and ICS in Slovenia, SKYLD in Cyprus, and Eviden in Spain have been working alongside critical infrastructure operators to ensure the piloting is as effective as possible, showing the benefits of our tool in remote infrastructure inspection and anomaly detection, such as saving cost or optimizing valuable resources.
We hope that we can take learnings from this round of piloting work into the further development of the remote infrastructure inspection tool while continuing to work with ACOSOL, ELES, Slovenian Railways and Hydro Dolomiti Energia to assist in the continuity and availability of their respective critical infrastructures in the face of future adverse events.”
ENDS
For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:
Oisin McQueirns, Carr Communications Ltd: oisin@carrcommunications.ie / +353 833096037
For more information on the SUNRISE project visit https://sunrise-europe.eu/
Editor’s Notes:
The SUNRISE Team
The SUNRISE project consortium is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme and is made up of 41 European leaders and experts from the health, security, social science, humanities, information technology, epidemiology, communications and emergency management fields, ensuring that the most modern science and research serve the real-world needs of healthcare, government and society. SUNRISE is being led by Eviden.
The full suite of SUNRISE Tools
The RIBAC Tool
The RiBAC tool will help reduce the risk involved in physical access to critical infrastructures in a scalable and privacy-preserving way. The novel architecture and software components in the RiBAC tool will address compliance with GDPR, privacy by design and default parameters and guidelines for meeting GDPR requirements. It is a modular solution that is interoperable with existing physical access control systems.
The Demand Prediction and Management (DPM) Tool
The Demand Prediction and Management (DPM) Tool is based on state-of-the-art technologies regarding demand prediction methods, like AI/ML-based models, and has the general scope to provide accurate demand prediction for specific Critical Infrastructures and furthermore to efficiently facilitate resource management.
Tool for Remote Physical Infrastructure Inspection
The Tool for Remote Physical Infrastructure Inspection will deliver a solution for continuous, data-driven physical infrastructure inspection using satellite images, drones, UAVs and ML methods for anomaly detection. Using these technologies, it will help detect the issue and rectify it without the physical presence of people in the area under inspection
Tool for Cyber-Physical Resilience
The tool will improve the security of critical infrastructures by using deep-learning methods to identify the first stages of cyber-attacks and cyber threats (physical and non-physical). Taking key information e.g. computer logs with AI, it has the ability to inform authorities about different security incidents that pose major risks for critical infrastructures. It will be equipped with a dashboard and conduct a real-time risk assessment of the critical infrastructure.
Horizon Europe
Horizon Europe?is the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation. It tackles climate change, helps to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and boosts the EU’s competitiveness and growth. The programme facilitates collaboration and strengthens the impact of research and innovation in developing, supporting and implementing EU policies while tackling global challenges.It supports creatingand better dispersing?of excellent knowledge and technologies.
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