BorderUAS first field trial in Croatia

During the course of the week Nov.12-Nov.19 2023, BorderUAS Consortium Partners gathered in a picturesque town of the Croatian countryside to partake in the carrying out of the EU Project’s 1st field-trial. Whether by means of on-site presence or by those of online participation, Technical Partners & Law Enforcement Representatives (end-users) ascribed to BorderUAS Project joined forces, each in their own professional capacity, with a view to ensure the successful technical & operational execution of the inaugural field-trial in a multifold fashion:

  • Ground Segment: In the context of BorderUAS, the Ground segment represents the totality of back-end coding scripts & front-end applications that interact with the Project’s bundled payload (cameras, sensors etc.) for receiving & analyzing data from the latter’s feed. In this regard, BorderUAS Technical Partners recorded the milestone of having established a functional workflow between the back-end & front-end segments for optimizing task division, coordination & ultimately the forwarding of information full flow to the Command & Control Centre application Handlers (C2). The activities included a 3D mapping of the field-trial’s terrain, so as to contribute for future analysis and accurate localisation of the detected events and so to contribute to optimized detection precision & infield perception. • Onboard Segment: This is the segment that bundles together the cameras & sensors comprising BorderUAS’ established payload. During the inaugural field-trial the BorderUAS Consortium managed to mount and operate most of the payload components, while having succeeded in receiving initial recordings from the field-trial’s terrain. The technical & scenario recordings were conducted successfully for a range of targets (individuals, automobiles etc.) & terrain placements (pastureland, road segments etc.). In continuation, the Technical Partners secured the uninterrupted transmission, via onboard computerized means, of the recorded footage received from the onboard segment’s components to the C2’s interface for supporting data analysis & situational awareness. 
  • Proofs of Concept Sensors (Acoustic Sensor, MIMO SAR): The Acoustic Sensor & the MIMO SAR are the two (2) proofs of concept featuring on BorderUAS. During the 1st field-trial their deployment & installation were successfully conducted, therefore allowing for the reception of acoustic & radiofrequency raw data files. As a next step, the Technical Partners proceeded to project the audio files on the C2 application’s interface & to introduce end-users (i.e. Border guard Officers) to the proofs of concept functionalities & initial findings.
  • Border Police Officers’ Training Sessions: The end-users affiliated with BorderUAS attended the inaugural field-trial in physical presence. During their presence there, they were on the receiving end of presentations & training, that served to delineate scenario content connotations, applications’ features, and the functioning of proofs of concept components (Acoustic Sensor, MIMO SAR). Additionally, the end-users were also engaged in fruitful conversations over the hierarchy of Operational Roles & scenario content clarifications.

This first successful pilot in Croatia was a great kick-off for the upcoming pilots in Romania and Greece, allowing the consortium partners to collect valuable feedback through testing, calibration, fine tuning and lessons learnt on the functionality of the hardware and software components of the BorderUAS system.