Asset Mapping Platform for Emerging CountRies Electrification The purpose of the AMPERE (Asset Mapping Platform for Emerging countRies Electrification) project is to engineer and to start to commercialise a dedicated solution, to be used for electrical power network information gathering. AMPERE will support decision making actors (e.g. institutions and public/ private companies in charge to manage electrical network) to collect all needed info to plan electrical network maintenance and upgrade. In particular, the need for such a solution comes in emerging countries (worldwide) where, despite global electrification rates are significantly progressing, the access to electricity is still far from being achieved in a reliable way. Indeed, the challenge facing such communities goes beyond the lack of infrastructure assets: what is needed is a mapping of already deployed infrastructure (not known!) in order to perform holistic assessment of the energy demand and its expected growth over time. In such a context, Galileo is a key enabler -especially, considering its free-of-charge High Accuracy Service (HAS) and its highly precise E5 AltBOC code measurements- as a core component to map electric utilities, optimise decision making process about the network development and therefore increase time and cost efficiency, offering more convenient way to manage energy distribution. These aspects confer to the AMPERE project a worldwide dimension, having European industry the clear role to bring innovation and know-how to allow network intervention planning with a limited afforded financial risk above all for emerging non-European countries.

The purpose of the PASSport (Operational Platform managing a fleet of semi-autonomous drones exploiting GNSS high Accuracy and Authentication to improve Security & Safety in port areas) is to engineer and qualify a solution extending situational awareness based on aerial fixed/ rotary wing and underwater drones to improve safety and security in port areas. The need stems from the directive 2005/65/CE asking to complement surveillance systems for the whole port area, in order to significantly improve security and safety for daily operations implanted in port area. This result also in saving citizen lives ensuring a high and equal level of safety and security for all European ports. Around one thousand European ports fall within the scope of the directive. As a consequence, PASSport responds to the needs expressed by port authorities, harbour master and border control authorities which are active parties in the consortium and will be directly involved in the definition of the proposed solutions. The proposed solution is intended to complement already operational platforms by extending the surveillance perimeter using a fleet of drones to provide innovation and operational support to the recognition, management and analysis of safety and security aspects of daily operations with particular attention to: Pollution monitoring (safety) Support to e-navigation (safety) Critical buildings/ Infrastructures protection (security) Protection against non-cooperative small craft approaching the port areas (security) Underwater threats monitoring (security) The project is expected to activate commercialisation channels based on the novelty represented by the usage of a fleet of semi-automated drones integrating Galileo services (and other sensors) for a safe and efficient guidance, navigation and control (GNC) even in a challenging environment in presence of obstacles - including buildings and other ground assets - and potentially unfavourable weather conditions.

EGNSS high Accuracy SYstem improving PhotoVoltaic plants maintenance. The purpose of the EASY PV proposal is to provide a time and cost effective service as direct response to the growing need expressed by several maintainers and PV field owners to enhance the energy production of their plants. As photovoltaic plants are aging, it is not uncommon that their production lowers due to inefficiency caused by unknown modules on the plant lowering the whole plant’s productivity. Thermal inspections are valuable for PV owners and maintainers, but relevant procedures (currently performed by operators with handheld cameras) are time demanding and sometimes expensive due to safety costs for the personnel involved in the operations (e.g.: PV modules on roofs, rough areas, …). It stands to reason that today such operations are not fully automated yet and the responsive recognition of a broken module might result very difficult in a large PV plant. As a first improved solution, the growing technology of RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems) is exploited to gather thermic images which are geo-referenced by GPS positioning and processed by computer vision algorithms. However this configuration is very respectful but still not enough in order to provide the required positioning accuracy for the automation and fast identification of the broken modules. Only the aid of accurate positioning allows a cost effective solution to reduce time, costs and risks for personnel involved: the added value provided by the employment of GNSS high accuracy solutions as novelty in the RPAS domain is the key driver for the EASY PV turnkey solution. Finally EASY PV solution is conceived to build up an automatic system for acquiring, georeferencing and processing both visible and thermal images captured by an RPAS equipped with a Galileo/EGNOS high accuracy receiver, flying over a photovoltaic field. In this way it is possible to easily detect the defective modules to be replaced.

SARA: Search and Rescue Aid using High Accuracy EGNSS The purpose of the SARA project is to engineer and to start to commercialise a dedicated solution, based on an already existing prototype, to be used for Search and Rescue (SAR) and Surveillance purposes (primary market). The need for such a solution comes in particular from the institutional market (but it is not limited to) requesting a technological support to manage migration flux aspects, with particular attention to crisis in the Mediterranean Sea: Europe needs to balances efforts to assist people in need with efforts to secure its borders. On the basis of the above scenario, the industrial composition of the SARA consortium has been contacted by Italian Coast Guard two years ago in order to provide a technological contribution supporting vessels to detect people lost in the sea, especially during the hours of darkness. According to the above request, SARA solution is conceived to build up a semi-automatic system using Earth Observation data to preliminary detect suspect pontoons’ trajectories (Surveillance) and supporting SAR operations based upon a deployable RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft System) which is tightly coupled with a ship architecture through a cable (tethered flight): as soon as its function is needed, the aircraft flies from its home (a dedicated hangar on the top of the ship), and becomes a “virtual pylon” which elevates a VIS-TIR sensor (Visual Spectrum and Thermal Infrared); captured images are processed in real time by a local computer. Both RPAS and hangar are equipped with 2 high accuracy EGNSS receivers (i.e. Galileo ready) in order to provide the relative positioning between the hangar and the RPAS hovering on the target. On this context, EGNSS represents an essential technology ensuring autonomous operations in a reliable manner guaranteeing provision of distance and bearing from ship to survivors and the protection of the extensible cable against mechanical stress.

Maritime transport represents the centre of global trade with about 90% of the goods’ volumes and values worldwide. Nowadays, containerships are built with the same basic design principles as the older smaller container ships, without accounting for possible consequences that could impact safety. Cargo fires represents one of the most important threats of this kind of ships (also for ferries with container on the truck). On one hand, fire causes large losses of humans and/or cargoes, on the other hand fire is impacting coastal zone and marine protected areas. Currently, there are no requirements for the installation of fixed fire detection systems above the weather deck of a container ship. Innovative strategies for containership fires prevention and management (OVERHEAT) main goal is to prevent and manage, in case of occurrence fire accidents on board of containerships. OVERHEAT brings novel fire management solutions for Prevention, Early Detection and Response which are key aspects to assure safety of people and the protection of the environment. The development of a Digital Solution (DS) will provide the overall situational picture on board and surrounding the vessel. Furthermore, integration of IoT sensors (fixed and mobile) and UAS will provide the ad-hoc system for the prevention, early detection and rapid response of fire. Best practice and assessment of safety culture will be conducted to prevent fire and understand how people perceive safety. Hence, OVERHEAT prepares a truly new generation of digital fire management solutions: complete, seamless, real time and in line with IMO regulations (integrated in the vessel IT infrastructure). The impact of the proposed solution will be initially evaluated by performing validation activities in simulated environment and then executing demonstration activities in a real environment, with use cases that will be identified, described and detailed during the research activities, to prove the feasibility and benefits.