AMASS · Autonomous maritime surveillance system

The Autonomous Maritime Surveillance System (AMASS) will be for the observation and security of wide critical maritime areas in order to reduce actual and potential illegal immigration and the trafficking of drugs, weapons and illicit substances. The surveillance system will consist of autonomous, unmanned surveillance buoys with active and passive sensors, the key sensors being un-cooled thermal imagers connected as a network with wideband radio. Further sensors will include hydrophone arrays and possibly other sensors e.g. CCD camera. A sophisticated data fusion process will enable the transmission of relevant information. Alarms from the system will be displayed on a map system in blue border surveillance command centres providing information on location and direction. It will also be possible for the operator to switch directly to a video stream to view the detected image. AMASS will be a capability for integrated blue border surveillance. In order to realise this system a number of advances in the state of the art are required such as the development of stable autonomous maritime platforms and “Hot Spot” detection in the difficult maritime environment. The consortium includes the European market leader for optronic border surveillance technology, 4 SMEs, 1 University, 3 Institutes (including one charged with the search and rescue control network coordination for the Canary Islands) and one national armed forces responsible for border protection.