EADS-developed AUTOPOL helps police helicopters to spot people and vehicles
Munich, 09 November 2001
Since 1 March 2001, the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior, the Bavarian Police Helicopter Squadron and the Military Aircraft Business Unit of EADS European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company have been working together under a cooperation agreement on the project AUTOPOL (AUTomatic Object Recognition for POLice Helicopters). This is a process by which the images recorded by the onboard infrared camera are scanned for predefined objects such as persons or vehicles, these being marked with appropriate symbols upon recognition. In an intensive trial phase using a demonstrator installed with the Police Helicopter Squadron at Munich Airport, the EADS-developed object recognition software was initially tested on the ground after each relevant mission, using the image data recorded on video cassettes.
Now that it has been possible through the ground demonstrator tests to successfully either announce acoustically or show on a display unit the detection of objects emitting warmth such as human beings, animals or automobiles and the recognition of obstacles such as pylons and power lines as well as of previously marked terrain patterns, the AUTOPOL partners have decided to enter the next stage of the programme. To this purpose, at the headquarters of EADS Deutschland in Ottobrunn a further cooperation agreement was concluded on Friday whose signatories are not only the original partners but also Eurocopter Deutschland, who manufacture the EC 135 police helicopter.
In the new phase, the tasks will now be to install and integrate the AUTOPOL components in a helicopter operated by the Bavarian Police Helicopter Squadron. The components consist of a special computer together with the software developed by EADS Military Aircraft for Automatic Target Recognition (ATR), a specially designed ergonomic user interface and the interlinking of this equipment with the standard onboard infrared camera of the EC 135 helicopter. As the additional equipment represents a change in the configuration of the flight hardware, prior to the start of the AUTOPOL trials under real police operation conditions complex certification procedures are necessary, which will be carried out in conjunction with Eurocopter Deutschland. As extensive preparatory work has already been undertaken by EADS, it is assumed that the first flights with the AUTOPOL flight prototypes within the scope of the test phase, which has currently been limited to six months, will be able to take place before the end of this year. The collaboration partners expect AUTOPOL to have a number of favourable effects on the everyday operations of the Police Helicopter Squadron, such as reducing the crews' workloads, improving mission effectiveness through better recognition of persons or vehicles during police searches, providing additional flight safety and enabling new mission profiles to be developed. The results and know-how gained from these trials conducted under the conditions of real police work in different seasons, visibilities and types of weather are then to be included in a statement of work for an AUTOPOL unit that could possibly go into series production.
The AUTOPOL technology together with the associated ATR software represents the civil application of know-how which the EADS Military Aircraft Business Unit has acquired in its core military business.
With revenues amounting to EUR 24.2 billion and a workforce of 100,000, EADS European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company is the largest European aerospace company and the No 2 worldwide. It is active in the sectors of commercial aircraft, helicopters, space, military transport and combat aircraft as well as defence technology and services. Among others, EADS holds 80 percent of Airbus, 75 per cent of the space company Astrium, 100 percent of the helicopter manufacturer Eurocopter, 43 percent in the Eurofighter programme and 37.5 percent in the missile company MBDA.
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Wolfram Wolff
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