EADS-developed AUTOPOL helps police helicopters to spot people and vehicles
Berlin, 06 May 2002
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 an onboard infrared camera are scanned for predefined objects such as persons or vehicles, these being indicated upon recognition by appropriate optical symbols on a display unit or by acoustic signals. To this end, a ground-based demonstrator was installed with the Police Helicopter Squadron at Munich Airport on which the EADS-developed software is being tested.
The image sequences recorded on board were saved on video cassettes and after the helicopter mission they were examined on the ground-based demonstrator for predefined objects.
Now that it has been possible through the ground demonstrator tests to successfully confirm 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, a further cooperation agreement was concluded on 09.11.2001 whose signatories are not only the original partners but also Eurocopter Deutschland, who manufacture the EC 135 police helicopter.
In the second cooperation agreement, the tasks were to integrate and test 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 were necessary, which were carried out in conjunction with Eurocopter Deutschland. On 8th of January 2002, certification was given for the AUTOPOL system for all of the EC135 aircraft of the Bavarian Helicopter Squadron.
Currently, extensive test flights are taking place using the AUTOPOL flight prototype with the aim of establishing the operational suitability of the AUTOPOL system's hard- and software.
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, and various types of view and weather are then to be included in a statement of work for a series production AUTOPOL unit.
The AUTOPOL technology together with the associated ATR software represents the civil application of know-how which EADS Military Aircraft has acquired in its core military business.
With revenues of EUR 30.8 billion (excluding Airbus UK) in 2001 and more than 100,000 employees, EADS European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company is Europe's largest aerospace company and the Number 2 worldwide. EADS business operations cover the civil aeronautics, helicopters, space, military transport and combat aircraft sectors as well as defence technology and services. EADS has a number of holding interests, including 80 percent in Airbus, 75 percent in the space company Astrium, 100 percent in the helicopter manufacturer Eurocopter, 43 percent in the Eurofighter programme and 37.5 percent in the guided missile producer MBDA.
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Wolfram Wolff
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Fax: +49-89-607 22455
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