We at MARCONNECT had the pleasure of meeting the ORBIS project team for a synergy meeting. We discovered a compelling vision for maritime surveillance that we are excited to share with our community.
ORBIS (Optimised Real-time maritime Border Surveillance with Intelligent satellite-drone Systems) is a Horizon Europe Innovation Action coordinated by ACCELIGENCE LTD and brings together 6 partners from 3 EU countries. The project addresses one of Europe’s most pressing humanitarian and security challenges: irregular sea migration in the Mediterranean, where existing surveillance tools struggle to provide the speed, coverage, and accuracy authorities need to act quickly and effectively
ORBIS aims to provide situational awareness across high-risk maritime zones by combining satellite-based intelligence with UAV-enabled verification and human-in-the-loop decision support. The workflow starts with the fusion and analysis of multi-source data, including satellite imagery, AIS/trajectory data, weather forecasts and historical vessel-movement information, using AI and decision-support capabilities to identify potentially high-risk situations. When an anomaly or risk indication requires further verification, UAVs can be tasked to the area of interest to collect higher-resolution, near-real-time information and support the detection, classification and tracking of vessels, objects or persons.
The initial anomaly or risk indication and associated satellite- and data-derived information are presented through a unified geospatial platform, enabling authorised operators to assess the situation and, where appropriate, initiate UAV deployment for further verification. The UAV-derived observations are then fed back into the platform, enriching the operational picture and supporting subsequent human-in-the-loop decisions. In this way, authorised operators remain in control throughout, with the system designed to support maritime surveillance, law enforcement and Search and Rescue operations.
Secure APIs and standard data formats are also being developed to facilitate future interoperability with external maritime surveillance infrastructures and information-sharing environments, including the Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE).
We see genuine potential for collaboration. ORBIS focuses on detecting and verifying potentially high-risk situations across wide maritime areas through satellite-based intelligence and aerial systems. At the same time, MARCONNECT builds distributed, real-time awareness through the civilian vessel network already present across European waters. The two visions are complementary and together point towards a more complete and resilient maritime security picture for European authorities.
We look forward to staying in touch with the ORBIS team and exploring how our projects can learn from each other and amplify each other’s impact.
👉 Learn more about ORBIS: https://orbis-he.eu/
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