Case Studies

Security for mobile assets

by Mark Rowe

A three year R&D project, part funded by the European Union and ending in May, has looked at security on mobile assets, such as trucks, trains and ships and off-shore platforms to secure people and cargo. 

ARENA stands for Architecture for Recognition of thraEts to mobile assets using Networks of Affordable sensors. It was developed to address the concerns posed by piracy, hijacking and theft on board mobile platforms. ARENA provides a sensor-based surveillance concept that will provide early identification and evaluation of incoming threats using multi-sensory data analysis from sensors attached to the assets.

The surveillance model detects threats to critical mobile assets in large unpredictable places including: stationary platforms relative to the land, such as a truck or train stop; stationary platforms relative to the sea such as ships in port or oil rigs; mobile platforms relative to land such as trucks or trains in transit and mobile platforms relative to the sea such as ships at sea or support vessels around an oil rig.

Åsa Waern, at FOI, the Swedish Defence Research Agency and Project Co-Ordinator for ARENA said: “According to the European Union, the theft of high value, high risk products moving through supply chains in Europe costs businesses in excess of 8.2 billion euros a year.

“The threat from organised criminals is increasing and becoming more violent – ARENA is a response to this growing trend.  In recent years there have been a number of incidents where terror organisations have caused disruption to mass transportation networks and other areas of critical infrastructure. A very real threat is that terror organisations will seek to disrupt, destroy or capture vehicles of enormous economic value containing hazardous or dangerous materials such as chemical liquids, gas, or radioactive material.  Irrespective of where, over land or sea, the threat is equally pressing

“ARENA delivers a model based on existing surveillance technology that provides autonomous monitoring and situational awareness of the environment surrounding mobile critical assets, in order to alert personnel to threats. While some monitoring systems may already exist at the station, the harbour or garage, when the vehicle is in transit, there are no surveillance systems that can continuously monitor the platform – ARENA  offers a way to address this vulnerability.”

In the case of road haulage, trucks are exposed to crime whenever stationary and especially at overnight rest stops, when drivers are vulnerable to attack and robbery.  ARENA introduces a monitoring system that can continuously protect the truck and the truck driver via sensor monitoring and detection providing an alarm when a threat is detected.

Under the coordination of FOI, the Swedish Defence Research Agency, the project is further supported by seven project partners from five EU countries including: BMT Group Ltd, ITTI Sp. z.o.o, SAFRAN Sagem Défense Sécurité, SAFRAN MORPHO, TNO, (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research) and the University of Reading.

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