The AI-ARC “Artificial Intelligence based Virtual Control Room for the Arctic” project’s main objective is to create an innovative and user-friendly AI based platform, the Virtual Control Room (VCR), that has the power to greatly improve maritime situational awareness, decision-making, communication, available rescue resources, and thus the safety of all maritime actors, particularly in the Arctic Sea.
Workshop 02: Increasing situational awareness of Coast and Border Guards to prevent illegal activities was a two and a half-day workshop event that took place in Karlskrona, Sweden from the 26th – 28th of April 2022. It was co-organised by three AI-ARC project partners: Munster Technology University, (Ireland), Laurea University of Applied Sciences, (Finland), and the Swedish Coast Guard.
The opening session served as an introduction to the workshop and provided an overview of the project to VIP guests from the SCG and the external advisory board. Isto Mattila, Project coordinator of the AI-ARC Project and Director of R&D at Laurea University of Applied Sciences, welcomed all consortium partners and VIP guests to Workshop 2. His presentation provided an overview of the project and informed attendees that word about the AI-ARC project is growing with increasing external interest from prominent European organisations including the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA).
The Swedish Coast Guard is a key consortium partner in the AI-ARC project and in her presentation, Director Therese Mattsson emphasised the important role that the Swedish Coast guard (SCG) plays in providing support to maritime authorities in the Baltic Sea. She outlined the daily roles and responsibilities of the SCG in addition to their facilities, system capabilities and assets which can operate in Arctic weather. Timo Hellenberg and Professor Pekka Visuri (Hellenberg International) presented on the findings of their investigation into the Arctic Sea hijacking Incident which occurred in 2009 in the Baltic Sea. The Arctic Sea Incident served as a useful case study to demonstrate the challenges involved for Law enforcement agencies and CGs in identifying smuggling and other illegal activities. Lastly, Dr. Adrian Hoppe (Fraunhofer) presented an overview of the VCR Display and the Digital Map Table software system. This system offers the AI-ARC a 2D and 3D solution for a shared maritime situational awareness picture.
For the remainder of the workshop, participants engaged in small working groups, each consisting of Law Enforcement and Coast Guard representatives, to address key issues relating to improving situational awareness and tackling illegal maritime activities in the Baltic Sea and Arctic/High North regions. The results of the group work sessions during the Karlskrona workshop have created a number of action points for the task leaders in WP3 including the integration of workshop outputs into the ongoing technical tasks, decisions surrounding the purchasing and storage of data, and the selection of use cases for the live demonstrations that are all due to take place in 2023.The latter task will involve detailed planning and coordination between WP2 and WP3 leaders in addition to the CG partners who will host the demos.
The successful completion of the AI-ARC Workshop 2 in Karlskrona served as a key project milestone (MS7). The workshop was an ideal opportunity for project partners to refine and clarify information surrounding the technical development of the project. The Karlskrona workshop enabled face-to-face discussions on a number of key issues relating to the project’s progression. As a result of these productive interactions, partner engagement has stepped up in intensity and will continue online.
Finally, it is worthy highlighting that for many of the project partners, Workshop 2 in Karlskrona, Sweden was the first opportunity that consortium members had for a face-to-face meeting owing to previous travel restrictions because of the Covid-19 global pandemic. Therefore, it can be concluded that the workshop was a valuable opportunity for participants to make important networking connections with other project partners in addition to providing fruitful information outputs for task leaders and contributing to the ongoing progression of the AI-ARC project.
The next face-to-face consortium meeting is in the early stages of being planned for later this year (November 2022) in Germany. Regular consortium meetings in person will assist with ensuring that the project’s momentum continues on track and consortium partners keep moving forward with the work.