Michele Fiorini

Enhancing Automatic Maritime Surveillance Systems With Visual Information

Automatic surveillance systems for the maritime domain are becoming more and more important due to a constant increase of naval traffic and to the simultaneous reduction of crews on decks. However, available technology still provides only a limited support to this kind of applications. In this paper, a modular system for intelligent maritime surveillance, capable of fusing information from heterogeneous sources, is described. The system is designed to enhance the functions of the existing vessel traffic services systems and to be deployable in populated areas, where radar-based systems cannot be used due to the high electromagnetic radiation emissions. A quantitative evaluation of the proposed approach has been carried out on a large and publicly available data set of images and videos, which are collected from multiple real sites, with different light, weather, and traffic conditions.

The maritime e-Navigation and the Titanic: Are there any links?

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted the following definition of e-Navigation: “e-Navigation is the harmonized collection, integration, exchange, presentation and analysis of maritime information onboard and ashore by electronic means to enhance berth to berth navigation and related services, for safety and security at sea and protection of the marine environment”. The paper present an overview of maritime initiatives undergoing by the IMO and the European Union (EU) and recall the Titanic legend from the technology point of view.

Surveillance Unattended Foliage Penetrating Radar for Border Control and Homeland Protection

The increasing request for safety, security and environment protection at local and national level reveal the deficiency of the traditional surveillance and control centers to satisfy the needs and requirements of modern border control systems for homeland protection, where land and maritime borders are expected to be monitored. This is the case for any land border affected by hidden immigration and/or illegal traffics as well as for small areas such as critical infrastructures or military/civilian posts in forest or jungle environment characterized by vegetation. In such challenging environments, logistics constraints strongly recommend to have very low power devices able to operate months or years without maintenance. Such a scenario should be the perfect place for implementing an Unattended Ground Sensors (UGS) network making use of FOliage PENetration (FOPEN) radar for border control. The paper aims to present the basic characteristics and preliminary results of a Surveillance Unattended FOPEN (SUF) radar suitable for detecting moving targets, people or vehicles, in dense forest environment.

Vessel route analysis by in situ measurements A pre-requisite for Maritime Spatial Planning

Earth surface is covered for more than 2/3 by water with a spatial distribution of land to oceans and seas of about 1 to 1.5 in the Northern Hemisphere and 1 to 4 in the Southern Hemisphere. However the inhomogeneous spatial distribution of oceans have fascinated climatologist from a while this may not justify the nowadays rising for shrinking in oceans and seas. The paper report real data vessel traffic analysis along Taiwan coastline with the proposes to identify vessels behavior patterns, highlighting conflicting routes and setting the basis for a future Maritime Spatial Planning in the area of interest.