VIGIMARE – Monitoring systems to protect critical underwater infrastructure

Initial situation of the project

The underwater infrastructure network connecting EU member states, including telecommunication cables, gas pipelines and power cables, is critical for maintaining essential services. The changing geopolitical situation, highlighted by the incident of the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, poses significant challenges for the organizations responsible for this infrastructure. These challenges require the management of both targeted sabotage and problems caused by natural factors and climate change. The VIGIMARE (Vigilant Maritime Surveillance of Critical Submarine Infrastructure) project aims to strengthen the resilience of this important network by optimizing situation awareness and information sharing, and by implementing advanced protection measures.

Objective

The VIGIMARE project aims to improve collaboration and information sharing between critical infrastructure operators (CIOs), EU member states and public authorities to optimize the response to threats to the EU's critical underwater infrastructure. A Virtual Control Room (VCR) will be developed that provides real-time situational awareness for on- and offshore infrastructure and integrates AI services for early threat detection. The project will also reveal vulnerabilities and risks associated with undersea cables and pipelines, and create tools to assess risk and improve resilience. Furthermore, all these components will be integrated into a near real-time system to enhance situational awareness and detect physical, cyber and hybrid attacks on maritime domains. This comprehensive approach will support better preparedness and response strategies.

Project results and participation of Fraunhofer IOSB

The Fraunhofer IOSB Interactive Systems (ISY) and Explainable AI (EAI) groups will collaborate in this project to strengthen the protection of critical infrastructure through improved maritime situational awareness. Our EAI research group will focus on further developing methods in the field of artificial intelligence. The aim is to use innovative approaches such as graph neural networks to identify threatening situations for critical infrastructure that may affect single or multiple ships. Combining these methods with expert systems promises greater efficiency and lower error rates. The ISY group will expand the digital situation room as a central overview platform for the multitude of information provided in the project. To this end, uniform interfaces will be developed and, in particular, a consistent visualization concept will be developed to provide end users with an intuitive interface through which relevant information can be quickly and reliably captured.