The ARIES project (Advanced Resolution and Intelligence for Explosive Sensing) tackles the growing problem of surface-landmine detection in challenging environments where conventional methods fail due to vegetation, soil variability, camouflage and noise. It proposes a context-adaptive, multi-modal sensing framework that fuses data from passive visual and geophysical sensors, including hyperspectral, thermal infrared, polarization imaging and magnetometry.
IPI is involved in the acquisition, design of the sensor rig, the development of the sensor fusion and detection algorithms, the validation and the GPU acceleration.
DEFRA, 3/2026 – 2/2029
DistriMuSe will develop intelligent systems with a variety of distributed and unobtrusive sensors to monitor people, to support human health, and improve safety in driving and traffic situations and in factory environments involving robots. The DistriMuSe project continues and extends the work started in the [NextPerception](https://www.nextperception.eu/) project.
IPI investigates people and vehicle object detection based on multi-sensor fusion as well as multi-purpose continuous adaptive learning algorithms of AI models deployed in object recognition.
Chips JU, 5/2024 – 4/2027
The goal of the Vertiports project, funded by EFRO GTI West-Vlaanderen, is to develop a functional airlift (including workflow and test flights) from Ostend to a wind farm so that infrastructure inspection at sea can be carried out by an unmanned aircraft, as well as to goods transport to and from the wind farms with drones instead of vessels.
The project focus will be on issues needed to establish an operational airlift: making drones fly further and longer (is hydrogen a valid energy source for drones?), making drones operate in all weather conditions (what works in rain and wind), and how can all this be done in a regulatory, safe and efficient manner?
IPI's role in the project is to develop a hyperspectral payload and software workflow for measurements in the North Sea.
EFRO, 1/2024 - 12/2026
Groundbreaking artificial intelligence research enabling a meaningful impact on people, industry and society. IPI researches real-time and power-efficient AI in the edge for various applications.
National project (Flemish EWI), 7/2019 – present
The SeaDetect project, part of Europe's LIFE initiative, aims to halt the biodiversity loss due to collisions between ships and cetaceans by implementing and developing new technologies. To considerably reduce this risk of collision and protect marine life and biodiversity, the SeaDetect project aims to develop two innovative, complementary systems. The first is a detection system to be deployed on ships composed of multiple highly sensitive sensors, of which the data will be fused and processed with artificial intelligence in order to detect cetaceans up to 1km. The second is a network of Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) buoys that will detect and triangulate the position of cetaceans in real-time in order to prevent collision for all vessels in usual maritime roads.
IPI's role in the project is to develop novel detection algorithms based on raw data fusion to improve the detection capabilities of the on-board systems.
EU-LIFE, 9/2022 - 8/2026
The SafeNav maritime safety project promises a path towards safer and more secure navigation for the navigator on the bridge today and then moving towards remote-operated and autonomous shipping. One key aspect to boost maritime safety is accurate and efficient detection and tracking of vessels and floating objects as well as marine mammals, in order to avoid navigational hazards such as collisions and subsequent damages to ships, crew members and the marine environment.
In SafeNav, IPI will use innovative sensor setups, including cameras to solve the main challenge = to improve the detection performance in difficult conditions: distant or semi-submerged marine animals or containers, waves crests and sun glitters, poor weather conditions.
EU-HORIZON, 9/2022 - 8/2025