The IMPETUS project, an Horizon 2020 project funded by the European Commission, is an innovative project with the aim of enhancing the resilience of cities in the face of security threats in public spaces. IMPETUS will provide city authorities with new means to address security issues in public spaces using data gathered from a city-wide lattice of cameras, environmental sensors and multiple interconnected AI systems that control key infrastructures within a Smart City. IMPETUS will help protect citizens against the unethical use of personal data and will facilitate threat detection by assisting with physical and cyber security management.
The IMPETUS approach addresses three complementary but overlapping areas:
- Technologies: use the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data analysis to integrate and develop the tools and processes allowing cities to manage both physical and cyber security
- Ethics: ensure Smart City capabilities are developed for the benefit of its citizens and to balance potentially conflicting needs to collect, transform and share large amounts of data in accordance with data privacy
- Processes: delivering a multi-tenant solution fully aligned with the cognitive processes, deployment guidelines and operational needs that support the decision making of multiple city stakeholders involved
The project will build on tested technologies but enhance and combine them in a coherent and user-centred solution that goes beyond state-of-the-art in key areas such as detection, simulation & analysis and intervention.
The consortium consists of 17 partners from 11 different European Union members and associated countries. It brings together five research institutions, seven specialist industrial and SME companies, three NGOs and two local municipalities. Major on-street trials will be held in the municipal cities of Oslo, Norway and Padova, Italy. The consortium will be complemented by COSSEC (Community of Safe and Secure Cities) – a group of end-users and other stakeholders who will provide feedback on IMPETUS operations.
