French AI firm to process drone footage for automatic threat detection

SINGAPORE — A French firm that deploys artificial intelligence to observe Chinese and Russian military activity says it is integrating video footage gathered by drones into its algorithms for detecting adversaries’ military movements.

Paris-based Preligens, founded in 2016, offers two AI-based solutions, Robin, an imagery-analysis software, and Xerus, a computer system for military terrain mapping.

The systems work with commercial or government-collected satellite imagery, and they can help analysts determine whether objects of interest are civilian or military.

“It has been primarily designed for site monitoring and has an alerting system that can be set up for the customer for pattern-of-life analysis to cue analysts towards key signals that can identify aircraft, vessels, vehicles, surface-to-air missiles and more,” Coralie Trigano, the company’s senior sales executive for the Asian-Pacific region, told Defense News at the Singapore Airshow here.

The latest improvements made to the firm’s algorithms have included adding new detectable items as well as additional categories of objects that the software can spot.

“We recently developed a helicopter detector, that can now classify and identify precise models, and we have also improved the vehicle detector, which is now capable of detecting and categorizing civil, armored, military and electronics (radars) vehicles,” Sophie Hue, head of communication at Preligens, wrote in an email to Defense News.

Besides adding full-motion video gathered by drones to the mix of data sources, developers are also looking to implement analyses of synthetic-aperture radar images, Hue added.

The influx of the demand and development of drones, driven largely by the Ukraine war, has created a new era in cyber intelligence gathering.

To demonstrate the capabilities of their software, Preligens released its own imagery showing that China was carrying out major military infrastructure work at one of its naval bases in 2022.

The company’s vessel detector also was able to spot Russian air-cushioned landing craft that the country had stationed in the port of Baltiysk, Kaliningrad, in January 2022.

Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo was a Europe correspondent for Defense News. She covers a wide range of topics related to military procurement and international security, and specializes in reporting on the aviation sector. She is based in Milan, Italy.

新加坡——一家利用人工智能技术观察中国和俄罗斯军事活动的法国公司表示，它正在将无人机收集的视频素材整合到其算法中，以检测敌方的军事动向。

总部位于巴黎的 Preligens 公司成立于 2016 年，提供两种基于人工智能的解决方案：Robin（图像分析软件）和 Xerus（用于军事地形测绘的计算机系统）。

这些系统可与商业或政府收集的卫星图像配合使用，并能帮助分析人员确定感兴趣的对象是民用还是军用。

“它主要设计用于现场监控，并配备了警报系统，可供客户设置进行生命周期分析，以提示分析人员注意能够识别飞机、舰船、车辆、地对空导弹等的关键信号，”该公司亚太区高级销售主管科拉莉·特里加诺在新加坡航展上告诉《防务新闻》。

该公司算法的最新改进包括增加新的可检测物品以及软件可以识别的其他物品类别。

Preligens 通信主管 Sophie Hue 在给《防务新闻》的电子邮件中写道：“我们最近开发了一种直升机探测器，现在可以对特定型号进行分类和识别；我们还改进了车辆探测器，现在能够探测和分类民用、装甲、军用和电子（雷达）车辆。”

Hue补充说，除了将无人机采集的全动态视频添加到数据源中之外，开发人员还在寻求实现对合成孔径雷达图像的分析。

受乌克兰战争的推动，无人机的需求和发展激增，开启了网络情报收集的新时代。

为了展示其软件的功能，Preligens 发布了自己的图像，显​​示中国在 2022 年在其一个海军基地进行重大军事基础设施建设。

该公司的船舶探测器还能够发现俄罗斯在 2022 年 1 月部署在加里宁格勒州波罗的斯克港的俄罗斯气垫登陆艇。

伊丽莎白·戈斯林-马洛曾任《防务新闻》欧洲通讯员。她的报道涵盖军事采购和国际安全等广泛领域，尤其擅长航空领域的报道。她常驻意大利米兰。