A research team led by NUI Galway has been awarded €4.8m in Horizon 2020 EU funding for a security project using robotics and intelligent reasoning to gather forensic evidence after terrorist attack.

Called ROCSAFE (Remotely Operated CBRNe Scene Assessment & Forensic Examination), the project is being led by NUI Galway’s Dr Michael Madden, and will focus on developing ICT and security software to gather forensic intelligence in the event of a chemical, biological or nuclear attack.

ROCSAFE’s overall goal is to reduce the need for crime scene investigators to enter dangerous scenes to gather evidence. The overall project budget is €4.8m, of which almost €1m has been awarded to NUI Galway.

The project includes five other Irish entities and additional funding will be awarded to Tyndall, the Defence Forces (specifically ordinance disposal), the Inter-Agency Emergency Management Office, and two Irish companies, Reamda and SBN.

Partners

There are 13 partners in total involved in the ROCSAFE project across Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Germany, along with a wider set of advisory board members.

In Association with

Speaking about the project, Dr Michael Madden said: “ROCSAFE focuses specifically on three of these principles: the protection of life, the elimination/reduction of the threat, and the preservation of evidence.

“By building a mobile remotely operated system, ROCSAFE can protect personnel by removing the need for them to go on-scene to identify threats, detect the presence of forensic material, and collect forensic material.”

Among the project’s proposed elements are remotely operated air and ground vehicles, as well as sophisticated central decision management.