C2 (Command & Control) Platform
Telesto C2 (Command & Control) Platform, is an innovative solution that combines and extracts real-time information to facilitate situation awareness and mission execution in case of a disaster. The C2 platform provides both operational planning, as well as a dispatch mechanism for 1st responders to effectively reduce response time during emergency situations.
It offers an administration COP (Common Operational Picture) to the commander on scene, to preview the situation as it unfolds, as well as real-time information to field members, to perform specific tasks based on their position in the scene.
An overview of the C2 architecture follows.
Data collection
The onsite information can be gathered from Earth Observation systems such as the satellites of the Copernicus EMS Risk & Recovery system, to preview and study affected areas after earthquakes, floods, wildfires etc. Data can also be gathered from field sensors such as cameras (video - thermal, hyperspectral) and ambient, flood sensors that use the wireless infrastructure to forward the information and reach the core platform.
Communication middleware
The C2 communication middleware is used to connect the different data sources with the components of the core platform. It is built on a message broker that can handle (ingest and process) hundreds of streams in real time, such as the Apache Kafka or simpler lightweight alternatives like MQTT. The middleware connects to the data communication infrastructure which consists of wireless networks with different geographical coverage scopes (WLAN for local, WWAN for wide area coverage) and throughputs (LoRaWAN will suffice for sensors with opportunistic traffic needs, WLAN or point-to-point wireless is required for streaming from remote CCTV).
Core platform
The received video streams are combined in the core platform using video scene analysis algorithms to further assess the current situation and analyze the potential threats from the incident to personnel and infrastructure. Information derived from vector (i.e. pre-processed) imagery is then fused with data from other sensors’ data streams, collected on site or ambient conditions of the surrounding area, which are then processed by AI/ML models to extract higher order information (e.g. to automatically classify incident severity, assess risk for personnel, etc.).
Asset geolocation acquired from satellite and indoor positioning systems facilitates decision making for the commander at the scene level and tactical level. Asset management includes monitoring and tracking of all resources and grouping of these resources to address specific tasks. Finally, the CONOPS model selected by the operator, depending on the type of threat envisaged (including threats from cascading effects to infrastructure), will determine the course of action to be selected (e.g. establishment of a “hot-zone”, type of personnel protection required to approach incident site, etc).