Safety: A NATO-ENEA project to protect airports, underground and train stations from the risk of terrorist attacks

Strengthening passenger security and preventing attacks with weapons or explosives in subways, railway stations, airports, but also in crowded spaces or meeting places, thanks to innovative surveillance technologies. This is the aim of the DEXTER (Detection of EXplosives and firearms to counter TERrorism) project, financed by NATO as part of the 'Science for Peace and Security Programme'[1] and coordinated at technical and scientific level by ENEA.

This sort of hi-tech 'Guardian Angel' is the result of a three-year collaboration between a hundred scientists and experts from 11 research organisations, including - in addition to ENEA - Fraunhofer, TNO and ONERA, from four NATO member countries (Italy, France, Germany and the Netherlands) and four partner nations (Serbia, Ukraine, Finland and South Korea)[2]. The State Police[3] and ATAC[4] collaborated on the project, and field tests were conducted at the Anagnina station of Rome's Metro A, where the system was presented today at an event attended by journalists and representatives of the institutions involved.

DEXTER's potential will be illustrated at the Industry Day to be held tomorrow 24 May at the ENEA Research Centre in Frascati (Rome) with operators from the critical infrastructure, public transport and airport management sectors to promote the transfer of this technology from the laboratory to companies, bearing in mind that the protection of public spaces is a sector with strong potential for expansion.

"DEXTER is a project that offers significant development opportunities at national and international level to strengthen the security of citizens against the risks of terrorist acts through the use of highly innovative technologies," said ENEA Chairman Gilberto Dialuce. "The collaboration with NATO, the State Police and ATAC, and having obtained the technical and scientific coordination of the project itself, is something that makes us particularly proud as an Italian public research institution, at the service of the community," Dialuce concluded.

"DEXTER has developed a solution at the crossroads of counter-terrorism and advanced technologies, in line with NATO's strategic goals and priorities," said David van Weel, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges.

At the operational level, DEXTER allows the remote, discreet and real-time detection of possible bearers of weapons or explosives, without invasive checks or roadblocks, thanks to a system that integrates, in a single infrastructure, radar and optical spectroscopy technologies with a network of centrally managed sensors, machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence systems that enable security operators to intervene immediately, reducing the risk of human casualties, infrastructure damage and disruption.

In detail, the DEXTER prototype consists of:

­ MIC (Microwave Imaging Curtain), a radar device capable of acquiring and generating real-time 2D and 3D images to detect explosives and firearms without checkpoints, using machine learning algorithms to process the images and automatically identify and characterise potential threats.
­EXTRAS (Explosives TRAce detection Sensor) spectroscopy techniques for detecting traces of explosives and its precursors on surfaces (hands, body, luggage, etc.).
INSTEAD (INtegrated System for ThrEAts early Detection), a centralised management system for the various sensors that regulate the flow of data generated and send an alert to security operators via artificial intelligence systems in the event of an identified threat.

"To date, prevention from terrorist threats is based mainly on random searches of passengers 'on site'. Thanks to this set of technologies, on the other hand,' pointed out Luigi De Dominicis, head of ENEA's Diagnostics and Metrology Laboratory and of the DEXTER project, 'we will be able to have a highly reliable and effective technology, tested and validated in collaboration with the State Police and the ATAC transport company in the field at the Anagnina station of Rome's Metro A. This is a major innovation for passenger safety,' he concluded.

[1] The NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) Programme develops and implements cooperation between NATO countries and partner nations, and orchestrates dialogue through capacity-building and the development of technological innovation in non-military security-related scientific fields.

[2] The French ONERA (Office National d'Études et de Recherches Aérospatiales), the German Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. (FhR), the Dutch TNO (the Netherlands Organisation for applied scientific research), the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, the Seoul National University (SNU) of South Korea, the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences of Serbia, and the Ukrainian Usikov Institute for Radiophysics and Electronics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the National Technical University 'Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute'.

[3] The State Police divisions involved are led by the Planning and Coordination Office.

[4] The State Police divisions involved are led by the Planning and Coordination Office.