north.io receives 2.4 million euros federal grant for Argus project

north.io's Argus project secures €2.4 million in federal funding to develop advanced systems for monitoring and protecting critical underwater infrastructure

Kiel, July 24, 2024 - north.io, a company specializing in geospatial cloud solutions, has received a grant of 2.4 million euros for its "Argus" project. This project aims to analyze large amounts of data related to critical underwater infrastructure and represents the highest single grant the Kiel-based company has ever received. The funding is provided by the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) as part of the mFUND innovation initiative and contributes to the total project cost of €3.5 million.

Revolutionizing the protection of critical underwater infrastructure

The protection of critical underwater infrastructure (CUI) is crucial to global security and economic stability. The Argus project, which started on 1 June 2024 and will run for two years, aims to revolutionize the protection of this infrastructure through the use of advanced big data and AI technologies. north.io is leading the project in collaboration with key partners such as GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and Subsea Europe Services GmbH. The Argus project is also strengthened by the involvement of other important players such as the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH), the German Federal Police and the German Navy.

The protection of critical underwater infrastructure is of crucial importance. Submarine cables and pipelines play a key role in communication, energy supply and the exchange of digital services.

Dr. Volker Wissing, Federal Minister for Digital Affairs and Transport

Project goals and technological innovations

The Argus project is dedicated to the major challenge of protecting critical underwater infrastructure with data-based solutions. The existing TrueOcean platform from north.io will be significantly expanded to enable fast and systematic inspection of underwater infrastructure. Unlike current manual and time-consuming data processing methods, Argus will automate these processes, making them scalable to meet growing demands.

We are very excited to lead the Argus project and take a significant step forward in protecting critical subsea infrastructure. This funding not only recognizes our commitment to innovation, but also demonstrates the need for new approaches in ocean data management and analysis based on AI and big data technologies.

Jann Wendt, CEO of north.io

Unique approach to maritime security

The Argus project is characterized by its approach to maritime security by working specifically with large amounts of raw data from ocean sensors. The project will improve situational awareness by integrating underwater data with satellite and AIS data. Once potential anomalies are detected, a signal will be sent to a pre-positioned autonomous underwater or surface vehicle to investigate the situation, ensuring a rapid response to threats.

This proactive and automated response system is another step forward in maritime security and demonstrates north.io's commitment to using advanced technologies to protect critical assets. Argus will provide the foundation for automated, data-driven monitoring and threat assessment of CUI by integrating a variety of underwater sensors, satellite and vessel position data on a new generation of ocean data management systems.

Key project objectives:

1. Automated and data-driven monitoring: build an automated, data-driven system to monitor critical underwater infrastructure.
2. Improved risk identification: Improved risk identification by matching anomalies with infrastructure locations.
3. Reduced response time: Significant reduction in response time from threat detection to action.
4. Comprehensive information base: Provision of a robust information base for better strategic planning and decision-making.

Innovative AI-supported tools:

• Reliable detection and assessment of anomalies.
• Efficient, automated monitoring and task planning for autonomous systems.
• Physics-based AI prediction and modeling of sound velocity in underwater environments.
• Highly automated processing of hydroacoustic data and change detection.

Successful demonstration and strategic importance:

Initial approaches to risk analysis have already been successfully demonstrated by winning the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport's DataRun 2023, showing the potential of Argus to transform the field of maritime security.

Project partners and their roles:

• north.io GmbH: project management, coordination of the consortium, design and provision of the ocean data management platform as well as development of the track planning module and various AI models.
• GEOMAR - Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel: Contribution of expertise in marine research and data science.
• Subsea Europe Services GmbH: Specialized in the collection of marine data using autonomous surveying systems.