PUKIN - Periodic Surveillance of Critical Infrastructure

PUKIN is the largest project currently funded by the Austrian Security Research program KIRAS for public protection and disaster management. The project aims at the development of an airborne communications and remote sensing platform for use in cases of natural or man-made disasters. PUKIN uses a lightweight aircraft with different sensors (e.g. cameras or synthetic aperture radar) to identify potential threats, assess disaster situations and contribute to the creation of a detailed situation map in real time. The sensor platform includes thermal and infrared sensors as well as high definition cameras with different resolutions. The data is geocoded/georeferenced and transmitted in real time via satellite using the IP protocol suite to an operations centre. The communication between the high altitude platform and the operations centre is established through a satellite link in the Ku-band with data rates up to 1MBit/s. IKS is responsible for the communications system.