8:00 am – 9:00 am Transborder Operations: Policies And Practices

Various threats to the infiltration of our borders include terrorist threat, illegal immigration, and the smuggling of illegal goods. A more concerning issue is the means by which US borders are infiltrated, and the policies and technologies that survey such actions. This session focuses on the progress of technologies for the surveillance of illegal underground tunnels, and how these technologies work in relation to current Homeland Security programs. This session’s leader will discuss current challenges, future requirements, and the road ahead for policyoriented transborder operations.

How you will benefit:

• Learn more about best practices in border management operations
• Obtain more knowledge on how current surveillance technologies perform, and how they can perform better

What you will learn about:

• Current threats to our borders, and how these affect public interests
• Collaboration between Canada and Mexico
• Shared issues between countries regarding border surveillance

Session Leader:

Rick Van Schoick
Director, North American Center for Transborder Studies
Arizona State University

9:00 – 10:00 Keeping An Eye On Our Borders

This session will discuss technologically-advanced, environmentally hardened video products and physical security solutions for government and private sectors. Session leaders will inform you about the current emphasis on sophisticated, environmentally-rugged, pan/tilt/zoom optical and infrared cameras, hardened processors, custom tactical video hardware, software solutions, and related technologies integrated to meet physical security requirements for enhanced border surveillance.

How you will benefit:

• Learn case studies and best practices on the research and development of surveillance cameras and other equipment
• Understand how to meet government requirements, and how to allocate available technologies in order to minimize security vulnerabilities

What you will learn about:

• Waterside, land-based and mobile mounted security systems
• Reduction of threats or security gaps by increasing surveillance for local port and shipping areas, domestic and international airport facilities
• Enhanced law enforcement capabilities for immigration and drug smuggling

Session Leader:

This session will be led by an expert on surveillance technologies from RVision, Inc.

10:15 am – 12:15 pm UAVs: Aerial Surveillance Along The Borders

Unmanned aerial surveillance technologies are constantly advancing, and one of the key concerns among UAS operators is SAR (sense and respond) capabilities. This session will assess three collision detection and avoidance technologies that are viable for Unmanned Aerial Systems necessary for enhanced border surveillance.

How you will benefit:

• Learn how to incorporate both industry standard and industry evolving methods and techniques
• Delve into the advancement of performance parameters for UAS
• Gain insight into the future of sense and respond capabilities for unmanned systems

What you will learn about:

• Advanced sensor systems for UAS sense and respond
• Characterization of near mid-air collision encounters
• Collision avoidance system performance requirements

Session Leader:

Douglas Marshall
Director of Program Development, UAS Center of Excellence
University of North Dakota

12:15 pm – 1:45 pm Advancements In Robotics For Tunnel Surveillance

(Lunch will be served)

One of the more concerning threats of border security is that of smuggler’s tunnels. Subterranean passageways prove to be a challenge for human beings to survey, so homeland security projects are looking more and more to sending surveillance robots to do the job. Although there have been efforts over the years to use robots for the discovery of more tunnels, there is still a need to create smarter, more autonomous robots. This session will delve into the current homeland security challenges that border patrol agents face, and how these can be addressed by the latest advancements in robotic technology.

How you will benefit:

• Understand the need for and importance of tunnel detection technologies
• Gain insight into the challenges of detecting and surveying subterranean passageways

What you will learn about:

• Human limitations that hinder tunnel detection and surveillance
• Advancements in building robots specifically for tunnel detection

Session Leader:

David Bruemmer
Technical Director, Unmanned Ground Vehicles
Idaho National Laboratory

1:45 pm – 3:30 pm UGV Tunnel Exploitation Requirements/ Mitigating Human Risk

In conjunction with the previous session, this workshop will discuss an enterprise approach using extensible architecture, as well as modeling legacy sensing and GIS technologies in an extensible executable architecture.

How you will benefit:

• Gain insight into communications challenges and solutions: wired vs. wireless.
• Understand how Hybrid Unmanned Systems may be one possible approach to addressing mobility in the subsurface environment.

What you will learn about:

• Agent-based modeling: TTPS for tech solutions brought to bear in operations
• Mapping and Visualization: Improving visualizations for operator contextual understanding

Session Leader:

Dr. Thomas S. Anderson
U.S. Army ERDC Liaison to TRAC-MTRY NPS, Director of the ERDC Executable Modeling and Analysis Center of Excellence at NPS
Monterey, CA

3:30 pm – 5:30 pm Autonomous And Collaborative Operation Of UGVs With Varying Levels Of Autonomy

Border management can only be enhanced with the use of unmanned ground vehicles for perimeter security of critical infrastructure such as borders, airbases, airports and the like. These perimeters can be a few hundred, to several thousands of miles in length, and the presence of UGVs make it easier to keep an eye on vast amounts of land all at once. This session will discuss the need for UGVs to be autonomous and collaborative. The model of collaboration is analogous to an infantry unit and consists of a team leader that selects which missions shall be executed, and which team members are tasked with executing team missions, while others are sent for individual missions.

How you will benefit:

• Gain more knowledge on the effectiveness of UGVs along our borders
• Acquire knowledge of UGV autonomous behavior
• Find out how UGVs satisfy functional requirements for border security

What you will learn about:

• Perimeter security applications
• Autonomous UGV mission planning
• UGV functional requirements and ruggedized COTS components

Session Leader:

Jeremy James
Arc Cores Fellow, President & CEO
Frontline Robotics Inc.