SINGAPORE — A French company deploying artificial intelligence to monitor Chinese and Russian military activity says it is integrating video footage collected by drones into algorithms to detect enemy military actions. Ta.
Founded in 2016, Paris-based Preligens offers two AI-based solutions: Robin, an image analysis software, and Xerus, a computer system for military terrain mapping.
The system processes satellite images collected by commercial or government sources and helps analysts determine whether objects of interest are civilian or military.
“It is primarily designed for field surveillance and includes a customer-configurable warning system for lifestyle pattern analysis to guide analysts to critical signals that can identify aircraft, ships, vehicles, and surface-to-air missiles. We’re prepared,’ and so on,” Coralie Trigano, the company’s senior sales executive for Asia Pacific, told Defense News at the Singapore Air Show.
The latest improvements made to the company’s algorithms include the addition of new detectable items and additional categories of objects that the software can detect.
“We have recently developed a helicopter detector that can classify and identify the exact model. We have also improved our vehicle detector. This allows us to identify civilian vehicles, armored vehicles, military vehicles, and electronic (radar) vehicles. Vehicles can now be detected and classified,” said Sophie Hugh. Preligence’s communications director wrote in an email to Defense News.
In addition to adding full-motion video collected by drones to the mix of data sources, developers are also looking to implement analysis of synthetic aperture radar images, Hue added.
The demand and development of drones, driven primarily by the Ukraine war, has ushered in a new era of cyber intelligence gathering.
To demonstrate the capabilities of its software, Preligens released its own images showing China carrying out major military infrastructure work at one of its naval bases in 2022.
The company’s ship detectors were also able to spot a Russian air-cushion landing craft stationed in Kaliningrad’s Baltiysk port in January 2022.
Elizabeth Gosselin Maro is Defense News’ Europe correspondent. She covers a wide range of topics related to military procurement and international security, and specializes in aviation reporting. She is based in Milan, Italy.
