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GSN Magazine June 2016 Digital Edition

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NUI Galway has received Horizon 2020<br />

EU funding for ROCSAFE ITC using software<br />

and robots to gather evidence of chemical,<br />

biological or nuclear incidents<br />

<strong>June</strong> 20, <strong>2016</strong>: A team led by NUI<br />

Galway has been awarded €4.8<br />

Million in Horizon 2020 EU funding<br />

for their project ROCSAFE<br />

(Remotely Operated CBRNe<br />

Scene Assessment & Forensic<br />

Examination), which will use robotics<br />

and intelligent reasoning<br />

to gather forensic evidence in the<br />

event of a chemical, biological or<br />

nuclear incident.<br />

Led by Dr Michael Madden<br />

from the College of Engineering<br />

& Informatics at NUI Galway,<br />

the ROCSAFE project will focus<br />

on developing ICT and Security<br />

software to gather forensic intelligence<br />

in the event of a terrorist<br />

attack.<br />

ROCSAFE’s overall goal is<br />

to fundamentally change how<br />

CBRNe (chemical, biological,<br />

radiological and nuclear defense<br />

events) are assessed, and ensure<br />

the safety of crime scene investigators,<br />

by reducing the need for them<br />

to enter dangerous scenes to gather<br />

evidence.<br />

There are 13 SME and institutional<br />

partners in total involved in the<br />

NUI Galway Students<br />

ROCSAFE project across Ireland,<br />

Italy, Portugal, Spain and Germany,<br />

along with a wider set of advisory<br />

board members. This includes Scorpion<br />

Networks Ltd. an SME responsible<br />

for a handheld CBNRE platform<br />

project success under the last<br />

32<br />

EU funding round FP7.<br />

CBRNe accidents or terrorist attacks<br />

are a low probability but of<br />

high consequence. In the aftermath<br />

of a CBRNe event, the principles<br />

that govern the response<br />

mission are:<br />

• Protection of Life<br />

• Elimination/Reduction of Threat<br />

• Protection of Property<br />

• Preservation of Evidence<br />

• Restoration of Normal Activities<br />

ROCSAFE focuses specifically on<br />

three of these principles: the protection<br />

of life, the elimination/<br />

reduction on of the threat, and<br />

the preservation of evidence. By<br />

building a mobile remotely operated<br />

system, ROCSAFE can protect<br />

personnel by removing the<br />

need for them to go on-scene to<br />

identify threats, detect the presence<br />

of forensic material, and collect forensic<br />

material.<br />

In order to safely respond to a<br />

threat, it must first be identified. To<br />

do this, the scientific team will adapt<br />

robotic air and ground vehicles to

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