About IMPETUS

The IMPETUS project, a Horizon 2020 project funded by the European Commission, was an innovative project with the aim of enhancing the resilience of cities in the face of security threats in public spaces. IMPETUS provided city authorities with new means to address security issues in public spaces using data gathered from a city-wide lattice of cameras, environmental sensors and multiple interconnected AI systems that control key infrastructures within a Smart City. IMPETUS helped protect citizens against the unethical use of personal data and did facilitate threat detection by assisting with physical and cyber security management.


The IMPETUS approach addressed three complementary but overlapping areas:

  • Technologies: use the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data analysis to integrate and develop the tools and processes allowing cities to manage both physical and cyber security
  • Ethics: ensure Smart City capabilities are developed for the benefit of its citizens and to balance potentially conflicting needs to collect, transform and share large amounts of data in accordance with data privacy
  • Processes: delivering a multi-tenant solution fully aligned with the cognitive processes, deployment guidelines and operational needs that support the decision making of multiple city stakeholders involved

 

The project built on tested technologies but enhanced and combined them in a coherent and user-centred solution that went beyond state-of-the-art in key areas such as detection, simulation & analysis and intervention.

The consortium consisted of 16 partners from 11 different European Union members and associated countries.  It brought together five research institutions, six specialist industrial and SME companies, three NGOs and two local municipalities. Major on-street trials were held in the municipal cities of Oslo, Norway and Padova, Italy. The consortium was complemented by COSSEC (Community of Safe and Secure Cities) - a group of end-users and other stakeholders who provided feedback on IMPETUS operations.