Critical infrastructure can often be vulnerable, and potential threats are very real, with many airports remaining on high alert in response to a broad range of factors.
The KRITIS Umbrella Act for the protection of critical infrastructures aims to ensure greater security for such areas, and will enter into force on 1 January 2026. The “real-life laboratory” testing area for Germany’s property protection and perimeter surveillance is at Mönchengladbach Airport (MGL).
At this field test location, autonomous security systems using security robots and drone-assisted property surveillance will begin testing from spring 2025. These are technologies that will also be represented at XPONENTIAL Europe, the trade fair for uncrewed systems and robotics held in Düsseldorf from 18 to 20 February 2025.
Notably, one of the security robots that will be on display at the trade show next year is the uRun. Weighing 73kg and equipped with four tyres with strong profiles, it can easily move through rough terrain.
It is capable of reacting extremely effectively to everything it detects on its route. Fitted with a heat sensor and optoelectronic ultra-vision, it can identify heat signatures of people or fire during its fence patrols, even at night.
When something is detected, uRun — manufactured by the United Robotics Group from Bochum — immediately notifies the control centre. According to David Osten, the innovation manager of Mönchengladbach Airport, the uRun’s first official trial patrols are scheduled for early 2025, and will span the length of a 1.5km fence.
Perimeter protection along the fencing of airports is a security-critical area, and could more accurately be called peri-kilometre protection. The aluminium, video-surveyed fence at Mönchengladbach is 8km long, but at the biggest continental airport in Frankfurt there is a fence around 40km long.
The Lower Rhine area has been chosen by aviation experts at other major airports, like Frankfurt and Dusseldorf, due to the already-present innovation hub for research and development in aviation technology and air mobility there.
MGL Managing Director Andreas Ungar, an aviation and aerospace engineer like Osten, said, “MGL has developed into a central real-life laboratory and research hub for the innovative operation of airports and sustainable air mobility.”
Real-Life Laboratory for Research & Development
20 years ago, it was planned for regional line operations to be handled from MGL, and the infrastructure there is from the same time period. Since its re-orientation as an airfield for research and development, or “real-life lab”, MGL has become a hub for new air mobility and the green aviation industry – climate neutral for its own operations, with charging infrastructure for e-drives and synthetic fuel station.
Ungar sums up the underlying rationale, “Energy efficiency and security on the ground, new mobility in the air. With our infrastructure we can validate new standards in real operations, standards that can be scaled up for international airports worldwide.”
The repositioning of MGL as a research airport has proven successful. One example is SkyCab II, a research project for air mobility headed by the University of Applied Sciences FH Aachen and funded by the Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and Transport.
In another project of the Smart City series, VTOL drones are tested for transporting medical samples between hospitals and laboratories over urban areas. The project SkyTRACKplus aims to develop a flight operations concept that sets an example for drone flight operations.
Drones Make a Major Contribution to Property Protection
When it comes to security, uRun’s first patrols are only the beginning. The project aims to draw up an integrated security system for property and perimeter protection at airports that also comprises the ground and air surveillance of the outer areas.
Dr. Gerald Wissel, chairman of the board of UAV DACH – Association for Unmanned Aviation, Europe’s biggest association for the drone industry and strategic partner of XPONENTIAL Europe, commented, “Here drones can render enormously valuable services – and more efficiently and sustainably in ecological terms than is possible with traditional technologies.”
He added that the “efficient operation and especially the reliable protection of critical infrastructure is at present probably more relevant than ever.”
In MGL, it looks as if the natural partner to deliver this is Germandrones. The company, founded by current CEO Dr. Klaus Scho in Berlin, has been operating one production unit at the MGL site since summer. The sector considers the Berliners – along with Quantum Systems – the technology and market leaders in this dynamically growing market.
Additionally, a key Germandrones investor is the CONDOR Group, an Essen-based company that specializes in security services for property and building surveillance as well as in air security and track construction security.
Cornelius Toussaint, managing partner of the CONDOR Group and Chairman of the Drone Committee in the Federal Association of the Security Industry (BDSW), said, “The combination of ground and air-borne robotics markedly contributes to enriching the situational pictures for emergency call and service control centre staff (certified by the VdS Property Insurance Association) with high-quality and real-time data.
“As a result, the control centre can undertake appropriate action at an early stage. In addition, the uncrewed systems can monitor and deliver tamper-proof documentation of police or our own interventions.”
Toussaint shares the committee tasks with Kupferer of Securiton Deutschland from the town of Achern in Baden. With its SecuriAgents (Robotics) on the ground and in the air as well as a broad counter-UAS portfolio for the Dome-Security concept, this company is also among the market leaders in the German drone security business.
Rising requirements and changing organisational structures call for security solutions that cater to both ground security and protection of airspace close to the ground. By combining various Securiton applications they create a type of Iron Dome above areas and buildings to be protected.
For such ground protection robotic security systems with video analysis are indispensable. Securiton offers the matching solutions for this depending on the use case.
Düsseldorf: The Ideal Destination for XPONENTIAL Europe
Malte Seifert, Director Metals & Autonomous Technologies at Messe Düsseldorf, commented, “The ongoing projects and developments show that North Rhine-Westphalia and the region between Rhine, Ruhr and Weser play a leading role in the development and deployment of uncrewed technology and robotics.
“The resulting cross connections are highly relevant to such application areas as security technology. We are delighted partners like Securiton GmbH, Germandrones and Mönchengladbach Airport use XPONENTIAL Europe as a technology platform.”
Seifert is responsible for XPONENTIAL Europe, which will debut in Düsseldorf next year. Focal topics of the trade fair are uncrewed systems and robotics.
EUROPEAN DRONE FORUM
XPONENTIAL Europe will be kicked off by the EUROPEAN DRONE FORUM, which already starts on the eve of the trade fair and will run on 17 and 18 February 2025.
Considered the most relevant European platform for the dialogue between the UAS industry and regulators, the Forum is organised by UAV DACH – Association for Unmanned Aviation, Europe’s largest professional association for the drone industry.
UAV DACH is a strategic partner of XPONENTIAL Europe. With the leading international industry association AUVSI, EXPONENTIAL Europe can also count on the world’s most relevant professional association for uncrewed aviation as a partner.
