INOV
INOV is one of Portugal’s leading applied-research institutes in Information, Communication and Electronic Technologies, specializing in advanced system engineering, technology development, and innovation transfer. It supports national authorities and industry with high-impact R&D, delivering operational solutions and expertise across critical and emerging technological domains.
SMART-CONNECT in wildfire management
CICLOPE is a ground-based wildfire surveillance and monitoring system that helps detect and locate emerging fires, raise alarms, and support the coordination of first responders through shared information between surveillance sites and command centres. It was developed by INOV 20 years ago and is now the system used by the Portuguese authorities in wildfire monirtoring. In Portugal alone, it covers around 4 million hectares and is also deployed internationally, making it one of the largest systems of its kind in Europe.
In SMART-CONNECT, INOV leads the Portuguese Wildfires Pilot in the Leiria region.
Wildfires often happen in difficult terrain, where traditional mobile networks can fail, limiting CICLOPE’s operation and possibly compromising the flow of critical information just when teams need it most. SMART-CONNECT helps CICLOPE tackle this challenge by introducing smarter, more resilient connectivity, including the ability to switch automatically between available communication networks and use satellite connectivity as a fallback when other networks are unavailable.
At the same time, it allows a better use of whatever connection is available. Instead of “all or nothing” data transfer, CICLOPE can adapt, sending what is most important first (for example, essential operational information and the most relevant video or imagery), even when bandwidth is limited.
The Leiria pilot will test how the SMART-CONNECT-enhanced CICLOPE supports real operations across different conditions: mobile surveillance towers and drones operating in areas with strong, weak, or no mobile signal; fixed towers using SMART-CONNECT as a communications backup; and tactical command vehicles receiving and sharing information in the field.
SMART-CONNECT is also opening the door for CICLOPE to combine local sensing (towers and drones) with new space-based information sources, such as satellite imagery and services that help describe what is happening on the ground in clearer, more actionable ways. This includes better monitoring of burned area and fire-front evolution and improving the shared “operational picture” that commanders rely on for decisions.
Furthermore, INOV is developing a system for the Portuguese Criminal Police (Polícia Judiciária) as a Smart-Connect evolution, that will deliver a unified common tactical picture to the police officers on the field, bringing situational awareness by combining IoT sensors (cameras, drones, geolocation beacons) with satellite data (images).
Law-enforcement operations often unfold in remote, low-connectivity environments, where police teams must surveil, pursue, and detain in high-risk conditions. These operations demand complex coordination, in which the access to georeferenced images and videos combined with satellite information and reliable connectivity are crucial aspects for success of operations. The system will integrate some of the developed Smart-Connect technologies, namely the automatic switching between available networks (terrestrial and satcomm) as well as the intelligent data compression mechanisms.