newsSpring 2014

#37

www.sea.co.uk

What’s inside04 Bespoke Information System Development for Network Rail

05 Human Factors at work

06 Augmented Reality in the Real World

Defence Virtual Simulation ITEAP

07 Delivering Dismounted Effect

08 Support and Charity work

The only complete solution to traffic enforcement

ROADflow two page special (pages 2 - 3)

ROADflow reduces dangerous parking outside schools

Next generation of ROADflow enforcement cameras SEA launches its next generation of ROADflow enforcement cameras at Intertraffic 2014 in Amsterdam.

Designed to meet the needs of major cities, SEA’s new generation of enterprise-class ROADflow bus lane enforcement camera capability, ROADflow Flexi-HD will address the complex challenges of traffic enforcement in major cities. It builds on the advanced capabilities of existing ROADflow cameras to support deployment within large networked systems.

ROADflow is an automated enforcement system that uses ALPR (automatic license plate recognition) to deter violators from misuse of bus lanes, keeping these vital lanes free for public transport and emergency vehicles. The result is reduced traffic congestion making bus travel faster and more reliable and greater surety that emergency vehicles can respond quickly to an incident.

Automatic enforcement in major cities is not easy given varied the physical arrangements for bus lanes and the complex rules surrounding when a vehicle is permitted to enter a bus lane or not, allowing turns or passenger curb-side drop offs. SEA uniquely addresses these challenges through use of a sophisticated Traffic Rules Engine TM embedded in its new ROADflow Flexi-HD camera system. The Traffic Rules Engine TM in real time captures and analyses information from multiple camera locations to accurately identify violations.

The new and improved ROADflow Flexi-HD camera system now includes High Definition imagery capability to better deal with a wide range of lighting conditions and to enhance the

verification of key vehicle details including make, model, colour and state marking.

ROADflow Flexi-HD has been specifically designed for large installations in the world’s major cities with built-in remote diagnostics and online condition health monitoring features. This allows a centralised service centre to efficiently manage the entire network of cameras in timely manner to ensure effective operation.

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High definition images make it easier to verify violating vehicles

ROADflow reduces dangerous parking outside schoolsA principal reason for adoption of mobile enforcement by local authorities has been improvements to road safety.

The AXA Roadsafe Schools Report, published June 2013 showed there have been 557,200 collisions near schools over six years. Mobile approved devices have been shown to be extremely effective in reducing dangerous parking outside of schools and other “no stopping” areas, such as pedestrian crossings, where the use of a Civil Enforcement Officer is not practical. Indeed, there is widespread public approval for such systems, when adequately publicised.

•Overall, there have been 557,200 vehicle collisions near schools over 6 years;

•There are, on average, six collisions per school per year;

•There have been a total of 130,659 pedestrian casualties – that’s 21,777 per year;

•37 per cent of local school areas have had at least one child casualty each year;

•85,814 children have been casualties on local roads around British schools – equating to as many as 1,190 every month;

•Fortunately, 5,831 schools (20 per cent) have reported no child casualties in the past six years.

Figures from a report by AXA Car Insurance

If you are interested in trialling a ROADflow system free of charge please contact us

roadflow@sea.co.uk or 01373 852 022

Wherever you look, there appears to be a backlash against camera enforcement systems; yet some local authorities have been more successful than others in gaining public support for parking enforcement cameras, and there is increasing interest in promoting best practice to ensure mobile and bus lane enforcement systems maintain a positive impact for our communities.

As the leading parking enforcement camera provider in the UK, SEA has taken the initiative through its ROADflow User Group meetings to establish a forum where Parking Managers can share experiences - both good and bad – to develop and promote best practice across the industry.

SEA’s Customer Support Manager, Les Finnemore, believes the benefits gained by customers openly sharing their experiences are clear. He explained “ROADflow users have shown that negative publicity, generated by recent news stories, can largely be overcome by applying attention to detail at the planning and policy stages, and by focussing on big improvements in safety and sustainable transport targets”.

ROADflow customers have seen between 30% and 80% improvement in motorist behaviour, up to 5 minutes improvement in public transport times and significant reductions in school and bus passenger injuries. Yet very rarely are these benefits publicised.

SEA’s ROADflow User Groups are designed to:

• Build parking management relationships and partnerships;

• Develop and share best practice;

• Improve industry and external perception of enforcement technology benefits;

• Help understand evolving customer needs and priorities

The next User Group meetings are currently being planned for Spring/Summer 2014. For further information, contact the ROADflow team on 01373 852000 or email roadflow@sea.co.uk

Leading the way on enforcement best practice There is little doubt that television and newspaper headlines continue to love attention-grabbing slogans such as “Parking Mad” and “Highway Robbery”.

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Top Ten Best Practices in Parking Camera Enforcement

10 Share experiences, good and bad, and be open to making

further improvements based on lessons learnt.

1 Create a sound implementation plan highlighting improved road

safety and sustainable transport objectives.

2 Show transparency through early and regular media

engagement.

3 Ensure camera enforcement is only used where Civil

Enforcement Officer (CEO) based enforcement is sensitive, difficult, impractical or in a remote location.

4 Ensure a detailed enforcement policy and code of practice is in

place and published.

5 Ensure sufficient and appropriate signage in place wherever

cameras are used.

6 Support Tribunal appeals with clear statements on policy,

approved device certification, signs and road markings, library photos and video evidence.

7 Ensure signs, road markings and policy documentation are

regularly reviewed for validity and accuracy.

8 Avoid criticism of double standards by not parking

mobile enforcement vehicles in contravention to the regulations in force.

9 Provide online access to stills and video footage enabling

appellants to view evidence before deciding whether to appeal.

engineering for success

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Bespoke Information System Development for Network RailNROL3 (Network Rail Online Logistics) is a business critical, time-sensitive web application developed by SEA and used by Network Rail, its contractors and suppliers for the ordering, planning and performance management of heavy resources e.g. material delivery & recovery trains, on-track machines, seasonal treatment trains, track monitoring trains.

Over £800m of resources and more than 46,000 trains per annum are currently managed through NROL3 by Network Rail’s National Delivery service (NDS), engineering contractors and train haulage operators.

NROL3 currently has around 1750 active users both internal and external to Network Rail and supports significant concurrent usage.

NROL3 enables the highly complex process required to ensure that resources reach the right destination on time, while fitting around passenger schedules, and re-planning when the unavoidable delays occur.

Deployed on the complex Network Rail IT estate, NROL 3 is integrated with numerous existing and new Network Rail applications, including the E-Business Suite, Train Management System, Possession Planning System and Train Planning System, to provide comprehensive planning, controlling, reviewing and reporting functions.

Built specifically to meet Network Rail’s requirements using ORACLE, IBM and Adobe technologies, NROL3 provides an Enterprise grade Rich Internet Application with heavily customised interface and workflow that meets the end user’s unique requirements utilising Network Rail’s Group Business Services strategic technology toolset.

Image by James Barke.

more than 46,000 trains per annum are currently

managed through NROL3

www.sea.co.uk | 05

The first project deals with very real and important human factors integration challenge: identifying the key factors to be addressed in order to achieve successful integration of personnel into military vehicles. Aimed at the current acquisition programmes and vehicle upgrades, SEA is working in cooperation with the Dutch research organisation TNO and SEA’s sister Cohort company, SCS. This work examines the present human performance, safety and comfort challenges associated with current equipment and design concepts, and investigates how emerging technologies, e.g. advanced sensor systems, could impact such human-system integrations in the future.

The second project, a much shorter study, involves SEA working with DIEM Consulting, TNO and HFE Solutions. It directly supports broader Dstl C4ISTAR work investigating how to enhance and optimise the human contribution within command management and decision making tasks. The focus of this study is on understanding why existing technologies, developed as support tools, might not be providing the level of utility on operations anticipated at the design stage. The project team are exploring a range of human factors that could contribute to this e.g. usability, training, doctrine and procedures with a goal to develop guidance that helps ensure relevant human considerations are incorporated into future Command and Control (C2) requirements across the Defence Lines of Development (DLODs).

The final project, a much more strategic piece, is part of the DHCSTC Training theme and is investigating training-related considerations within Through Life Capability Management (TLCM). Working in collaboration with SVGC, Corda and TFD Europe, the primary objective is to identify the processes, tools and guidance needed to ensure that the Training Line of Development (TLOD) is fully considered by the Front Line Commands and DE&S as they manage through life capability. This will involve the team identifying the TLOD SQEP requirements and associated Defence Staff competencies, and developing trial interventions to address specific challenges identified. SEA’s contribution is focussed primarily on identifying the required staff competencies to make such TLOD capability management effective.

Human Factors at workSEA’s Human Factors team continues its long-standing involvement in the MOD’s research programmes. Members of the team are currently working on a three projects funded through the Defence Human Capability Science and Technology centre (DHCSTC: www.defencehumancapabilty.com) that together illustrate the breadth of the SEA’S human factors capability and the range of collaborative work undertaken.

Augmented Reality in the Real WorldAs prime contractor for the Joint Focus Experimentation 3 (JFX3) project for the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), SEA, with its project partners CGI and QinetiQ, is leading research into Augmented Reality (AR) technologies for Defence.

The team recently conducted a field evaluation of AR technologies, which aim to ‘augment’ a user’s real world environment with valuable supplementary information.

The JFX3 project is being conducted as part of the Dstl Synthetic Environments (SE) Tower of Excellence programme, which enables the Ministry of Defence (MOD), industry and academia to work together to build capability through research into future training and

simulation needs.

The field evaluation of AR technologies was completed in early September 2013, with Dstl providing a trials area and support staff. The evaluation assessed how AR could be used to support soldiers in a range of tasks, such as navigation in day and night conditions, directional cueing and threat avoidance. The AR technologies evaluated included visual displays, audio augmentation and a novel prototype haptic belt device provided by Affective State. SEA also developed a ‘see-through’ vehicle concept, whereby passengers in the rear of a Land Rover were provided with an augmented view of the outside world via a 360° camera system linked to a number of displays using COTS Android tablets.

The performance of each of the AR technologies was assessed against the current baseline for each task. For example, did the use of AR provide any benefits for navigation over the use of a map, compass and GPS locator? The operator workload and usability of the technologies was

also assessed. The project team has now analysed the results of the field evaluation and initial insights were presented to stakeholders at a presentation day at the Defence Academy, Shrivenham, in early October.

SEA is now investigating how AR technologies could be employed to support other Defence applications and markets.

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SEA has vast experience in ITEA planning covering multiple domains and platforms, applying our systems engineering experience of designing a variety of sensors, instrumentation and communication equipment. Together with our deep knowledge of the MOD’s Acquisition Operating Framework this enables us to develop practical ITEA plans which add real value to the successful delivery of programmes.

Defence Virtual Simulation ITEAPSEA is delighted to be selected by MOD DE&S to develop and deliver the Defence Virtual Simulation (DVS) Integrated Test, Evaluation and Acceptance Plan (ITEAP) for the Training and Simulation Systems Programme.

The JFX3 Augmented Reality (AR) field evaluation assessed visual, audio, haptic AR concepts and a see-through vehicle concept (Photographs: © Crown Copyright 2013)

www.sea.co.uk | 07

Over the last six months DDE has concentrated on ways to enhance the SA80 weapons system through power and data enablement. These enhancements will provide the SA80 with capabilities similar to the Colt Network Power and Data System (Colt NPDS) and will enable future STA concepts to become a reality. In support of this, SEA’s DDE team has been working on two system concepts that will, once fully developed, significantly improve the overall lethality of the British soldier:

•Collaborative targeting concepts help soldiers to pass target information to soldiers and assets enabling targets to be engaged more effectively;

•Targeting Support System (TSS) concepts seek to deliver weapons sights that enhances individual soldier DRI within the lethality system. The concept uses

automatic target detection and augmented points-of-aim to improve the probability of first and subsequent shots on target under challenging conditions. This work is the result of collaboration between Qioptiq and Chemring. It has exploited the hardware developed under the Digital Optical Weapons Sight (DOWS) demonstrator programme and also developed change detection software.

These concepts have been developed and tested using a number of war gaming methods, including rapid operational analysis and detailed system analysis to determine key requirements for technical research and inform on future capability acquisition and procurement activities.

Building on this, the 2014 programme will see DDE research produce a range of technical and concept demonstration

systems for future lethality capability and will culminate in support trials in the autumn.

The next three months will also see the development of the ‘Soldier Vision’ models. The vision is aimed at the future dismounted soldier in ten years and will be developed in accordance with Directorate Combat (D Cbt) plans for the current, funded (2014-2023), future (2023-2030) and concept (2030+) soldier. These models will provide the DCC research community with a contextual platform to present future soldier based research themes to the wider stakeholders. These physical mannequins will place the soldier at the centre of the research space and will act as pragmatic, realistic mechanisms to demonstrate what can be achieved based on maturing research and ‘commercial off the shelf’ technologies.

Delivering Dismounted EffectSEA’s successful Delivering Dismounted Effect (DDE) research programme continues to enhance the lethality of soldiers and is ready to embark upon exciting new challenges over the next two years.

To help meet the challenges of the next two years, SEA is pleased to announce the appointment of three new additions to its Research & Technical Support (RTS) Team; Peter Warden, Laurence Bedford and Edmund Bennett.

Peter has joined SEA from DE&S Abbey Wood where he was the Assistant Director Soldier Systems and Programme Manager for specialist dismounted capabilities. He was previously the Team

Leader for the Light Weapons IPT bringing into service a number of UORs and new weapon projects including the Sharpshooter rifle and the Glock 19 pistol. Prior to that he served with the Royal

Logistic Corps in a wide variety of jobs and operational tours, including Tactical Nuclear Missile support, the formation of 16 Air Assault Bde, Project Manager for the MAN Support Vehicle, Chief of Staff of the Counter Terrorist S&T Centre in DSTL as well as postings with the Royal Marines and Australian Army. Peter has taken over as RTS Programme Manager.

Laurence joined from Dstl, where he was a Military Advisor supporting trials and experimentation in land battlespace systems department investigating the

effects of soldier burden on agility and accuracy.

Laurence also worked on various projects as the Analysis for Dismounts and Soldier Performance Programmes providing specialist domain expertise. As an Army Officer, he spent 16 years in the Infantry, including Commanding Light Role Rifle Companies on Operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Northern Ireland and delivering Herrick 13 training at OPTAG. Laurence will provide DDE with DCC domain expertise.

Ed has joined SEA from Edinburgh University where he has just completed his PhD in Theoretical Physics. He will be working on the systems analysis and mathematical

modelling components of DDE.

Proud to support SOS & CHSWOver the last year SEA was delighted to be able to support both Save our Soldier and the Children’s Hospice South West in the fantastic work that they do.

Bristol Half MarathonA team of SEA employees also ran the Bristol half Marathon on behalf of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) who help stop our society’s most vulnerable and defenceless members being cruelly treated and abused. Through hard work and dedication in training the SEA team completed the half marathon in amazing times. The runners, Caroline Arrowsmith, Catherine Brogan, Cat Rees, Peter Binham, Derek Hacker and Stuart Robin, raised an amazing £2060.00 for the NSPCC.

Systems Engineering Assessment LtdBeckington Castle, 17 Castle CornerBeckington, Nr Frome, Somerset BA11 6TA

Telephone: +44 1373 852 000 Fax: +44 1373 831 133 Email: info@sea.co.uk

www.sea.co.uk

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Mo Bros and Mo SistasOur MOvember team was headed up by MO Sista’s Cat and Emily of the SEA charity committee and they mobilised large MOvember teams at both SEA offices. They played the all-important role of head MO Sista making sure all MOvember rules were followed, that donations kept coming in and that enthusiasm levels were kept high within each team. The result was a very wide range of different style MO’s grown throughout November, some much more frightening than the others! The SEA MOs can be congratulated for raising an incredible £2537 for the MOvember foundation.

a Cohort plc company

The fruits of the many and varied staff fund raising activities were presented to Lee Hayward of Save our Soldier and Janey Hellman of Children’s Hospice South West at the SEA Christmas party. Lee and Janey happily gave us a brief about each charity’s work which was much appreciated.

Wonderfully SEA staff managed to raise £25,000 for charitable causes during our anniversary year!

Andy Thomis, Chief Executive of Cohort, said:“I have been astounded by the feats of endurance that some have undertaken in raising extraordinary amounts for good causes in the process.”

Rob Marshall and Cat Rees presenting the cheques to our nominated charities.