“Our ambition is to develop technologies that have a real impact – whether in the field of defense, security or critical infrastructure. Defence Research Day showed that university research can bring concrete solutions that can be used in practice and at the same time strengthen the technological sovereignty of the Czech Republic. Investments in research also have a demonstrable multiplier effect – they return not only in the form of security, but also in economic growth, innovation and competitiveness,” said the Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at CTU, Prof. Petr Páta.
Autonomy for unmanned platforms: cooperation between research and industry The Defence Research Day event at CTU Faculty of Electrical Engineering presented research activities in the field of autonomous systems for unmanned ground vehicles, focused on their deployment in demanding conditions in the defense and civilian sectors. CTU Faculty of Electrical Engineering is dedicated to this area through research led by Prof. Jan Faigl at the Department of Computer Science in the Laboratory of Computational Robotics (CRL). Research activities focus mainly on autonomous control, navigation and decision-making algorithms, including in the context of national and European projects. Cooperation with the state-owned enterprise VOP CZ plays an important role in this regard, enabling the verification and further development of these methods on advanced unmanned platforms designed for deployment in demanding conditions. These devices serve as a testing and validation basis for transferring research results into practice. Platforms such as TAROS 6×6 developed by VOP CZ represent modular multi-purpose devices usable for a wide range of tasks – from reconnaissance and monitoring to logistical support to deployment in crisis situations. Cooperation with VOP CZ contributes to expanding the application potential of the developed autonomy methods and their application in a wider range of scenarios. TAROS fits into the rapidly developing European trend of unmanned systems and shows that Czech research and industry in this area are keeping pace and that together they can develop technologies with a direct impact on safety. From simulation to command: virtual reality in security operations Researchers from the Department of Computer Graphics and Interaction are developing technologies that fundamentally transform the preparation and management of operations in security and defense scenarios.
The team of Prof. Jiří Žára and Dr. David Sedláček is working on the use of virtual reality for the training of explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), where complex situations associated with the identification and disposal of unexploded ordnance can be safely simulated. The virtual environment allows for training in decision-making processes, work with detection tools, and control of specialized robots, to a scale that would be difficult to implement in real conditions in terms of time, finances, and safety. The second HOLO-Swarm project, created in cooperation with the Multi-Robotic Systems Group of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, CTU, and the company QuaternAR, brings a new concept of the so-called holographic control room. Using augmented reality, it allows you to display the situation in the field as an interactive 3D model, which projects data on the movement of units, such as drone swarms, their status or planned routes. Users can share this data, analyze it and directly influence the course of the operation in real time. AR RESCUE: augmented reality and biomonitoring for interventions in CBRN environments The AR RESCUE project also attracted attention at the event, which connects vital signs sensors, detection of hazardous substances and augmented reality to support intervention units. The system is designed for firefighters, military units and other units intervening in CBRN environments, i.e. in situations associated with chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear threats. Its goal is to provide responders with key information in real time about their own condition, the condition of their colleagues and the dangers in the surrounding area, without unnecessary overload or distraction. Important warnings are displayed in the augmented reality visor on the helmet, while the intervention commander can monitor more detailed data in a specialized application. The system was designed to work even with poor connectivity and to distract its users as little as possible. At the Defence Research Day, the team led by Prof. Miroslav Bureš from the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems Testing at the Department of Computer Science presented working versions of individual hardware components of the system, including sensors and the visor. The project thus clearly illustrated that security technologies are not created only for “combat” scenarios in the narrow sense of the word, but also for the protection of people in extremely dangerous interventions, where time, accurate information and the ability to function even in an environment with limited communication are crucial. AR RESCUE also well represented one of the long-term strengths of the FEE CTU: the ability to connect informatics, electronics, sensors, user interface and end-user needs into a functional system with real application potential. When Systems Degrade: How to Prevent Surprising Disruptions or Failures Another presentation from the group around Prof. Miroslav Bureš focused on the reliability and safety of systems in a state of degradation. The researchers focus on situations where complex systems used in the field of critical infrastructure, IRS or defense, they face outages, disruptions, partial damage or cyberattacks. At such times, it is not enough to rely on an ideal operating model - it is necessary to be able to identify scenarios in advance in which unexpected failures or disruptions may occur, and to prepare for them. The presented method uses intentionally simple, explainable models and transparent AI algorithms to make it possible not only to detect risky situations, but also to understand them and explain them to the operator. It is this clarity that is essential in security and defense practice. The operator or commander does not just need to “exit the black box”, but must know why a certain condition is risky and what consequences it may have. The demonstration focused on two real examples with anonymized situation models, which illustrated how this method can be used to detect possible surprises that could have unpleasant or even fatal consequences in live operation of the system. This direction has shown another important level of FEE research: not only the development of individual devices, but also the analysis of the behavior of entire systems in crisis conditions. ALICE: mapping the information space Scientists from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, CTU, are developing tools based on artificial intelligence that allow them to analyze the information space as a full-fledged operational environment. The ALICE project, led by Assoc. Prof. Tomáš Pevný from the Department of Computer Science, focuses on mapping the spread of information on social networks, identifying their sources, and detecting coordinated or automated campaigns. It uses a combination of machine learning, language models, and statistical methods to track how information is created, how it spreads between individual accounts, and how it changes over time. The result is a structured view of the information environment that allows for the identification of influential actors and understanding the dynamics of the spread of specific narratives across platforms.
The project connects academic research with practical use – it is being created in cooperation with the company Gerulata, which integrates the developed methods into tools for security institutions. These enable large volumes of data to be converted into a clear form and significantly accelerate the analysis of the information space, which would otherwise take weeks or months. ALICE thus shows that the information space can be systematically "read" using modern AI methods and that the ability to understand how information spreads and who influences it is becoming a key part of today's security and resilience of society. Drones without GPS, secure communication and European platforms of the new generation A prominent area of the presentation was autonomous drones, which are being developed at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering of CTU, in particular by the Multi-Robotic Systems Group (MRS) from the Department of Cybernetics. Visitors were introduced to technologies that enable drone flight in an environment without GNSS, swarm coordination systems and approaches that increase the security of communication and the credibility of the components used. Researchers have shown that in the conditions of modern conflict, it is no longer possible to rely on the continuous availability of satellite navigation or uninterrupted communication with the operator, and therefore the development is moving towards higher autonomy, faster response to changes in the environment and securing robotic platforms against takeover or misuse. The recent dynamic flight demonstration of a drone swarm highlighted that the MRS group led by Prof. Martin Saska is working on both secure European drones for the protection of critical infrastructure and dynamic swarms inspired by the collective behavior of birds. Research in this area focuses not only on the flight itself and the coordination of multiple machines, but also on zero trust principles, secure on-board computers, flight control units and secure communication, as well as on the development of platforms that are not dependent on risky supply chains. The issue of protection against drones and drone swarms also plays a significant role. The combination of GNSS-free autonomy, cybersecurity and trusted hardware forms one of the strongest defense domains of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of the Czech Technical University. The result is not only laboratory demonstrations, but also technologies with a direct impact on the ability of the Czech armed forces and security forces to operate in an environment of strong interference or electronic warfare. Department of Measurement: Gunshots, GPS Jamming, Localization and Secure Authentication A strong and very diverse stand was prepared by the Department of Measurement, which has been developing sensors, measurement technology, diagnostics and data transmission systems for security and defense applications for a long time. The key exhibit was a system for acoustic gunshot detection and localization, which uses autonomous sensor units equipped with microphones and a central evaluation unit with a software application. The measured signal is processed by advanced algorithms and classifiers using AI so that it is possible to distinguish gunshots from ambient noise and minimize false alarms. A demonstrator of a security acoustic sensor for indoor environments and a device for safe and automatic collection of acoustic signals without the need for an operator were presented on site. In addition to acoustic detection, the department also showed a handheld GPS jamming detector, which allows detecting local interference in the L1 GPS and Galileo E1 band, both in omnidirectional and directional mode. Systems for locating IZS members and security forces in complex spaces with or without GNSS were also presented, including wearable components, inertial system boots, radar and communication modules and a base station. The practical portfolio was complemented by a device for suppressing audio recording on mobile phones and Lion Key hardware based on FIDO2 for secure authentication. The stand showed how widely modern measurement and signal processing can be used from the battlefield to critical infrastructure and public safety. The research of the Department of Measurement is also complemented by a project by Prof. Jan Holub supported by the NATO Chief Scientist Grants, which focuses on the quality and reliability of voice communication in secure low-bit channels. It shows that even apparent details – such as differences in the transmission of female and male voices – can have a direct impact on the intelligibility of communication, operator fatigue and the risk of errors in security and defense applications.
VRAS: Helhest and robots in complex terrain Researchers Prof. Tomáš Svoboda and Assoc. Prof. Karel Zimmermann from the Vision for Robots and Autonomous Systems (VRAS) group presented their research focused on estimating the behavior of robots in non-trivial environments based on camera images and lidar data. For ground robots, they focus on predicting the trajectory and terrain properties in environments with vegetation, sand, mud or partially pliable surfaces; for drones, on predicting the trajectory and wind around obstacles. These capabilities are essential in situations where teleoperation is disrupted and GNSS is not available. In such an environment, the robot must estimate itself what it can afford, how to move safely and how to react to terrain or flow that cannot be easily described in advance. The research background of the VRAS group at the Department of Cybernetics also resulted in the autonomous robot for difficult terrain Helhest, which was created as the first robotic spin-off of CTU. The durable Helhest can function even after being overturned, move without GPS based only on passive sensors and aims to be used in both civilian and military scenarios. At the same time, it shows that some results of university research are already moving from the laboratory phase to the commercial environment. The Defence Research Day thus offered not only a view of current research, but also how it can become a marketable product. E-Shaper and F-Tester: how to test networks under interference conditions The Department of Telecommunications Technology presented two technologies focused on network resilience: measurement and diagnostics of TCP/IP networks including voice and emulation of TCP/IP networks using the E-Shaper system. The F-Tester system enables qualitative measurement of networks in bands below 6 GHz and above 20 GHz and, newly, also evaluating the suitability of networks for voice and applications in real time. This is particularly important because more and more defense technologies rely on mobile 5G networks or satellite communications such as Starlink. Dr. Zbyněk Kocur, as the main developer, also emphasized that these are realistically deployable devices that are ready not only for measurement, but also for integration and operator training.
The second pillar of the stand was the E-Shaper, a tool for emulating the behavior of various transmission technologies and communication systems. In practice, it is often impossible to test everything in a real environment, and this is where emulation has a fundamental value: it can simulate physical obstacles, interference, hardware and software problems and other factors that affect communication in defense operations. According to the documents, the technology was also modified for deployment in the Little Moon City Prague project and was supplemented at the stand with the Edu BOX, which combines emulation with active network testing. The entire stand showed that communication resilience is not only a question of infrastructure, but also of the ability to credibly simulate crisis conditions and prepare technology and people for them. Cybersecurity Center: from audit to training and certification The Cybersecurity Center of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology of the Czech Technical University was also strongly represented at the event, presenting its comprehensive services. These range from expert consulting and analysis of IT system resilience to recommendations for meeting regulatory requirements, such as NIS2, to systematic education and preparation for international certifications. The Netacad group of Dr. Jaroslav Burčík from the Department of Telecommunications Engineering is the only academic partner of CompTIA in the Czech Republic and emphasizes practical, understandable and Czech-led training. In the context of defense and security, this is important not only for state administration, but also for critical infrastructure and companies involved in the defense sector. The Faculty of Engineering and Technology of the Czech Technical University has previously reported, for example, on the strategic cooperation of the Cybersecurity Center with the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic, which included security status analysis, employee training and pilot student internships. At Defence Research Day, the centre did not act only as a “cybersecurity trainer”, but as a partner that connects education, auditing, resilience building and practical competence building. This appropriately complemented the other technical demonstrators: modern defense is not only based on robots and sensors, but also on people, processes and the ability of organizations to respond to digital threats.