International airports face a persistent operational challenge: ensuring effective customs control of incoming luggage and intercepting contraband amidst steadily rising passenger volumes, limited human resources, and tight operational time windows.
To address this challenge without imposing additional staffing burden on operations, the BAG-INTEL consortium engineered an integrated, AI-driven operational ecosystem combining high-throughput contraband detection, visual luggage re-identification, real-time risk scoring, automated decision support, and secure deployment capabilities.
With the research and demonstration phases now successfully completed, the project partners are actively seeking opportunities to exploit and commercialize project results and transition these innovations into practical, long-term deployment across customs environments.
Exploitation Roadmap & Result Consolidation
To chart a clear path from research to market, the BAG-INTEL consortium followed a structured, step-by-step exploitation process:
- Identification: The consortium identified 20 individual Exploitable Results generated across the various project tasks.
- Analysis: Each result underwent a comprehensive evaluation combining quantitative analysis of innovation maturity, exploitability, and potential impact with a qualitative examination of technological dependencies, ownership, stakeholder needs, and market opportunities.
- Consolidation: Based on these evaluations, the 20 individual Exploitable Results were consolidated into four Key Exploitable Result (KER) Bundles, representing the primary functional layers of the BAG-INTEL solution.
Discover the Four Key Exploitable Results Bundles
KER 1: Customs Bag-Risk Assessment & Real-Time Decision Support Suite
- Consortium Contributors: Led by Legind Technologies, with contributions from EXUS, University of Granada, and National Institute of Applied Sciences of Rouen.
- Core Value & Impact: Transforms fragmented, multi-source data feeds into structured, traceable, and legally defensible inspection decisions in real time. By automating complex risk indicator aggregation and connection analysis, it enables customs officers to focus attention exclusively on high-risk targets.
- Commercialization & Exploitation: Delivered as a flexible software suite available under site-, module-, or user-based licensing models, backed by system customization, workflow integration, and annual support. Designed for on-premises or private-cloud deployment to align with national data sovereignty standards.
KER 2: AI-Based Luggage Re-identification & Tracking System
- Consortium Contributors: Powered by the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA)‘s AI re-identification pipeline, Legind Technologies‘ AI4bagReID, National Institute of Applied Sciences of Rouen‘s probabilistic matching algorithms, and CCTV setup expertise from CEA and PSI.
- Core Value & Impact: BAG-INTEL’s most distinctive result that solves the critical operational gap between initial bag scanning and physically intercepting a suspect at the exit. The system tracks flagged luggage through existing airport CCTV infrastructure without physical tags or visible markings, ensuring passengers remain completely unaware their bag has been selected for inspection.
- Commercialization & Exploitation: High-value commercial offering flexible across per-airport, per-zone, or video stream licenses, subscription-based AI-as-a-Service, site design/calibration consulting, and licensing of the specialized OPBM methodology.
KER 3: Advanced Contraband Detection System
- Consortium Contributors: Owned and driven by Smiths Detection.
- Core Value & Impact: Combines high-resolution CT and X-ray scanning hardware with AI-assisted detection algorithms designed to rapidly identify narcotics, concealed items, and illicit goods. Operates seamlessly within tight passenger handling windows, feeding automated detection alerts directly into the Risk Suite (KER 1) and triggering visual tracking (KER 2).
- Commercialization & Exploitation: Aligned directly with SDE’s scanning solution portfolio. Offered as complete scanner packages or as a cost-effective software/hardware retrofit for existing airport scanner bases, accompanied by algorithm licensing, maintenance, and retraining services for emerging threat types.
KER 4: Integrated Digital Twin, Knowledge & Secure Deployment Layer
- Consortium Contributors: Driven by Legind Technologies (Integrated Customs Information System), STAM (Customs Management Decision Support System), University of Granada (Knowledge Graph Database and Intelligent Analysis), and Netcompany (CI/CD methodologies, encryption, and secure deployment).
- Core Value & Impact: Serves as the foundational architecture that unifies all BAG-INTEL components into a single, secure, and maintainable operational system. It enables customs authorities to model deployment scenarios via digital twin simulation, perform scenario analysis, streamline legacy system integration through knowledge graphs, and enforce strict cybersecurity and continuous delivery (CI/CD) standards.
- Commercialization & Exploitation: A service-led offering combining core platform licensing with integration, customization, and full software lifecycle support. Functions as the primary mechanism to de-risk procurement and deployment for public authorities.
Interoperable Power & Flexible Deployment
While each Key Exploitable Result Bundle solves a distinct operational challenge, their full power is unlocked when operating together as a modular, end-to-end customs intelligence engine.
Customs authorities can activate the full ecosystem or deploy individual KER Bundles, matching their existing airport infrastructure, technological maturity, and procurement priorities.
Partnering & Detailed Documentation
Now that the research and demonstration phases have concluded, consortium partners welcome inquiries regarding partnership, piloting, technology transfer, and commercial licensing.
For in-depth analysis regarding risk evaluation, site-specific calibration, data governance mapping, indicative pricing models, and IP ownership details, please consult our final public exploitation roadmap:
📄 Download D6.5: Standardisation, Exploitation and Sustainability Final Roadmap (PDF)
To get in contact with the Project Team, please complete the form below, specifying whether you are interested in the complete BAG-INTEL ecosystem or a specific technology bundle. Your request will be directed to the corresponding lead organization.