SwarmCatcher: An AI-Powered Anti-Drone Surveillance System for Public Safety Over 5G and Beyond Ecosystems

The proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) presents significant challenges to public safety and critical infrastructure protection. This paper introduces SwarmCatcher, an innovative AI-powered anti-drone and surveillance system designed to detect and classify UAV threats in real-time. Swarm-Catcher integrates multi-sensor technologies, including optical, thermal, RF, and acoustic systems, with advanced AI algorithms to provide thorough situational awareness. Utilizing the low-latency, high-throughput capabilities of cloud-native architecture and 5G networks, the system supports scalable deployment across diverse environments, offering rapid threat mitigation. Real trials were conducted, utilizing 5G infrastructures in the FIDAL and CERTH testbeds, evaluating and demonstrating SwarmCatcher's potential to address the requirements of public safety agencies and pave the way for integration with 6G networks. The paper investigates SwarmCatcher's architecture, key performance metrics, and its role in advancing next-generation vertical-specific applications for public safety.