Standardised procedures for evaluating PIDS — An update

The UK Home Office Scientific Development Branch, in partnership with the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, has been developing a suite of standards for the testing of barrier-mounted, ground-based, free-standing and rapidly deployable Perimeter Intruder Detection Systems (PIDS). These standards allow different technologies to be compared on a performance basis. Progress on development of these standards and subsequent evaluations is discussed. Particular emphasis is given to the new standard for rapidly deployable PIDS and the current ongoing trial of several free-standing PIDS, using a purpose-built evaluation area. The evaluation area is comprised of 100 m long, 7 m wide tarmac and gravel strips, which run parallel to each other and allow a comparison of the performance of the same PIDS technology types over different surfaces. This will be the first free-standing PIDS evaluation conducted against the newly developed evaluation standard. It is expected to yield results on the effects that different surfaces may have on the performance of free-standing PIDS.