Spotting Risks from 120 Meters Away: AIPro Emerges as the Sole Winner in KHNP’s AI Access Control PoC

Making High-Risk Dam Zones Safer with Long-Range Vision AI

Downstream areas around dams and hydroelectric power plants are inherently high-risk zones. When spillways open to release water, water levels surge rapidly—meaning any unauthorized civilian access along the waterside can quickly turn into a life-threatening emergency. Yet, relying solely on control room operators to manually monitor vast riverbanks 24/7 comes with obvious physical limitations.

To solve this challenge, AIPro, a specialist in AI video analytics, partnered with Bando Electric & Communications to participate in the "AI-Powered Intelligent Access Control System PoC (Proof of Concept) for Dam Downstream Areas" hosted by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP)

Among three competing technology providers, AIPro was the only company to successfully pass the rigorous field verification. While other solutions struggled with missed detections and frequent false positives over long distances, AIPro reliably detected human presence from 120 meters away, paving the way for full-scale commercial deployment in 2026.

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Preventing Spillway Accidents: Why Long-Range Detection Matters

The primary goal of this initiative was to automate the detection of civilians entering restricted waterside zones downstream of dams, giving control room staff early warnings before and during spillway discharges.

• Project Overview

  • Project Name: KHNP "Dam Downstream AI Intelligent Access Control System PoC"
  • Duration: June 20, 2024 – December 17, 2024
  • Project Proposer: Bando Electric & Communications Co., Ltd.
  • AI Technology Provider: AIPro Co., Ltd.
  • Verifying Authority: Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP)

• Core Objectives

  • Automatically detect civilian entry into high-risk dam downstream and waterside zones
  • Provide early risk alerts using AI-driven object detection
  • Assist control room operators and on-duty personnel with automated monitoring
  • Proactively prevent safety accidents during spillway water releases

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Three Contenders, One Winner: Proven Accuracy at 120 Meters

Downstream hydroelectric environments are notoriously tough for computer vision. Glare off the water, mist, swaying vegetation, and wide-open monitoring distances easily trip up standard AI models.

During KHNP’s head-to-head field evaluation of three vendors, competing systems failed to spot distant subjects or triggered constant false alarms. AIPro stood out as the sole provider to clear every verification benchmark.

• Reliable Detection at 120 Meters: Accurately identified small pixel-footprint human targets from 120 meters away without losing tracking stability.
• Two-Stage Real-World Validation: Proven performance across two separate operational sites—Uiam Hydroelectric Power Plant (Phase 1) and Goesan Hydroelectric Power Plant (Phase 2).

PoC Roadmap & Milestones

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Phase	Milestone Details	Date
Planning	Established PoC roadmap and execution strategy	June 20, 2024
Phase 1 Test	Successful object detection at Uiam Hydroelectric Power Plant	July 4, 2024
Phase 2 Test	Successful object detection at Goesan Hydroelectric Power Plant	December 17, 2024
Next Step	Full-Scale Project Deployment	2026

 

No Camera Replacements Needed: The Power of "Zero-to-One" Proprietary AI

What enabled AIPro to succeed where others fell short? The difference lies in our engineering philosophy. Rather than simply fine-tuning off-the-shelf foreign or open-source models, AIPro builds its core algorithms from scratch ("Zero-to-One").

• Zero-to-One In-House Architecture: Because we develop our AI engines from the ground up, we can deeply customize and tune our models to handle the specific environmental noise of each dam site.
• Seamless Legacy CCTV Integration: Our software plugs directly into the facility's existing CCTV infrastructure—eliminating the need for expensive hardware replacements and drastically cutting deployment costs.
• Specialized Long-Range Detection Algorithm: Engineered to extract precise feature data even from tiny, distant objects, effectively eliminating both missed detections and false alarms.

 

What This Means: Scaling from 120m to 240m Ultra-Long-Range Surveillance

Passing KHNP’s PoC as the sole qualified vendor proves that AIPro’s long-range video analytics meet the strict reliability standards of national critical infrastructure. With the main project rollout scheduled for 2026, this system is set to become a core pillar of smart safety management at hydroelectric facilities.

Building on this momentum, AIPro is already pushing the boundaries further by developing 240-meter ultra-long-range object detection technology. We plan to expand our legacy-CCTV-compatible smart surveillance solutions across hydroelectric plants, dams, and national river safety management networks.

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Powered by proprietary Zero-to-One long-range detection algorithms and seamless legacy CCTV integration, AIPro was the only vendor out of three to pass KHNP’s 120m downstream access control PoC—gearing up for full deployment in 2026.

🔎 The wider and more hazardous a site is to monitor by human eyes alone, the more critical reliable, field-tested AI becomes.

 

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✔ AI-powered perimeter access control

✔ Long-range object detection AI

✔ Dam downstream safety monitoring

✔ Legacy CCTV AI integration

✔ Hydroelectric power plant video analytics

✔ Proprietary computer vision solutions

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