LiveEO and Universität der Bundeswehr München Launch SurfaceFrame, a DLR-Backed Project for AI-Powered Digital Surface Models

LiveEO has been awarded funding of approximately €776,000 as part of a total project funding of approximately €1 million from the Space Innovation Hub of the German Space Agency at DLR (Deutsche Raumfahrtagentur im DLR), on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), under the Ideenaufruf "INSPECTEO - INtelligent Security for Public Entities and Critical Threats from Earth Observation." The remainder goes to project partner Universität der Bundeswehr München (UniBw).

The funding backs SurfaceFrame for an 18-month duration to build a global reference approach for generating high-resolution digital surface models (DSMs) through AI-powered satellite data fusion, developed in collaboration with the Earth Observation Lab of UniBw (UniBw-EO).

The contract runs from 1 July 2026 to 31 December 2027 and combines LiveEO's stereo-optical DSM generation with UniBw-EO's expertise in SAR-based elevation modeling, alongside the development of a fully operational, end-to-end demonstrator for ordering and producing DSMs.

A Different Challenge: Elevation, Not Detection

SurfaceFrame sits alongside LiveEO's other current EO-AI initiatives but addresses a distinct technical problem. LiveEO's ongoing feasibility study on Vision Foundation Models focuses on detecting change across optical and SAR imagery, and its SPRIND-backed project explores AI reasoning that helps interpret and contextualize multi-sensor EO data.

SurfaceFrame is concerned with something else entirely: generating accurate 3D surface geometry, independent of whether that surface has changed at all. Where those two initiatives ask "what changed, and what does it mean?", SurfaceFrame asks "what is the shape of the Earth's surface, and how precisely can we measure it, day or night, rain or shine?"

Fusing Optical and SAR for High-Resolution Surface Models

DSMs are 3D representations of terrain, vegetation, and infrastructure, generated from stereo satellite imagery and used across infrastructure monitoring, environmental analysis, and security applications. LiveEO derives DSMs from high-resolution stereo optical imagery. UniBw-EO, a leading research lab in SAR-based Earth observation, develops methods to derive elevation models from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data, which works independent of daylight and cloud cover.

Under SurfaceFrame, LiveEO's optical stereo-derived DSMs will be used to train and validate UniBw-EO's SAR-based DSM model, working toward a reliable, all-weather approach to elevation mapping. In parallel, LiveEO will advance its own DSM model, focusing on making it more flexible with respect to the incidence angles of the stereo input imagery, a key factor in improving accuracy and coverage across varied terrain and satellite geometries.

From Order to Model: An End-to-End Demonstrator

Beyond the modeling work, SurfaceFrame will deliver a complete, end-to-end demonstrator that shows how DSMs can be ordered, produced, and made available to relevant security stakeholders at scale and in practice: from the definition of an area of interest (AOI), through data ordering and preprocessing, to the generation of the final DSM. This reflects the aim of the INSPECTEO call, which seeks demonstrators showing how AI and Earth observation can concretely strengthen public security for civil and governmental stakeholders.

"Digital surface models are a foundational input for infrastructure and terrain monitoring, but getting from a satellite tasking request to an accurate, analysis-ready DSM has traditionally involved multiple manual steps and specialized expertise," says Dr. Markus Müller, Director of Remote Sensing at LiveEO. "With SurfaceFrame, we're building a pipeline that fully automates optical elevation modeling into one coherent, ordered workflow. This will, in turn, be used to validate the corresponding, highly innovative single-image SAR approach developed by the research group of Prof. Dr. Michael Schmitt at UniBw. That combination of methodological rigor and operational simplicity is exactly what public-sector Earth observation applications need."

The project is funded under the Ideenaufruf "INSPECTEO," issued by the Space Innovation Hub of the German Space Agency at DLR on behalf of the BMFTR, which supports the development of AI- and EO-based demonstrators for public-sector security applications.

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About LiveEO

LiveEO is a technology company based in Berlin that provides AI- and satellite-powered solutions for monitoring critical infrastructure and supply chains. Its products help organizations reduce risk, improve resilience, and meet regulatory requirements by transforming Earth Observation data into actionable intelligence. LiveEO supports customers across the energy, transportation, and commodity sectors worldwide, enabling proactive risk management and more secure, sustainable operations.

About Universität der Bundeswehr München

Universität der Bundeswehr München (UniBw M) is a German federal research university founded in 1973 and based in Neubiberg, near Munich. Alongside its role in officer education, UniBw M conducts internationally competitive research across engineering, security, and technology, with a research profile centered on security in technology and society. With its departments and interdisciplinary research centers, UniBw covers a broad scientific spectrum ranging from areas such as security research, cybersecurity, and space research to mobility, digitalization, and sustainability.

About the German Space Agency at DLR

The German Space Agency at DLR (Deutsche Raumfahrtagentur im DLR) plans and implements Germany's national space activities on behalf of the German federal government. Through its Space Innovation Hub, the agency supports the development of innovative, security-focused space technologies with a particular emphasis on the NewSpace sector, connecting research, industry, and public institutions. The German Space Agency at DLR is part of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V., DLR), one of Europe's largest aerospace research institutions.