Monday, July 25, 2016
15
Friday, February 10, 2017
Autonomous and Remotely Piloted Aircraft
No
Aeronautics - Technology Integration and Flight Demostrators, On Board Systems and ATM, Electronics and Communications
The scenario of European aviation outlined by the experts of the European Commission for the coming decades (ref. Flightpath 2050 Europe's Vision for Aviation) is characterised by the coexistence, in non-segregated airspace and at airports, of transport aircraft and autonomous and remote piloted aircraft systems (RPAS).
Unmanned aircraft will be used for increasingly disparate operations, like:
Complex institutional missions and reconnaissance missions in areas of high environmental risk (using medium-large UAS aircraft);
Scientific missions for surveying the earth and its environment (using Medium/High Altitude Long Endurance platforms);
Professional operations (in civil, agricultural and geological fields, etc.).
The development activities at CIRA, since 2002, for improving the performance of remote piloted aircraft systems (RPAS), are coherent with the European and national scenario, and include enabling technologies for unmanned aircraft (Remote Piloting, automatic management of the flight plan, Failure Detection and Management, Detect & Avoid, Automatic Take-Off and Landing, Data Link) and evolving technologies, like in the case of aerostructures (Composite, Health Monitoring), auxiliary on board systems (anti-icing/de-icing, diagnostics and prognostics), and high energy power systems.
In the medium-term are two lines of development and demonstration:
Consolidation of functional technologies for RPAS system integration and development programmes in Europe (ConOps 2025), with the setting up of ground demonstrators (Full-Scale Ground Demonstrators);
Development of highly innovative basic technology (Breakthrough Innovation) for the future evolution of UAS systems.
Since 2002, CIRA has consistently worked to improve the performance of remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) in keeping with the European and national scenario, by developing enabling technologies for unmanned aircraft and innovative aerostructures and on-board auxiliary systems.
Autonomous and Remotely Piloted Aircraft