Goals:

This area is aimed at the in-flight testing of functions for autonomous vehicles (UAV) and/or remotely piloted vehicles (RPAS), both in aeronautics and space applications.

Main goals are increasing knowledge and proposing solutions on:

system (architectural and detailed) design of RF communication systems based on telemetry standards for internal programs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, UAV and Unmanned Space Vehicle, USV) for telemetry (downlink) and telecommands (uplink);
design and implementation on FPGA of communication-related functional modules:

waveform generation – modulation/de-modulation functions based on waveforms such as, for example, CP-FSK, QPSK, CDMA,
bit-stream processing – randomizer and de-randomizer, BER-Tester and Pseudo Random Sequence Generator,
antenna electronic beam forming and beamsteering;

rapid-prototyping of communication systems using FPGA-based COTS demo-boards for the base-band section and RF boards for the up/down conversion.

Research topics:

The expertise of this area covers:

design, integration, test and characterization of radiofrequency communication systems;
development by model-based methods of digital signal processing algorithms based on Software Defined Radio (SDR) paradigm;
implementation of SDR algorithms in VHDL on FPGA;
antenna system design – definition through electromagnetic simulation of antennas number, type and position on flying vehicles.

IRON - Innovative turbopROp configuratioN

LED - Long Endurance Demonstrator

SHAFT - SyntHetic jet Actuators for Flow conTrol

FTB4UAS Flight Test Bed For UAS

SIMACE - System for monitoring of environmental conditions in hostile conditions

SMAF – Smart AirFrame

AIRGREEN 2 - Morphing Wing Technology

CAPRI Carrello per Atterraggio con Attuazione Intelligente

CERVIA - Innovative methods for Design and Certification of advanced aircraft composite structures

GAINS - Green AIrframe Icing Novel System

AIRONE - Cheap Online Weather Information Service for the Personal Air Vehicles sector

CTNA TILTROTOR FX

MISE - Applications for electronics of not piloted aircraft

CASTLE - CAbin Systems design Toward passenger welLbEing

COAST - COst-effective Avionic SysTem

DANTE - Development of Aero-vibro-acoustics Numerical and Technical Expertise

FLPP3-DOC Demise Observation Capsule

HEXAFLY-INT - High-Speed Experimental Fly Vehicles-International

INTERSTADIO GRID - The Interstage 2/3 of the new European launcher, VEGA C

ISAA – Imaging antenna System based on Aperiodic feeding Arrays

LIPROM – Liquid Propulsion Research on Oxygen Methane

ASCI - Safety-critical interoperability applications amongst autonomous heterogeneous systems

BIG DATA FACILITY

MIDA - Photo-interpretation with high resolution optical satellite images

CAPPADOCIA - Coordination Action Pro “Production, Avionics, Design” on Cost-efficiency in Aeronautics

Activities