DECISIO Doctoral Host Team

The DECISIO team studies methods and tools for automatic elaboration of decisions in interaction with the human operator for aerospace systems and more broadly for robotic systems. Research focuses on:

• Methods for searching, optimising, and planning actions, and for supervising the mission of vehicles or groups of vehicles in dynamic and uncertain environments
• Generating control architectures and guaranteeing architecure and function safety and security
• The intrinsic performance of operators (pilots, ground station operators) interacting with each other and with such systems, in particular through the study and modelling of cognitive functioning (learning processes, deleterious mental states) in driving or piloting task performance
• Systems engineering methods to understand the integration and interaction of different approaches, both in the design and production phases, and in operation and maintenance.

The theoretical tools used concern knowledge modelling, optimisation, sequential decision-making in the presence of uncertainty, and human-machine interaction. They are based on model-based methods (logic, constraints, probabilities, etc.), machine learning methods (regression, statistics, etc.) and cognitive sciences.

The work also includes experiments on simulators, robotised land and air vehicles, and light aircraft.

Applications concern vehicles and vehicle assemblies, mainly in the aeronautics and space fields: aircraft and air transport systems, helicopters, drones, orbital systems, as well as ground robots.

ACDC Doctoral Host Team

The ACDC team aims to develop methods and tools for mastering (i.e. understanding and controlling) the dynamic behaviour of systems in their environment (including external or internal disturbances, interaction with other cooperative or non-cooperative systems, breakdowns, etc.).

This control involves modelling the system and its environment, analysing its behaviour by defining criteria adapted to the targeted performance, and designing the various control loops required to monitor and control the system in order to satisfy and optimise performance. The general context of Automatic Control is more particularly adapted, in the ACDC team, to the field of aeronautical and space systems and subsystems.

More specifically, modelling research includes

• The development of knowledge models, which are essential in the preliminary design phases of aeronautical and space projects, based on general mechanics, flight mechanics, and space mechanics
• The identification of models when measured data on the system or subsystem previously designed is available
• Model reduction and substitution models when the physical phenomenon to be modelled does not lend itself to analytical characterisation.

Research in systems analysis and control law synthesis includes:

• The definition of system performance criteria and performance robustness in the face of uncertainties, as well as the algorithms associated with the calculation of these criteria on increasingly complex models (analysis)
• Control law optimisation based on analysis criteria (synthesis).

This research leads to theoretical results, methods, and numerical tools, as well as the design and production of experimental demonstrators. It is conducted as part of national and international programmes with the main industrial and academic players in the aerospace field.

It brings together 70 permanent researchers, research engineers, and faculty and more than 40 doctoral students. Research is carried out in the fields of aerodynamics (internal and external), energetics, and propulsion for academic purposes or applied to aeronautical and space systems.

This research focuses on the following areas:

• Characterisation and modelling of non-adaptive propulsion components and systems
• Stability and control of massively detached flows and wakes
• Modelling and numerical simulation for high-fidelity large Reynolds flows calculation
• Aerodynamics and propulsion of micro-UAV and mini-UAV systems
• Modelling of flow stability
• Boundary layer transition, turbulence modelling
• Two-phase flows
• Heat transfer, aerothermodynamics
• Passive and active control of free-field and duct acoustics
• Space propulsion (solid and hybrid)

These areas of research are developed with the support and partnership of:

• National contractors: DGA, CNES
• Major national industrial players: Airbus, Safran, Dassault-Aviation, Liebherr Aerospace, Astrium, Eurocopter
• Research partners in aeronautics and space engineering: DLR, FOI, CIRA, NASA
• National and international academic partners: IMFT, Cerfacs, Laplace, I2M, Pprime, LMFA, VKI, KTH, Bristol Univ, ITAM, Stanford University

The ISAE-SUPAERO/ONERA MOIS team includes 50 permanent researchers and lecturers and more than 50 doctoral students conducting research in the fields of analytical modelling, methodologies, and computing techniques for mastering the design of complex systems, particularly in the aerospace field.

This research focuses on the following areas:

• Performance engineering and evaluation for critical systems (embedded systems, real-time systems, etc.)
• Numerical modelling for high-performance computing
• Data processing for perceptive systems
• Deterministic or stochastic mathematical models for the analysis of complex systems
• Communication architectures, protocols and techniques for mobile and satellite networks

These areas of research are developed in close partnership with:

• Major national industrial players (Airbus, Thales, Astrium, France Telecom, ST Microelectronics, CEA, CNES, ESA)
• National and international academic partners (CNRS, INRIA, National ICT Australia, UC Berkeley, KTH, Polytechnique Montréal)

Its research activities cover a broad spectrum, from optics to millimetre-wave and terahertz.

These activities are divided into 7 areas of research:

• VCSEL-based opto-hyperfrequency devices
• Design of integrated matrix imagers (visible and near IR)
• Active Terahertz imaging
• Visible active imaging/high spatial resolution spectral imaging
• Optical properties of materials (sources, targets) and the environment
• Interactions of the satellite with its environment
• Effects of the space environment on electronic devices

This research is the subject of numerous national collaborations with academic centres (UT3, Paris VII, Paris XI), research centres (LAAS, Femto St, CEA, CNES, DGA), and industry (THALES, EADS ASTRIUM, MBDA, AIRBUS, STMicroelectronics, SAFRAN, DlightSys, Alphanov). OLIMPES also collaborates with international organisations (EPFL, TUM Münich, DLR, NICT Japan).

The team includes researchers from ISAE-SUPAERO and ONERA. More specifically, the PSI team is made up of the Space Systems Research Group (SSPA) from the Electronics, Optronics and Signal Department (DEOS) at ISAE-SUPAERO and the Environmental Models and Measurements research unit (MEM) of the Space Environment Department (DESP) at ONERA.
In total there are around ten permanent researchers and a small number of PhD students.

The main areas of research are as follows:

• The study and development of space mission concepts (e.g. Farside Explorer), as well as sensors for planetary seismology (ExoMars, Selene-2, InSight missions)
• Assessing the environmental conditions of space missions and preventing the damage they can cause

This research is being developed with the support of CNES, in partnership with IPGP, IRAP and JPL (Caltech), on behalf of ESA and NASA.

The team conducts research in the field of signal processing and antenna processing for radar, satellite navigation, and satellite communications applications.

The main areas of research are as follows:

• Adaptive antennas: electromagnetic modelling and characterisation of antenna arrays, spatio-temporal filtering (beamforming, anti-jamming), signal detection and localisation
• Robust methods for navigation in constrained environments: Development of navigation in difficult environments (urban canyons, indoor, multi-path), in particular through data hybridisation and sensor fusion (e.g. GNSS and INS or vision)
• Optimisation of radio-electric resources for satellite communications: Ka-band propagation models, adaptive modulation-coding schemes, frequency flexibility and reuse mechanisms.

Research is carried out:

• In partnership with Thales Group companies (Thales Alenia Space, Thales Airborne System, Thales Avionics)
• With the support of CNES and DGA, in collaboration with IRIT, the LAPLACE laboratory and several European universities

The ICA is a Joint Research Unit (UMR 5312) which brings together researchers from the CNRS, IMT Mines Albi, INSA Toulouse, ISAE-SUPAERO, and the University of Toulouse III.

The Institut Clément Ader studies mechanical structures, systems, and processes. It brings together staff from four major teaching and research establishments in the Occitanie region.

The ICA carries out experimental, theoretical and numerical work with the aim of understanding, modelling, and measuring the behaviour and evolution of materials, structures, and mechanical systems under their service conditions, with a particular focus on problems and applications in aeronautics and space.

Research is conducted in the following 4 areas:

• Damage behaviour of composite structures
• Fatigue of metallic materials and structures
• Structural dynamics: vibration, dissipation, control
• Advanced numerical methods and instrumentation for structural mechanics

The ICA works with a large number of partners:

• Industry: Airbus, EADS IW, Latécoère, Eurocopter, Astrium,
• Research organisations: CNRS, CEA, ONERA, CNES
• National academics: ABOMAP, CEMEF, CETIM, CNAM Paris,
• Regional academics: CEMES, CIRIMAT, CESR
• International: United States, Canada, United Kingdom