Information Processing and Systems

The research at the «Information Processing and Systems» (TIS) Branch aims to develop, adapt and apply advanced information processing technologies to the aerospace and defense sector. These are methods and tools for using the signals delivered by various perception devices to pilot complex systems and identify models of their dynamic behaviour. It also concerns formal methods, the associated tools, numerical simulation methods to assist in the design activity, to assess or check the performance level in the first stages of a project. One particular feature of the TIS teams is the close combination between specialists in the most advanced theoretical information processing methods and «system» experts from the aeronautics, space and defense fields: civilian or military aircraft, drones, missiles, orbital systems, launch vehicles, air transport, and defense systems.

The characteristics and behavior of the vehicles, sensors, actuators and environment bring in multiple physical aspects that come under the competence of ONERA’s other branches. The work of the TIS branch are thus transverse in character, capitalizing on ONERA’s pluri-disciplinary skills, notably in the basic planning stage of new concepts for aeronautics, space or defense, especially in federative research projects (PRF) under the guidance of the TIS branch.

The TIS branch is organized in three departments:

• Systems Control and Flight Dynamics (DCSD)
• Information Processing and Modeling (DTIM)
• System Design and Performance Evaluation (DCPS)

Activities are organized into three broad themes:

• Expert assessment of strategic purposes
  These studies bring together the knowledge specific to ONERA’s central purposes of aeronautics, space and defense. They help ONERA prepare better for its expert assessment mission with government services and for the collaborative efforts with manufacturing partners. The needs so identified lay the groundwork of the orientations concerning basic scientific activities. The fields most particularly concerned are air transport systems, surveillance and observation, combat and defense, and onboard systems.
• Methods and tools for system engineering
  For «complex» systems, the number of possible configurations is such that the project teams cannot obtain a guarantee of good operation without efficient tools to assist them in specification and development. The final objective is to be able to validate a set of specifications with respect to the expected service, then to automatically generate the set of choices of equipment, codes and test sets using certified development chains. Research is also done on various simulation techniques.
• Platform development methods and tools
  This groups all activities concerning specification and creation of elements of the perception–decision–control loop of vehicles in the aeronautical and space and also marinefields. A pilot or operator is always interacting with the vehicle, but his role and degree of authority vary considerably depending on the type of system. There is a notable change in the role of pilots, though: from a system assisting the pilot, we are gradually moving toward the pilot supervising the system, and we can already imagine that aircraft of the future will be drones watched by technical personnel, on board or remote.

 

Last Update: 18 January 2011 - © ONERA 2011 - Terms of use