On 1 October, Fabrice Cuzieux succeeded Henry De Plinval as Drone Manager at ONERA's Aeronautics Division. At the 6th edition of the UAV SHOW, from 19 to 21 October 2021, he talked to us about ONERA's ambitions in this regard.
What technological challenges remain for the drone market to really take off?
Certification is undoubtedly one of the main problem areas in which the entire drone community must collaborate to create a clear and tenable framework. But I would talk more about certifiability, because I think that we need to acquire the tools and methods required to really build the certification stages. This topic is part of one of ONERA's three main research areas in the field of drones and flight safety, in the broadest sense of it.
The other two areas - improving drone performance and combating malicious drones - will also keep ONERA's research engineers very busy in the coming years. My predecessor, Henry De Plinval, somewhat 'cleared' the ground on a booming drone market, by making ONERA the reference expert for both the State authorities (DGA/DGAC) and industrialists. I will strive to reinforce the existing links by increasingly showcasing and promoting the excellence of ONERA's scientists and, above all, the variety and complementarity of their professions.
To fly a drone autonomously and safely, you must be skilled in a variety of fields: sensors, data processing, propulsion, aerodynamics, avionics, control laws, on-board intelligence, integration into the airspace, human/machine interaction, etc. ONERA has the atypical quality of covering all these fields! We have also gained the trust of many players with whom we share knowledge in a large number of areas. Therefore, I am confident that we will continue to be a key scientific expert in research and support for the sector.
ONERA at the UAV Show 2021
L’ONERA tiendra le stand 2F0302 sur lequel il a choisi de mettre en avant 2 sujets :
- The PHYDIAS agreement, funded by DGAC, dedicated to design and safety analysis methods for drone systems. Launched in 2018 for 3 years, the PHYDIAS agreement will make it possible to handle the following issues: assessment of operational risks and drone systems; impact of atmospheric profiling on low-altitude traffic; human factors and remote operation; autonomous avionics; and guarantees concerning the processing of on-board camera images.
- The SAR-Light Drone Imaging Radar Sensor project, which aims to evolve into a fully integrated sensor
Fabrice Cuzieux lead the round table « Aerial drone, mobility laboratory of the future? »
In your career, what experience will you need to develop ONERA's drone roadmap?
Having worked as a researcher for nearly 20 years, I have the necessary hindsight to make the link between ONERA's scientific departments and the partners who provide and finance projects.
I have held the following positions: research engineer, head of 'Design, Flight Dynamics and Rotating Wing Systems' in a scientific department, head of a research unit, ONERA representative on the Executive Board of the SAFE competitiveness hub, and work group leader (France's 'Drone Certification' group at the Council for Civil Drones, as part of the PHYDIAS drone agreement funded by DGAC): thanks to all these different roles, I can adapt to different types of interlocutors (dronists, operators, authorities, etc.). For me, this will be very valuable for understanding, translating, negotiating, and managing.
Generally speaking, I would say that ONERA's strength lies in its ability to grasp complexity. ONERA is both public and private, doing both upstream and applied research, "hard" experimentation and digital simulation. This atypical position may seem difficult to understand from the outside, but it is our strength: we are multidisciplinary by nature and adaptable, which, in the complex drone market, will make the difference.
