MAVDEM Partners

A public, scientific and technical establishment with both industrial and commercial responsibilities, Onera reports to the French Ministry of Defense and enjoys financial independence.

The expertise of Onera covers all the scientific disciplines involved in aircraft, spacecraft and missile design. It makes Onera an essential partner in the French and European aeronautics and space community.

ONERA conducts research in the disciplines and techniques involved in design of an aircraft or spacecraft: aerodynamics, flight dynamics, energetics, structural strength, materials, optics and laser, acoustics, radar and electromagnetism, electronics, systems, robotics, information processing. The research is focused on federating themes and programmes, such as fluid mechanics and information processing.

Concerning Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, for civil applications, ONERA (and DLR) participates in several European Commission funded projects and is member of the thematic network UAV-NET. ONERA develops also internal projects like ReSSAC and HALERTE.
ONERA also coordinates a FP6 STREP project called IFATS (Innovative Future Air Transport System) which deals with long term fully automated air transport system.
In the field of mini or micro UAV, ONERA participates to a European program addressed to miniaturisation and integration of mechanical systems by developing and demonstrating non conventional actuator technologies, ultra light materials and systems integration technologies. ONERA has also started a home project, REMANTA, devoted to micro UAV with flapping wings. ONERA is cooperating with DGA on the organisation of a University mini UAV contest. It has a technical expert role and was in charge of the final flight tests. This involvement in this contest allows ONERA to have close relationship with the “University world” and so to be aware of the feasibility of very daring concepts of mini UAV.

The research conducted in the area of Systems Control and Flight Dynamics have been applied for more than 25 years to aeronautical, spatial and naval systems (aircraft, launchers, ships, submarines, torpedoes, …). ONERA has specific expertise and practical experience on automatic control and guidance law design, model identification, flight dynamics, complex systems modelling, robust control, robotics, real time control architecture, real time avionics integration of autonomous guidance-navigation on experimental VTOL aircraft, development of autonomous onboard decision capabilities, decision aid systems and operator-system interaction.

Oto Melara Spa is a Finmeccanica owned company
In Italy Oto Melara is a leading company in the development and production of defence systems. Being organised upon products lines, with research and development capabilities ranging from naval guns and ammunitions to combat vehicles, from artilleries to anti-aircraft systems, Oto Melara with its works in La Spezia and Brescia, presents itself as a foremost partner for domestic and foreign countries.
The total number of employees is about 1400 (in La Spezia and Brescia facilities), the turnover was 180 millions of Euro, whilst the total running order 175 millions of Euro.

Oto Melara is involved both in National and European Research and Technology Projects focused on UAV - Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.
About the national programme, the most relevant for Oto Melara is the PNRM 263 “Horus”: a UAV with Reconnaissance, Intelligence, Surveillance and Target Acquisition (RISTA) which can be launched from the 120 mm smoothbore barrel of an Ariete main battle tank. As main feature, it will be able to provide the tank commander an higher echelon pictures of the battlefield with a reaction time lower than 30 seconds, much less than any other micro-UAV currently available.
Regarding the European projects focused on UAV Oto Melara is currently engaged in EUCLID RTP 3.30 “Materials and Mechanisms for Micro Air Vehicles”: the programme addresses key issues of miniaturisation and integration of mechanical systems for highly compact military equipment by developing and demonstrating non conventional actuator technologies, ultra light materials and systems integration methodologies.

SENER Ingeneria y Sistemas belongs to SENER Grupo de Ingeneria, an industrial group that also participates in other companies such as Industria de Propulsores (ITP), HISDESAT, Arianespace, BOREAS, Orbital Recovery Limited and Galileo Sistemas y Servicios. It is devoted since more than thirty years to the development of advanced systems in the aeronautics, space, marine, civil and industrial fields. SENER has a large experience in aeronautics and space engineering activities. The expertise includes Guidance Navigation and Control systems, flight dynamics, system modelling, electronic units design and development, critical SW, structures and mechanisms, integration and testing.

Some relevant aerospace projects, whose experience will be useful during the considered development, are listed herein:

TellMie AS is a small, innovative Research and Develpment company that specializes in Engineering Cybernetics / Control Engineering and the development of real-time, embedded software systems. The control systems can be used both for sea-going vessels and for UAVs.

Key-personnel at TellMie have been involved as Software Job-leader and responsible for development and implementation of Kongsberg Maritime’s triple-redundant modular Dynamic Positioning (DP) systems for offshore vessels. A DP systems has many similarities with the Guidance, Navigation and Control system used onboard UAVs.

TellMie has performed a study for the Norwegian Defence Research Organization (FFI) which was called “An Operational and Tactical Concept for the use of UAVs in Maritime Surveillance”.

Key-personnel from TellMie performed in 2002-2003 a feasibility and concept study funded by the Norwegian MOD for a hybrid UAV with an optimal combination of VTOL and hovering capacities and high fixed wing speed. The hybrid UAV is called SiMiCon Rotor Craft – SRC.

In addition to this, a research and concept study partly funded by Norwegian Research Council (NFR) was performed in 2003-2004. The study was called MATOL – Maritime Take-Off and Landing, and the goal is to develop an automatic launch- and recovery system for a (VTOL) UAV on a moving deck.

The company has also started development of a miniature, integrated (D)GPS and INS sensor, especially targeted for the UAV market.

TellMie will for this project work in close co-operation with the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI), Institute of Engineering Cybernetics at the Norwegian University of Technology and Science and Techni AS.

ALCORE Technologies has been present on the Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) market since 1989. It comprises a team of about ten people who love their work and have a taste for challenge. The company is based at Cergy-Pontoise, 20 km to the west of Paris, next door to a flight test centre, and has adopted a strategy based on innovation, anticipation and quality.

ALCORE Technologies has a design office supported by a synergism of industrial expertise, and this is the main key to its high-performance and competitive designs.
The company has a multi-activity prototype and series-production manufacturing site. The UAVs and their sub-assemblies are manufactured entirely in its own workshops, which give its clients the added guarantee of confidentiality regarding components and processes. The enterprise has the necessary resources to transform composite materials, machine parts on numerical control and conventional machines, weld titanium, and assemble the components. This level of integration also helps it control lead times.
The proximity of the flight test centre enables it to ensure the final adjustment operations in a minimum amount of time.

The first UAVs developed using the company's own capital soon caught the attention of the large accounts of the profession. Over time, this display of confidence has brought it numerous subcontracting and co-contracting design and manufacturing contracts, for both vital and secondary UAV functions, as well as complete vehicle prototypes, and often including all the associated testing operations.
ALCORE Technologies has thus worked on numerous design and manufacturing projects for European contracts for which discretion is recommended, and has also provided in-flight services.

The leading manufacturers in the UAV market in terms of turnover have realised that overall system performance largely depends on the performance of the vectors. It is this intrinsic performance that dimensions the system, and hence the end cost.
Being able to reply to invitations for tenders for UAV systems with qualified viewable platforms is a guarantee of dependability and credibility for the company's partners.

Alcore Technologies is capable of producing small systems from A to Z. It is perfectly aware that, in Europe, the complexity of the technical specifications of complete systems means that integration must be ensured by specialized companies. In the last few years, it has refocused its activity essentially on complete air vehicles, and it now offers a range of UAVs that can then be customized to produce specific products.
Alcore Technologies is capable of developing specific vehicles very rapidly. Unlike electronics, where problems of obsolescence arise fairly rapidly, a good UAV platform remains up to date for a long time. And this argument is supported by the fact that in all fighter aircraft refurbishing contracts, it is usually the electronic systems that account for the majority of the modernization work.

Celin is a twenty-years-experienced company in Electronics and is located near La Spezia. It has a 1200 square meters manufacturing unit and 35 employees (50% with College or High School Degree).
Celin Group carries out study, design, development, manufacturing, installation and support service of highly technological electronic and electromechanical equipments for military, industrial and civil use.

Celin can do feasibility studies, system studies, specifications and simulations in the fields of electro-technology, electronics and servosystems.
Celin Group is expert in the definition of the architecture of information management systems, the development of predictive models for internal and external flow fields, the development of remote control techniques, scenario simulation systems and mission data integration systems.

The Group is expert in microprocessor, microcontroller and programmable logic devices and has the knowledge and the experience to design unmanned vehicles, both aerial, terrestrial and underwater.
Celin implements controls, servos, industrial automation, test benches, interfaces, data acquisition systems, remote control, physical parameters measurement and control.

Celin is able to manufacture both prototypic and series products and has the facilities to make harness, electromechanical assemblies and printed circuit boards assemblies.
Celin executes the adjustment, trimming, integration and testing of prototypes and series products.