Autonomous flight
Over the last 100 years, as the aerospace industry has emerged, evolved and improved, automation and autonomous technologies have played a key role in helping us increase the safety of our products and their operational efficiency.
Assisting flight operations safely and efficiently
Emerging technologies, systems and solutions, assist flight operations in a crucial role: they are the tools that will enable the aerospace industry and its customers to thrive long into the future and they are equally essential to our vision: “to pioneer sustainable aerospace for a safe and united world.“
Whatever the level of “autonomy” (from automation systems to fully autonomous vehicles), we use these technologies to keep our products state of the art, improving the human/machine interface. We adapt the level of automation according to the market segments, products, environment and expected benefits to reach our shared goal: the safest and most efficient operations.
According to what we aim to achieve and the market expectations, we see the potential for diverse applications of autonomy, and we are preparing safety and operational improvements for all products as a result. Further, sustainability is a key driver for Airbus as well as a responsibility of both today's society and businesses. As we continue to grow and innovate as both an industry and an organisation, sustainability is a priority across our products with autonomy as a vital contributor to the future success of our market.
Our projects
Autonomous air-to-air refuelling
Auto'Mate
This demonstrator develops, adapts and evaluates technologies enabling autonomous air-to-air refuelling in formation flight operations. It will consist of in-flight testing of the key technologies - focusing on three technological bricks that are accurate relative navigation, in-flight communication and cooperative control algorithm - in order to pave the way to a future autonomous assets air-to-air refuelling product.
ATTOL
The Autonomous Taxi, Take-off and Landing (ATTOL) project leveraged computer-vision technologies and techniques to successfully complete fully autonomous taxi, take off, approach and landing using a commercial aircraft, thereby demonstrating a world-first achievement! Hosted by Airbus UpNext until completion in 2020, the state of the art from this concept continues to be developed to drive future concepts.
DeckFinder™
This local positioning system enables manned and remotely piloted aerial systems (RPAS) to determine their relative position in the harshest environmental conditions. The independent navigation system contributes to easier and safer take-off and landing procedures in GPS-shaded environments that lack reference points or visual cues.
DISruptive COckpit (DISCO)
With the objective of continuous safety enhancement and operations efficiency, this R&T project aims at exploring different kinds of cockpit layouts for commercial aircraft of the 21st century.
DragonFly
Airbus UpNext DragonFly is a demonstrator that is exploring new pilot assistance technologies to further enhance flight safety and aircraft operational efficiency. The technologies being designed, developed and tested enable an aircraft to identify features in the landscape so that it can “see” and safely manoeuvre within its surroundings, these include and are to be applied to automated emergency operations (diversion) in cruise as well as automatic landing whatever the weather conditions and on ground taxi assistance.
extended Minimum Crew Operation (eMCO)
Extended Minimum Crew Operations (previously CONNECT project) enables the flight crew to better organise their presence in the cockpit during the cruise phase, thanks to additional automated functions. Pilots can thus achieve a better balance between working and resting time on long-range flights.
Optimate
This demonstrator is testing new technologies to support automatic taxiing and enhance pilot assistance at airports. The three-year research project combines a wide range of cutting-edge technologies and is being tested onboard an innovative electric truck, before performing a fully automated gate-to-gate mission on an A350 flight test aircraft.
Latest news
Aerial refuelling without human intervention
