Transforming risk into opportunity to build the future of flight
As Airbus’ Silicon Valley innovation centre, Acubed is building the future of the aerospace industry by pursuing high-value, high-impact innovation projects to enable the next age of aviation.
Mission
Acubed is Airbus' first innovation centre. It is ideally located in Silicon Valley, the world’s leading innovation hub and home to many of the world’s largest high-tech companies and start-ups. Acubed drives innovation by focusing on technical domains in which Silicon Valley enjoys a clear competitive advantage, including artificial intelligence, autonomy, data analytics, rapid prototyping and digital communications.
Its mission is three-fold:
To build the future of flight now
To leverage world-class talent within the Silicon Valley ecosystem
To partner with and provide value to many different Airbus teams
People
Acubers are engineers, designers and world-class experts who take a multidisciplinary approach to intellectual discovery. They love working with their eyes wide open in a world without boundaries. Curious and passionate, they are committed to out-of-box thinking to deliver innovation in the fastest, most agile way possible.
Projects
Wayfinder
This scalable and certified machine-learning solution for autonomous flight enables self-piloted aircraft operation, from small urban vehicles to commercial airplanes.
This multi-functional team works to enable a more modern and scalable approach to air traffic management so new aerial vehicles can safely enter and share our future skies.
Aerial refuelling is an increasingly vital capability for military force projection, and Airbus-developed technology to automate the in-flight “topping off” of aircraft will revolutionise this process – with wider applications for both the defence and civil aviation sectors.
Airbus achieves in-flight autonomous guidance and control of a drone from a tanker aircraft
Airbus Defence and Space and the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Airbus UpNext, have achieved in-flight autonomous guidance and control of a drone using an A310 MRTT.
Could the humble dragonfly help pilots during flight?
The Airbus UpNext DragonFly demonstrator takes inspiration from the incredible vision and intelligent flight capabilities of the dragonfly. DragonFly has now entered the final three months of its testing phase, which will put its flightpath capability, automated landing technology, and pilot assistance technology through its paces.
