Thematic Sessions

13th EASN International Conference Sessions

 

Dr. Jie Zhao
Research Manager Department of Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management Faculty of Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow - UK
Advanced Manufacturing Technology for Aeronautics

Advanced Manufacturing plays a key role in the Aeronautics industry. The researchers and engineers are consistently making efforts on developing and improving manufacturing technologies and techniques. The delegates are encouraged to exchange ideas and experiences and to discuss their thoughts and opinions on technological trends and challenges in the present and future years. The session addresses not only the research, development, and applications of conventional manufacturing technologies but also the latest achievements in other emerging technologies, such as automation, digitalisation and advanced high-performance materials.

Prof. Jerzy Zoltak
ILOT, Poland
Aerodynamic Analysis and Design

The session covers all topics related aerodynamic analysis internal and external flows, high lift systems, flow controls devises and aerodynamic design including multi objective and multidisciplinary optimisation.

Prof. Octavian Thor Pleter
Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania
Air Traffic Management (ATM) and Airports

Managing the safe and efficient flow of air traffic needs increased efforts of the aerospace scientific community. ATM remains a bright spot on the innovation chart. There are several questions facing the ATM system and the airports as key components, which this section tries to address: (i) How can the rebound  of post-pandemic air traffic be reconciled with the ATM capacity constraints, to avoid delays? Is a change of paradigm in ATM still achievable? How could flight trajectories be better predicted? (ii) How can flight trajectories be optimized based on CO2 and non-CO2 factors to make aviation more environment friendly? (iii) How should we address the security challenges caused by war, but also by the obsolescence of software and hardware, and cyber vulnerabilities in the ATM systems and on airports? (iv) Is the ATM system capable to fully integrate the UAV/UAS and RPAS traffic in the controlled airspace, or more needs to be done? (v) As safety remains at unprecedented levels, why has the number of safety incidents increased, especially runway incursions on busy airports? (vi) How can AI tools be employed to solve ATM and airports problems? (vii) How can the noise around airports be further reduced? (viii) Is aviation in need of the Magnetic North reference anymore? Or the True North could replace it? (ix) Which are the most promissing directions of progress in Air Traffic Services? (x) Which are the lessons learned from the 5G interference with Radar Altimeters and which is the way forward in this matter?

Dr. Christos Mourouzidis
Cranfield University, UK
Aircraft Engine Advanced Design

This session will address issues of interest across a spectrum of technology subjects related to modern aircraft engine integrated design, modelling, and simulation. Authors are invited to present their research on relative topics, including (but not limited to):

Modelling and Simulations

  • Engine Modelling, Simulation and Validation
  • Whole Engine Performance and Operability

Modern Design Practices

  • Integrated Engine Design & Multi-disciplinary Design Optimisation
  • Collaborative Design
  • Co-located, Distributed and Set-Based Design
  • Value-Driven Design
  • Model-Based Systems Engineering

Sub-Systems Integration

  • Inlets, Nacelles, Nozzles and Mixers 
  • Thermal Management Systems

Prof. Ivo Jebacek
BRNO University of Technology, Czech Republic
Aircraft testing

Session Aircraft Testing is focused on any laboratory structural, system, or avionics testing as well as in-flight aircraft tests. Spacecraft tests are very welcome too.

Prof. Javier Perez Castan
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
Artifiicial Intelligence in Air Traffic Management

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is pushing the development of new technologies to support different areas of aviation. This session focuses on the developments reached by the introduction of AI in Air Traffic Management (ATM). AI must help ATM community to deal with the further expected figures of air traffic that would not be able to handle with the current technology. For that purpose, one of the cornerstones must be the increase in automatization, and the introduction of novel technologies such as automation during the decision-making process, big data, and artificial intelligence for the demand-capacity balance, airspace design, and separation provision. However, this development cannot fall on the backs of airport operational management or barriers based on incomprehensible certification processes. The introduction of automation and new technologies means a change during tactical decision-making, sequence metering, turnaround, and handling processes. 

Dr. Thomas Kruse-Strack , Mr. Thomas Körwien
Airbus
CFRP Bonded Repair/Certification of Bonding

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Prof. Timoleon Kipouros
Cranfield University, UK
Computational Engineering Design for Aerospace Innovation

The aim of this session is to present and discuss latest systems engineering design methodologies supported by computational tools in order to enhance the design and development process for future aerospace products.

Mr. Andreas Köetter
Senior Manager Technology & Innovation bei Capgemini Engineering
Digital Tools for future Aircraft on the horizon

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Dr. Angela Vozella
CIRA, Italy
Exploring new approaches for Safe and Secure Systems in Aviation and Space

Safety and security  are crucial  in aviation and space to guarantee the protection  of crew members, passengers, and equipment. In recent years, there have been several new approaches to improve safety and security in these industries, among them: automation, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, predictive maintenance, crew resource management. New challenges in performance and increase in complexity in aerospace,  require to continue to innovate and improve upon these approaches to stay ahead of emerging risks and threats

Prof. Cezary Szczepański
Warsaw Institute of Aviation, Poland
From Sensors to Systems

Currently developed and modernised aircraft are equipped with new avionics, which importance is constantly increasing. Its extensive development created new opportunities for crewed and uncrewed aircraft capable of performing new missions at a high level of automatisation or even autonomation.

The crucial to modern aircraft are onboard sensors. They are dedicated to navigation, flight control, surveillance, object recognition, and monitoring onboard systems. They can be of any kind: radar, mechanical, optical, magnetic, MEMs and different electromagnetic ranges sensing. 

This session is dedicated to the onboard sensors, their combinations and the systems in which they are included. In addition, the papers on designing, optimising, researching, testing and lessons learned from the simulated and real-life tests are welcomed.

The session is the best platform to share ideas recognice new trends and know the experts' opinions.

Dr. Simone Pozzi & Dr. Ricardo Jose Nunes Dos Reis
Deep Blue & Embraer
Human Systems Integration in the design of future Aviation and Space systems: addressing Human-AI Teaming

The development of AI technology is increasing the capabilities of virtual agents, opening the door to the emergence of operational solutions composed of teams of Humans and Virtual Agents. These new teams concepts are needed to enable more complex and demanding environments with improved efficacity, efficiency and safety. They also raise new challenges on how to engineer these teams, their interrelations and the Virtual member technology itself so the whole is trustworthy, safe, effective.

This session is promoted to encourage researchers, practitioners and industry to get together, learn and exchange views regarding the challenges of developing such concepts. We welcome submissions that share developments on:

  • Mapping and addressing challenges regarding the development of full solutions teaming solutions of Humans and AI enabled virtual agents for general (e.g., teaming with AI assistants for strategic decision making) or specific domains (e.g., teaming for aviation cockpit in Single Pilot Operations, ATCO support, etc..) ;
  • Application domain prototypes, proofs of concept, research;
  • Tools, methods and approaches for developing and assurance of Human-AI Teaming solutions
  • Operational XAI

Prof. Andreas Strohmayer
Institute of Aircraft Design, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Hybrid-electric flight

The session covers recent developments in hybrid-electric flight, looking at all elements of hybrid electric architectures, i.e. from energy storage, conversion and distribution to electric machines and propulsor arrangements. Also, effects and impact on aircraft level are in the focus of the session.

Prof. Tomasz Rogalski
Head of the Avionics and Control Department, Rzeszow University of Technology, Poland
In-Flight Testing

In-Flight tests are the final stage of most of aviation technologies development process. All components, final product as well as new ideas should be tested and verified in flight. Despite modern computational technologies or well-prepared laboratory simulations are able to verify performances of the developed system or aircraft as a whole it is still necessary to conduct different kind of in-flight test campaign to approve the product for operation. Many scientific and research centres all over the world organise many test flights. They have experience, achievements, and many issues solved. The session is the perfect opportunity to share all that with the aviation community.

Prof. Patrizia Lamberti & Dr. Monica La Mura
University of Salerno, Italy
Innovative electrical devices for New Horizons in Aviation and Space: from materials to application

This session welcomes contributions concerning the theoretical and experimental approaches to the design and investigation of innovative electrical devices exploiting material properties.

Examples are, but not limited to:

  • devices based on nanomaterial, among which 2D materials, such as graphene, MoS2 and other transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) and Dirac semimetals
  • innovative electrical devices for application such as detection, absorption, shielding, or sensing
  • multifunctional nanocomposites and their electrical application

Works stimulating discussion about the improvement of the efficiency, reliability, and robustness of the materials and related electrical devices are especially welcomed.

Dr. Ricardo Jose Nunes Dos Reis & Dr. Raj Thilak Rajan & Dr. Morten Larsen
Embraer & TU Delft & AnyWi
Key enabling technologies for drone based multi-agent systems

Recent advances in design and development of aerial systems (e.g., autonomous drones, RPAS, UAV) are leading to a widespread adoption in agriculture, logistics, Urban Air Mobility (UAM) and surveillance, to name a few. These applications are primarily driven by use-case dependent operation requirements and performance metrics including SWaP (space, weight, and power) constraints– which subsequently drive the underlying technologies. This session will promote a discussion on fundamental challenges for key enabling technologies from various stakeholders to look at, among others:
-    Application: first response, specialized operations, logistics, surveying, passenger, etc.
-    Functionality: technologies and approaches that enable management, coordination, and control of agents. Namely, sensing, orienting, deciding and, acting (e.g., UTM, DAA, C3LINKS, etc).
-    System design: modelling components and systems by their purpose in the overall architecture and intended missions.
-    Results from real world demos.
-    Technologies: sensors, AI, computing platforms, communication, etc. (e.g., lidar, radar, IP based technologies, etc).
Several EU projects and associated researchers will be invited to present their work under this umbrella and thus allow a rich discussion on this thematic. 

This proposal is formulated under the ADACORSA project

Prof. Dimitris Mourtzis
Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems and Automation, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics, University of Patras, Greece
Metaverse and Digital Twin Technologies in Aviation 5.0: Opportunities and Challenges

Throughout the last century, the Aviation industry has been significantly reshaped, driven mainly by the technological advancements as well as by the market requirements. With the establishment of Industry 4.0 to the plateau of productivity and the rise of Industry 5.0, a new era of aviation has been emerged, referred to as Aviation 5.0. This new era is characterized by the integration of the physical and digital worlds, leading to the emergence of new technologies such as the Digital Twin and the Metaverse. Digital Twin (DT) technology involves creating a digital replica of physical assets such as aircraft, engines, and other critical components. DT can be used to monitor the performance of these assets in real-time, identify potential issues before they occur, and optimize maintenance and repair activities among others. On the other hand, the Metaverse is a virtual environment that enables users to immerse via Virtual Reality technology and to interact and share knowledge in real-time. In Aviation 5.0, the Metaverse can be used to simulate various scenarios, allowing pilots and engineers to test and evaluate new technologies and processes before implementing them in the real scenarios. This can lead to significant cost savings and improve safety in the industry. With the combination of Metaverse and DT technologies, the aviation industry can create a virtual environment where pilots, engineers, and other stakeholders can collaborate and make data-driven decisions in real-time. This can lead to significant improvements in term of safety, efficiency, and cost savings, bringing Aviation 5.0 a step closer to becoming the new reality. However, the integration of the above-mentioned technologies also poses new challenges such as data security and privacy, which need to be addressed to ensure their successful adoption in the industry. The aim of this session is to host a selection of papers from researchers, academics, as well as practitioners providing significant insights regarding the integration of advanced Simulation and Extended Reality (Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality) technologies into Aviation of the new era.

Keywords:
Factories of the Future, Digital Factory, Digital Manufacturing, Digital Twins, Cyber-physical systems, Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Industry 5.0, Metaverse, Extended Reality

Prof. Angelos Filippatos
University of Patras, Greece
Multi-material design and integration of new functionalities

New materials and processes expand the design capabilities of multi-material structures, especially of composite structures. Research in the area of multi-material design and function-integration is becoming of great interest with new functions, from traditional sensing and actuating functions up to new challenges, e.g. to integrating recyclability and sustainability as a function to complex structures.
The aim of the session is to discuss new challenges for multi-material design and function-integration on the example of selected contributions. In particular, the subjects include but are not limited to:
•    Progress on multi-material design approaches
•    Simulation tools for detailed function-integration design 
•    Manufacturing of composites with multiple functions

Prof. Michael Weigand
Vienna University of Technology, Austria
New drivetrain solutions for rotorcraft and climate-friendly aircraft

For fast rotorcraft and tiltrotor-tiltwing aircraft new solutions are under development to vary the rotor speed beyond the range given by the turbine. This means that transmissions are necessary in combination with corresponding rotors to change the ratio of the main gearbox during flight.

For fixed-wing aircraft new climate-friendly propulsion systems are under development e.g. based on batteries, hydrogen and fuel cell as well as Sustainable Aircraft Fuels (SAF). All approaches except SAF bneed a gearbox to adopt the high speed of the electric motor to the application, mostly propeller. The situation is similar to automotive applications.

Prof. Elena Jasiuniene & Dr. Helge Pfeiffer
Ultrasound Research Institute, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania & KU Leuven, Belgium
Non-destructive testing and structural health monitoring of aircraft structures

This session is open to all applications of all NDT methods (including but not limited to ultrasonics, acoustic emission, X-ray, thermography, eddy current, etc.) and SHM methods to any aircraft structures/components made from different materials, including but not limited to metallic, composites, 3D printed materials. Presentations on novel applications of NDT/SHM techniques are expected. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, detection, identification, and localization of damage, modelling/simulations, signal processing, and various practical applications.

Prof. R. Pantani & Prof. Liberata Guadagno
Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Salerno, Italy
Polymeric Composites and Processes for primary and secondary aircraft structures

This session intends to bring together some of the top academia and industry professionals to discuss the most recent research advances in the development of functional and smart polymeric composites for application in aerospace and aeronautics. The session will also focus on the energy efficiency of composite production processes and new production technology.  Critical issues related to energy- and time-consuming manufacturing processes will be addressed. Alternative processes for composite manufacturing are of great industrial interest and can help to save energy and reduce environmental pollution and material waste. The advantages of the 3D-Printing processes compared with the traditional ones for producing functional secondary smart composites are also an objective of the session. The state-of-the-art on attaining smart functions conjugated with good structural performance and energy-saving processes will also be key topics of this session.

Prof. Andreas Strohmayer
Institute of Aircraft Design, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Scaled flight testing

The focus of the session is on of scaled flight testing and demonstration with its various applications in view of configuration validation, technology demonstration and reduced times for technology maturation, specific methods for scaling, design and data acquisition and project results.

Dr. Vittorio Di Vito
Head of Air Traffic Efficiency Lab, Italian Aerospace Research Centre (CIRA), Italy
Small Air Transport (SAT) Technologies

Small Air Transport (SAT) is emerging as the most suitable transportation means in order to allow efficient travel over a regional range, in particular for commuters, based on the use of small airports. The vehicles that are comprised under the SAT domain are usually fixed wing aircraft with 5 to 19 seats or similar cargo vehicles, belonging to the EASA CS-23 category. In order to ease the growth of the SAT business domain, the availability of new technological solutions allowing reducing the related operative costs represents a challenge of capital importance. Relevant research activities in this domain are developed in the framework of international programmes, such as, for instance, the European research programme Clean Sky, where SAT specific projects are ongoing. The workshop, therefore, aims providing the description of the most recent innovations developed in the framework of international research activities addressing the Small Air Transport (SAT) domain. 

The topics under the scope of the workshop cover the whole spectrum of Small Air Transport (SAT) technologies and related concepts, including innovations in cockpit and avionics, propulsion, airframe, materials, air traffic management, self-separation and collision avoidance, mission management, decision making support to the pilot, single pilot operations, sustainability of SAT operations, scenarios, safety regulations and standards.

Mr. Bartosz Dziugiel
ILOT, Poland
Smart-UAM in smart-city integrated environment

Technology progress in the field of UAV dedicated electric propulsion we are witness during last decade opened a new promising industry sector. Mobility and transportation related applications are commonly considered as being among most disruptive and innovative – enabling extension of urban ecosystem to third dimension. But in parallel to the “UAM revolution” there is another one positive disruption on the horizon - smart-city trend. IT/ICT and AI driven change in approach to the key resources we manage as well as cities need to manage every day. What is potential of those two trends if synergized? What will be the smart-UAM, and it how will be the impact on potential application areas?

Dr. Athanasios Dafnis
RWTH Aachen University, Germany
Space Technologies

Orbital Space Systems (satellite systems & configurations, Debris inspection and management), Propulsion Systems and Micro Launchers

Prof. Matteo Dalla Vedova
DIMEAS - Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Politecnico Di Torino, Italy
Systems / Prognostics / Safety

The aeronautical and space sector has always been a source of innovation and technological progress, and today it is of fundamental importance for the development and industrial competitiveness of countries. The systems approach to the design and management of aircraft, now widely recognized in the aerospace technical-scientific community, is arousing interest and technological impacts in other fields and disciplines. These developments foster strategic issues such as safety, diagnostics, prognostics, and, more generally, a holistic view of the aerospace system. These issues are now in the spotlight of the scientific community and are attracting growing interest in various industrial sectors (aerospace, automotive, automation, and more). Therefore, we believe that a session dedicated to collecting and discussing innovative and promising studies can be welcomed with interest by the technical-scientific community.

Mrs. Wiebke Brinkmann
DFKI GmbH, Germany
Way of future orbital and planetary robotics

Use of robotic systems for future planetary exploration involving robotic mobility, manipulation, sampling, and astronaut assistance. This includes all aspects of these robotic systems, including design, development, implementation, and operation. Also, research prototypes as well as fielded or flown systems are of interest.
On-going and future missions involving in-space robotic systems and operations, to include On-Orbit Servicing, Active Debris Removal, Assembly, and Astronaut Assistance. This includes designs and methods to accomplish robotic tasks in orbit, such as mobility, manipulation, assembly or maintenance. Specific aspects can be addressed, such as hardware design, open-loop or closed-loop control, rendezvous trajectory generation, autonomy, tele-operation, experimental facilities on the ground, or others of relevance.