Research results leads to award for new energy-efficient aerial vehicles platform concepts

In order to be at the front edge of technical development and new ways of thinking, Saab leads or participates in several research and development projects. In one of the latest, the project resulted in the increased capability for the development of new energy-efficient aerial vehicles platform concepts. The result was of such a value it also received an award of excellence from the project organiser, ITEA (Information Technology for European Advancement).

Saab constantly works to develop methods, standards and new methodology to be able to exceed customer’s expectations. Saab participated in the international research and development OpenCPS project to strengthen our role as an active, enterprising partner in these types of international collaborations, and last but not least, to contribute to long-term skills and competence development in the field of model-based system development.

Results from the project will increase Saab's model-based development capability, for example, by enabling detailed simulation of larger parts of a complete aircraft in the early design phases.

The OpenCPS results will be utilised in the development of new energy-efficient platform concepts for aerial vehicles and in Future Combat Air Systems (FCAS). However, the intention in the near-term is to take advantage of the new tools within Gripen E.

The international research and development project OpenCPS has been a three-year ITEA project regarding methodology, standards, and open-source tools for efficient development of cyber-physical systems. The project included 18 partners representing universities, research institutes, and industries from Sweden, France, Finland, and Hungary.

The award of Excellence was given to the ITEA projects with the best results in terms of Innovation, Business Impact, and Standardization. The award was handed over at the ITEA Project Outline Days in Amsterdam, September 3 to Magnus Eek, Senior Systems Engineer at Saab business area Aeronautics, who was the project leader for the awarded project.

"The plan is to use the Functional Mock Up Interface (FMI) standard and OpenCPS tools in a framework for model-based anomaly detection in flight test data and for automated model validation, activities which, at present, require significant manual work from both Flight Test & Verification and the Research & Development department," explains Magnus Eek.