Airbus and ANSYS Partner to Enable Autonomous Flight

Airbus Defence and Space is leveraging ANSYS’ embedded software solution to develop an advanced Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that will be engineered for speed, safety and affordability. Through a new strategic partnership, ANSYS and Airbus Defence and Space will collaborate to innovate a new ANSYS solution for enabling safety-critical flight controls with artificial intelligence (AI), aiming at autonomous flight by 2030. 

The partnership between Airbus and ANSYS will engineer an advanced ANSYS SCADE tool that links traditional model-based software development with new AI-based development flow. The new ANSYS SCADE tool is designed to help drive the development, certification and embedding of the drone flight control software, according to ANSYS.

“Building on our longstanding collaboration, we are excited to extend our partnership with ANSYS to design the next generation of ANSYS SCADE that will deliver an exponential leap to our autonomous capabilities. This innovation empowers us to cost-effectively deploy AI-driven flight controls in safety critical functions,” says Sabine Klauke, head of engineering at Airbus Defence and Space.

“Airbus Defence and Space is an unmatched aerospace pioneer and is transforming the military battlespace through its creation of leading-edge air platforms, empowering them to fly smarter and with more agility than ever before. We look forward to taking this innovative journey together, using our complementary skillsets to achieve this bold objective,” says Eric Bantegnie, vice president and general manager at ANSYS. 

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.