AIRSHIP envisions an innovative use of a known transportation mean: flying ships. Such vehicles (also known as ekranoplans or wing-in-ground -WIG- vehicles) are designed and built to take advantage of the ground effect, that allows these crafts to fly with enhanced lift and reduced drag. WIGS inherit all the advantages of conventional airborne transportation, while being more energy efficient and environmentally friendly, both from the carbon footprint and the acoustic noise pollution point of view.
We are studying and developing new technologies that will allow such vehicles to become autonomous so they can be effectively used in a wide range of business applications and services, leading to new aviation business models. Our aim is to lay the foundations of a new class of fully electrical unmanned aircraft system, the UWV (Unmanned WIG Vehicle) that brings together speed, flexibility and energy efficiency.
To make its vision a reality, AIRSHIP targets specific research goals:
- To study, develop and optimize innovative, zero-emissions, ad-hoc electrical propulsion power plants, as well as related power management of the system, interface power electronics, integrating solar and hydrogen energy sources with energy storage (batteries and super capacitors) to completely electrify the WIG.
- To develop advanced guidance, navigation and control techniques leading to a fully autonomous vehicle and tailored for the features of the vehicle and environment at hand.
- To study and develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence techniques for on-board cognitive intelligence, providing self-awareness for enhanced adaptivity and resilience of the vehicles beyond classical fault tolerance, and situational awareness for increased safety in navigation.
- To deliver analyses on environmental impact, ELS issues, business scenarios and technology roadmapping in order to assess the technological, economic and sustainable feasibility of the envisioned vehicles, and to engage with stakeholders and future end-users for data collection, communication, dissemination and exploitation of project activities and results, contributing to further actions aiming at raising the TRL level of the AIRSHIP technology line beyond the project funded period.
- To demonstrate such technologies on a fully functional proof of concept of an autonomous fully electrical wing-in-ground vehicle.
