Facts

• Segment: Aerial
• Country: France
• Website: https://www.airbus.com/en/innovation/upnext.html

Profile sections

• Summary
• Market context
• Facts
• Context / Market Position
• Events
• Operations / Deployments
• Context tags
• Sources

Summary

Airbus UpNext develops flight demonstrators for future aerospace technologies. Its work includes autonomous flight, cooperative control and automated air-to-air refuelling experiments that test how crewed aircraft, drones and advanced flight systems can operate together.

Market context

Named program customer selecting Aeva 4D lidar for Optimate autonomous taxiing demonstrator. Airbus UpNext appears in Aeva press for Optimate / A350 flight-test and truck demonstrator programs.

Facts

• Website: https://www.airbus.com/en/innovation/upnext.html
• HQ: Toulouse, France
• Segment: Aerial

Aerospace autonomy innovation unit

Airbus UpNext develops autonomy demonstrators for aerospace systems, including Optimate automatic taxiing and pilot-assistance technologies.

• Target environment: Airports, aircraft taxiways, aerospace testbeds, electric vehicle demonstrators and flight-deck assistance environments.
• Deployment model: Internal Airbus innovation and demonstrator programs rather than standalone robot product sales.
• Customer context: Airbus aircraft programs, aerospace engineers, pilots, airport operations and future aircraft automation teams.
• Workflow context: Automatic taxiing, pilot assistance, computer vision, sensor fusion, airport navigation and aircraft-ground autonomy testing.
• Commercial maturity: Research and demonstrator stage, with Optimate testing technologies that may influence future aircraft systems.
• Market position: Aerospace autonomy research unit applying robotics-adjacent perception and automation to aircraft ground operations.
• Adoption constraints: Adoption depends on aviation safety certification, pilot workflow fit, airport complexity, sensor reliability and aircraft-program integration.
• Adjacent context: Adjacent context includes aerospace autonomy, automatic taxiing, aircraft robotics, pilot assistance and safety-critical autonomous systems.
• Source confidence: high

Events

• 2024-05-21 - Capability - Airbus UpNext starts Optimate automatic taxiing and pilot-assistance testing - Airbus UpNext started testing Optimate technologies for automatic taxiing and pilot assistance using an electric t…
• 2023-11-08 - Capability - Airbus UpNext eXtra Performance Wing demonstrator makes first flight - Airbus UpNext’s eXtra Performance Wing demonstrator completed its first flight.
• 2023-03-28 - Capability - Airbus UpNext achieves autonomous guidance and control of drone from tanker aircraft - Airbus Defence and Space and Airbus UpNext demonstrated in-flight autonomous guidance and control of a dro…
• 2023-01-12 - Capability - Airbus UpNext starts DragonFly autonomous pilot-assistance flight tests - Airbus UpNext started ground and in-flight testing of DragonFly pilot-assistance technologies on an A350-1000 test airc…

Operations / Deployments

• 2024-05-21 - Capability - Airbus UpNext starts Optimate automatic taxiing and pilot-assistance testing - Airbus UpNext started testing Optimate technologies for automatic taxiing and pilot assistance using an electric t…
• 2023-01-12 - Capability - Airbus UpNext starts DragonFly autonomous pilot-assistance flight tests - Airbus UpNext started ground and in-flight testing of DragonFly pilot-assistance technologies on an A350-1000 test airc…

Context tags

• Aerial autonomy builder - Peer Group - Aerial autonomy builder for urban air mobility and autonomous flight
• Aerospace autonomy innovation - Workflow - Aerospace autonomy innovation for next-gen flight technologies
• Urban air mobility - Workflow - Urban air mobility research and flight demonstrators
• Aerospace robotics companies - Peer Group - Aerospace robotics peer group for autonomous aviation platforms