CORMORANT

COllaboration for Research regarding Maritime technologies, Observation, security, suRveillANce with Thales

Thales and its academic & research partners from the Brittany-Océane region, including the CNRS, have launched the Scientific Interest Group (GIS) CORMORANT, “Collaboration for Research regarding Maritime technologies, for Observation, security, and monitoring with Thales », in order to develop research excellence in Brittany on key themes for the naval and aeronautical industry. This partnership, dimensioning for the Brittany region with nearly a thousand researchers and engineers potentially concerned, aims to increase the regional expertise in the fields of the autonomy of maritime systems, Human-System interaction and human factors, and finally intelligent sensors and processing.

General context

This Scientific Interest Group is the second involving Thales in France, after the ALBATROS group which already operates in the Grande Aquitaine region. It involves the main research laboratories of the western Brittany region, in particular the lab-STICC UMR CNRS 6285 with its institutions (CNRS, ENIB, ENSTA Bretagne, IMT Atlantique, UBO, UBS), the IRENAV Lab of the Naval School and the L@bISEN, Yncrea Ouest laboratory, each one being a long-term partner of Thales group. The governance shared equally between industrials and academics, is based on a steering committee which defines the main orientations of this GIS and allocates it the necessary means, on a scientific committee which proposes the themes of studies, and on a management team. who implements decisions

Objective

This partnership aims to develop research in the fields of the autonomy of maritime systems, human-system interaction and human factors, and finally intelligent sensors and processing.

The work takes the form of thesis, post-doc, internships or development of experimental platforms, involving academic / industrial pairs.

Through this consortium, Thales and its partners intend to consolidate and ensure greater visibility on the research themes addressed. Currently, more than ten theses are already being developed on the themes, and several studies are being defined. In addition, Celadon association in the GIS Steering Committee attests to the partners' intention to go as far as possible towards sea experiments. Let us recall that Celadon is the Brest association managing the “SeaTestBase” sea measurement base, with a test boat.

Employed Methods

The GIS CORMORANT scientific program adresses three research topics:

I. Autonomy of Maritime Systems

a. Autonomy

b. Artificial Intelligence applied to a multi-source / multi-environment tactical situation

c. Multi-agent coordination

d. Real-time embedded and distributed architectures

II. Human-System Interaction and Human Factors

a. Human-Machine Interaction Techniques

b. Human factors of complex socio-technical systems

c. Human Collaboration / Autonomous Systems

d. Contribution of Artificial Intelligence (eg: explainability, trust etc ...)

III. Smart Sensors and processing

a. Physics of electromagnetic and acoustic propagation

b. Sensor modeling and simulations

c. Fusion of heterogeneous datas and environmental sensors

d. Learning & Cognitive Sensors

Expected outcomes

Multi-year research program on the GIS research axis
Thesis Funding in the domain of electronic warfare and assistance, surveillance and security missions.
Funding of internship and development projects
Contribution to regional, national and European calls for projects
Development of shared test platforms and resources

IMT Atlantique and partners Roles

The steering committee is chaired by Marie-Josée Vairon, Director of Thales - Brest.

The scientific committee is chaired by Christian Person, Professor at IMT Atlantique, and also Director of Lab-STICC UMR research unit. He is also co-director of the GIS with Vincent Verbeque, from the technology Department of Thales

The school is present in the scientific committee according to the various identified research themes and is also involved in steering and governance committees.

Partners

Academics Partners: UBO - UBS - ENIB - CNRS - ENSTA Bretagne - Ecole Navale - ISEN YNCREA

Industrial Partner: Thales Defence Mission Systems

Association CELADON, SeaTest Base operator