Institute of Aerospace Technologies signs agreement with Wes Trade to join BAT programme

The Institute of Aerospace Technologies at the University of Malta and Wes Trade Ltd have signed an agreement to collaborate on a project called BAT: an innovative navigation system for UAVs based on inertial systems.

The BAT project was awarded to Wes Trade in a consortium including Italian companies Lion Consulting and Gem Elettronica and one of the biggest aircraft manufacturers in the world, Airbus. The project is co-financed by the Italian government (through the Ministry for economic development) and by the Autonomous Region of Sardinia and has a value of €8.2m.

The system developed in the project will be characterised by low consumption, size and cost, and will be designed using fault-tolerant design techniques to make it robust to the possible failure or unavailability of one of the onboard sensors. The system will also be ideal to support emergencies and future autonomous flights.

The Institute of Aerospace Technologies has been tasked with the study and design of the fault-tolerant algorithms. The system will be implemented at the Sardinian facilities of Wes Trade and tested at Sardinian test facilities.

“We are very proud to have included the Institute of Aerospace Technologies in this international project and to have contributed to the growth of aerospace for Malta,” says Alessio Bucaioni, CEO of Wes Trade. “I really would like to thank Prof. Ing. David Zammit Mangion and Dr Ing. Jason Gauci for their availability to support us in this important milestone for Wes Trade.”

“We are excited to participate in this innovative project and we look forward to working closely with our partners and to contribute to the objectives of the project,” says Dr Gauci, a senior lecturer at the Institute of Aerospace Technologies, who will be leading the design of the fault-tolerant algorithms in the BAT project.