This open-architecture platform enables any number of sensors and effectors to work together: aerial and maritime drones, beacons, vehicles and so on. Their integration relies on tailored interfaces and connectors, with the aim of facilitating their reuse across different missions. “This is the result of a year’s work. We have invested in a number of related technological building blocks to integrate different drone models, whatever their type. We’ve introduced a layer that makes them interoperable,” declares Thibaud Frossard, Director of Defence and Security at Capgemini, Europe’s leading digital transformation firm.

Engineers had to overcome four challenges: first, ensure that the platform is agnostic and neutral so as to integrate any type of hardware. The second was to clearly define the designated mission: “To do this, we need to be certain, at an early stage, of the scope of action of the objects, why they are carrying out a particular type of mission, their ultimate objective and how they communicate with one another,” explains Thibaud Frossard. The third challenge was interaction with people: it is essential that this be simple and understandable in order to carry out the task successfully. The final challenge: the whole system had to be robust and energy-efficient.