Ile-de-France Region and Dassault Aviation launch the Paris Region Challenge AI for Industry 2020

24 novembre 2020

The Ile-de-France Region and Dassault Aviation have launched the “Paris Region Challenge AI for Industry 2020”, an ambitious competition in the field of artificial intelligence. This 500,000 euro challenge follows on from the AI2021 artificial intelligence plan and the Smart Aerospace strategy implemented by the Paris Region. The deadline for submitting applications is 31 December 2020.

This Challenge, co-organized with Dassault Aviation, is carried out in partnership with Startup Inside, the Paris Region competitiveness clusters Astech and Systematic, as well as Paris Saclay University. Its objective is to develop virtual sensors that will estimate the local structural deformations suffered by aircraft in service, using only data from on-board instruments.

Eric Trappier, Chairman and CEO of Dassault Aviation explains :

“Dassault Aviation is at the forefront of innovation, particularly in digital technology, and has been integrating intelligent systems on its aircraft for more than 30 years. We are therefore very pleased to contribute to this challenge and to work with the IA ecosystem in the Paris region, which is renowned for its dynamism and high level of expertise.

Competitors will process real industrial data, which is rare in this type of competition, and will benefit from the support of our teams. In addition to its scientific interest, the proposed subject integrates a real economic and environmental stake, both in aeronautics and in other industrial fields such as transport and energy. This is in line with our conception of AI, which must develop algorithms at the service of mankind. In short, everything is done to make this challenge particularly motivating. I wish good luck to all the candidates”.

Dassault Aviation is providing the challenge with a scientific subject to be addressed, the necessary technical data samples and a team of engineers and Data Scientists for the preparation and support of the candidates and participation in the jury.

More specifically, the proposed topic consists in exploiting artificial intelligence algorithms to develop virtual sensors capable of estimating the local stresses experienced by a Falcon business jet, based on the only available on-board instruments.
The challenge will be to achieve the best possible accuracy of these sensors in all phases of flight. The estimates from the virtual sensors will be integrated into the aircraft’s digital twin to enable monitoring of structural ageing. These virtual sensors will make it possible, through a more precise knowledge of the mechanical stress undergone by the aircraft, to optimise maintenance programmes and to propose lighter structures, which are therefore virtuous in terms of fuel consumption.

Around ten European teams (start-ups or laboratories), based in the IDF Region, will be selected by a jury to compete and propose a processing methodology based on the data made available to them.

Researchers and companies can participate. Candidate companies must be either :

VSEs and PEs (companies with less than 50 employees and whose annual turnover or annual balance sheet total does not exceed €10 million),
ME (companies with less than 250 employees and annual turnover of less than €50 million or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding €43 million),
ETI (company with 250 to 4,999 employees, with annual sales not exceeding €1.5 billion or with a balance sheet total not exceeding €2 billion, and which is not affiliated to a larger group).

Groups associating either a public laboratory and one (or several) private company(ies) or several companies of the VSE, PE, ME or ETI type from the EU or Switzerland with a project to set up within 6 months may also apply. One application per consortium is expected.

At the end of the challenge, the jury will designate a single winner, to whom Dassault Aviation will propose a collaborative project lasting 12 to 18 months. The grant awarded will be 500,000€ (incl. VAT) per project, to be divided among the partners in a group offer, according to the following rates:

60% of project-related expenditure for VSEs and PEs,
50% of the expenses related to the post-Challenge project for MEs,
40% of the expenses related to the post-Challenge project for ETIs.

Laboratories associated with a company will be able to receive 100% funding up to a maximum of €120,000, subject to compliance with the European state aid rules applicable to such structures. These rates are lower for individual applicants.

For Valérie Pécresse, President of the Ile-de-France Region :

“the Challenge organized with Dassault Aviation is in line with the Smart Aerospace strategy announced at Le Bourget with Mr Trappier. It will help to position the best European AI startups in the service of the competitiveness of the Ile-de-France aeronautical industry, which is the leading sector in terms of employment on a national scale, in particular to promote the reduction of carbon emissions. The €500,000 amount dedicated to this Challenge is in addition to the €30 million mobilised in the region to revive the Paris Region aeronautics industry”.

The application form can be found at mesdemarches.iledefrance.fr.