Swinburne aims for better planes, rockets, drones and flying taxis

Swinburne University of Technology is launching an Australian-first Aerostructures Innovation Research Hub (AIR Hub) with the support of $12 million in funding from the Victorian Government’s Higher Education State Investment Fund.

The AIR Hub will bring together the best of Victoria’s aerospace research, design and manufacturing leaders to work with industry on real world design and manufacturing problems for the next generation of air mobility.

The hub is backed by industry partners Boeing, Quickstep, CableX, Furnace Engineering, Shoal and Marand Precision Engineering, and research partners CSIRO, Monash University and Germany’s University of Stuttgart and ARENA 2036 combining with Swinburne’s research teams.

AIR Hub is working on ‘light-weighting’ and automating the production of space systems like the rockets used to launch satellites.

Light-weighting, the manufacturing of parts to achieve better fuel efficiency and handling, and faster production could save thousands of dollars per launch.

Unmanned aerial vehicles or drones could travel further to deliver supplies to remote places, and electric vertical take-off and landing air vehicles (eVTOL) could become the future in a ‘flying Uber’ concept of transportation, according to Swinburne.

The AIR Hub will use artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, machine learning and collaborative robots.

Swinburne’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Pascale Quester said the AIR Hub would create innovative materials and manufacturing processes for passenger planes, air cargo, as well as the space industry.

Swinburne’s AIR Hub Director Dr Adriano Di Pietro said: “By using the latest technologies in digitalisation, automation and advanced materials, we will reinforce our industry partners’ position in the global aerospace industry and accelerate innovative technology development.”

Picture: Swinburne University of Technology

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