Doctoral Researcher

Description:

Université de Sherbrooke, in collaboration with CAE and Unither Bioélectronique, is offering a funded PhD opportunity in the development of advanced simulation software to support the Specific Operational Risk Assessment (SORA) process for Beyond Visual Line-Of-Sight (BVLOS) drone operations—a critical step toward enabling future air mobility.

The research will focus on developing a realistic, comprehensive simulation of flight corridors, incorporating terrain modeling, meteorological conditions, and both cooperative and non-cooperative air traffic. Key responsibilities of the PhD candidate include:

1. Simulation of Controlled Entities: Develop a dynamic model incorporating different levels of turbulence impact (none, moderate, significant) for controlled flying objects.

2. Air Traffic Modeling: Simulate both cooperative and non-cooperative air traffic entities using behavioral models such as hostile, near-miss, and random interaction patterns.

3. 3D Modeling: Create three-dimensional terrain and infrastructure models (buildings, roads, power lines, etc.) for defined flight corridors.

4. Meteorological Integration: Integrate realistic weather models affecting the aircraft’s flight dynamics.

5. Data Integration: Utilize and convert publicly available geospatial data (e.g., OpenStreetMap) into a terrain database that supports offline scenario execution without real-time data queries.

6. Software Development: Design and implement a complete software pipeline capable of automating the generation, processing, and consolidation of synthetic data to support SORA-compliant risk assessments.

Work Environment:

The selected candidate will work at the Interdisciplinary Institute for Technological Innovation (3IT) at Université de Sherbrooke, benefiting from a collaborative research environment that brings together academic experts, industry professionals from CAE and Unither Bioélectronique, and fellow graduate students—all engaged in advancing technologies that support the next generation of autonomous aviation.

Start Date: September 2025