Page 37 - UMH Sapiens 38

Science for Sapiens A year in research (2024)

he spin-off EMXYS of the Science Park
of the University Miguel Hernández of
Elche (PCUMH) – an aerospace enginee-
ring company that designs and manu-
factures satellites for high-performance
applications – has launched the EdgeAI-
Sat project. With this initiative, an evolu-
T tion of its ODALISS satellite platform will
be developed to implement Artificial Intelligence in space.
This project, led by EMXYS, also involves the University Mi-
guel Hernández and the Polytechnic University of Valencia
(UPV). EdgeAISat is funded with the support of the Valen-
cian Agency for Innovation (AVI).

The EdgeAISat project, which has been selected within the
framework of the AVI Strategic Cooperation Projects Pro-
gramme, considers the development and manufacture of a
flight model of a satellite for Earth observation. It is desig-
ned to implement applications of what is called “Artificial
Intelligence at the Edge” or Edge AI. This satellite will be AI generated image | UMHSapiens
integrated and ready for launch by the end of 2025.
EMXYS Director of Technology (CTO), UMH Professor Fran-
cisco García de Quirós, points out that the objective of Ed- University of Vienna or the Royal Observatory of Belgium. In
geAISat is to take a significant part of the processing of ima- this sense, the participation of the Polytechnic University of
ges to the place where the data is obtained, in this case on Valencia and the University Miguel Hernández in EdgeAISat
board the satellite itself. “This is a double advantage: on the represents a working group that has been collaborating on
one hand, it significantly reduces the information the satelli- projects of the European Space Agency (ESA) for over 10
te has to send to Earth because its AI algorithms extract the years.
most relevant information from the large number of images
the satellite can obtain. On the other hand, it simplifies the The researcher responsible for the Microwave Applications
processing of data on the ground, which reduces the wai- Group of the UPV and president of the Executive Commi-
ting time to obtain valid information”, says García de Quirós. ttee of the Val Space Consortium (VSC), Professor Vicente
Boria, highlights that the technological advance, in terms of
In this way, the system will be able to almost instantly de- the payload embarked on the satellite that is intended to be
tect important events before a human analyst is able to do developed, as well as the example it implies in terms of the
so. For example, forest fires, volcanic eruptions, illegal spills, integration of solutions provided by various entities of the
etc. In this sense, EMXYS CEO, UMH Professor José Antonio Valencian Community is already a reality.
Carrasco, underlines that EdgeAISat is a great boost to the
development of the company’s technology for high-perfor- For his part, the head of the Industrial Electronics Group of
mance satellites. “This project allows us to evolve the elec- the UMH, Professor Ausias Garrigós, adds that the partici-
tronic computer systems we are currently commercialising pation in this project allows the group to transfer part of the
to a new level. This will allow us to be more ambitious in research carried out in recent years in the field of power sys-
the technical complexity of the space missions we can carry tems for small satellites, and to establish new contacts with
out”, Carrasco says. different groups in the Valencian Community to strengthen
synergies with other space technologies.
EMXYS participated in its first space mission in September
2007. It did so aboard the Russian spacecraft FOTON-M3, The PCUMH spin-off is currently working on three short-
which was launched from Baikonur on a Soyuz rocket. In term space missions. In this regard, two of them will be
this mission, critical electronic systems designed and ma- launched in 2024: The OTD-1 demonstration mission of its
nufactured by EMXYS for mission YES2 were put into orbit. ODALISS satellite aboard a Spectrum launcher of the Ger-
This resulted in a Guinness record in 2009 for the largest man company Isar Aerospace and the GRASS instrument of
space structure put into orbit. Since then, the PCUMH com- the planetary defence mission of ESA, called HERA, to the
pany has participated in three more space missions, inclu- asteroid Dydimos. This will be performed aboard a Falcon
ding a combined mission of NASA and the Japanese Space 9 from SpaceX. A scientific mission currently in integration
Agency (JAXA). It was launched in 2010 from the Uchinoura will also be launched at the end of 2025.
Space Centre aboard an SS-520 suborbital rocket that flew
to 300 km altitude. In the medium term, EMXYS is working on several propo-
sals for both scientific and commercial missions. Satellites
Since the company started, EMXYS has worked closely with based on its ODALISS platform will be intensively manufac-
research groups from both national and international ins- tured in new facilities that the company is projecting in the
titutions. Among them, the Colorado State University, the province of Alicante and from where they will be commer-
group of the Nobel Prize in Physics Anton Zeilinger of the cialised globally.

37