Conventional Industrial Robots Are Often Dedicated to a Single Function
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AerospAce • spAce • Ground TrAnsporT • defence • securiTy “Conventional industrial robots are often dedicated to a single function. But with cobotics, it’s more like having a Swiss Army knife” Jean-Philippe Jahier, director of Innovation and Industrialisation of New Technologies with Thales Alenia Space 06 ARCTIC SECURITY Melting ice is opening up new opportunities and challenges 10 FRONT LINE THINKING Innovative command and control software offers the best defence 28 CREATIVITY IN FLIGHT Airline entertainment systems are stepping up their game 01 Innovations #4 • July 2015 “Our mission is to manage complex systems – and the planet is an incredibly complex system. Our industry has a special role to play in finding solutions to some of the most pressing environmental issues” o paraphrase the Just look at the air transport sector. systems – and the planet is an French philosopher People say it causes more air pollution incredibly complex system. That’s CONTENTS Auguste Comte, you than any other means of transport. why we believe our industry has need to understand And yet traffic volumes are predicted a special role to play in finding 02 10 the present in order to rise significantly, from the 3.4 billion solutions to some of the most 28 to anticipate the future trips recorded last year. Everybody in pressing environmental issues. Tand you need to anticipate the future the air transport sector is working to Our mission is to manage complex in order to act today – but how hard it solve the equation, proposing more systems - and planet is an incredibly is to apply his maxim in real life! Never fuel-efficient engines, lighter onboard complex system. Our industry in the history of humankind have we equipment, smoother traffic flows The new Thales Foundation will help known so much about the world and and optimised flight paths. All these us play this role a little better. Focusing how it works; yet despite all our innovations and many more will be on science education and classroom science, it has never seemed more needed to make air transport innovation on the one hand, and difficult to predict the future. sustainable; and only then will it be disaster preparedness on the other, the In an era of globalisation, possible to meet growing demand Foundation is moving us closer to the urbanisation and changing lifestyles, safely, efficiently and responsibly. elusive goals of Auguste Comte. the need to upgrade our infrastructure How would we even measure Science helps us understand change » 02 Cryptography » 18 Robots unchained » 22 Defence » 24 A lighter is more pressing than ever before. the impact of climate change without and prepare for the consequences — for all Collaborative robots (aka of the realm touch in business At the same time, climate change has satellite technology? How would we and that makes the world a little safer Our networked lives are “cobots”) – mobile, adaptable From reconnaissance to air A new “Light Footprint potentially devastating consequences achieve sustainable mobility in our every day. increasingly in need of protection multi-purpose robots capable defence and precision strikes, Strategy”, inspired by military for our environment, our economies growing cities without innovative as more of our data is transmitted of performing any task – could the Rafale “omnirole” fighter thinking, is challenging how Marko Erman and society at large. Thankfully, in urban transport systems that are safe, and stored digitally. Cryptography mean big productivity gains can conduct several different businesses operate from Chief technical officer, Thales is the key to our security. on the factory floor. missions in the same sortie. the ground up. the space of just a few years, efficient and environmentally friendly? governments, cities, businesses Technology has its detractors and » 06 Breaking the ice » 28 Above the clouds and citizens themselves have come yet, without technology, we would be Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has In-flight entertainment is to recognise climate change as one powerless to act. Technology is not an shrunk to its lowest winter extent 06 undergoing a burst of innovation since satellite records began – as it keeps pace with the giant of the principal challenges they face. end in itself, of course. It needs to what does this mean for security leaps being made in consumer Can we find a model of economic serve the interests of people and in the region? tech – and passengers are development that meets the needs of improve our ability to predict change enjoying the results. the human race and is environmentally and choose the best course of action. » 10 The best defence New and increasingly » 32 On the move sustainable? If the political will exists, Thales has always seen technology sophisticated command and Recent developments in and above all if we continue to as an enabler of human endeavour. control software will bolster smartphone and cloud technology innovate, I believe we can. Our mission is to manage complex the military airpower of NATO are helping public transport countries at a time of increasing systems around the world international tension. improve passenger experience throughout their entire journey. Innovation by the numbers » 14 Weather or not The science of climatology has » 34 The human taken centre stage in recent equation years and weather satellites are In the wake of large scale 40Today’s in-flight % playing a vital role in improving incidents, technology is proving entertainment our understanding of how the systems to be a vital ally in disaster relief weigh 40% world’s climate is changing. 15% efforts around the world. 67% Thales’s Seltrac less than the CBTC solution equipment reduces metro that was Thales has reduced its CO2 emissions network energy being installed by 67% between 2007 and 2014. consumption 10 years ago. Editorial director Keith Ryan Creative director Nick Dixon Publishing director Ian Gerrard Head of production Karen Gardner Account manager Tina Franz Finance director Rachel Stanhope by up to 15%. Published by Caspian Media Ltd for Thales. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the policies of Thales. Caspian Media Ltd and Thales accept no responsibility for views expressed by contributors. Caspian Media Telephone 020 7045 7500 Email [email protected] Web www.caspianmedia.com 02 INNOVATIONS: CRYPTOGRAPHY 03 Cryptography for all You could be forgiven for thinking that cryptography is the preserve of spies and governments. Indeed for many years this would have been true, but no longer. Today, as we leave more and more of our data online, our networked lives are increasingly in need of protection. “It is the mathematical Dr Stuart Clark equivalent of putting a “In the past, spying was possible only for Attackers can obtain the cipher text and may message in a agencies that had access to transmission cables even know the encryption method but, without locked box. and highly sophistication equipment, as well as the key, they will not be able to break the code The difficulty is special authorisation. It was an isolated endeavour. and read the plaintext. Today, transferring information has become It is the mathematical equivalent of putting in transmitting ubiquitous,” says Dietmar Hilke, director of Business a message in a locked box. The difficulty is in the key securely” Development and Cyber Security with Thales in transmitting the key securely. Eric Garrido, head Eric Garrido, head of Germany. “I can go into any wireless lounge and of the Communications & Security cryptographic the Communications & Security cryptographic ‘sniff’ for transmissions using off-the-shelf team at Thales specialises in the design and team at Thales equipment. I can do man-in-the-middle attacks and evaluation of cryptographic systems. harvest PINs, credit card information and banking “Even if you have a good mathematical details. And I can do it with standard hardware and solution, we have to be sure that they are securely open source software that I can find on the net. implemented,” says Garrido. “Bad hardware or The threat has moved from a highly sophisticated software is like locking the door but leaving a group of people to almost anyone.” window open.” According to Hilke, our increasingly PayTV is a case in point: digital lives have led to a change in what broadcasters send encrypted content he calls the threat vector. And it’s not just to subscribers and give users individual transmission of data that is vulnerable – In Brief keys. The broadcast is the same but The transfer computer malware is being used to harvest 1 of information each key is different. This technology more and more valuable information from has now become originated in the early 1990s but it’s ubiquitous as unsuspecting parties. Cloud computing is technology now in need of updating. This was the being used to store ever more data on has evolved subject of a recent collaboration in recent years. third-party servers, trusting our private between Thales and Swiss digital Guaranteeing information to other people’s systems. media company Nagra. 2 privacy is The more connected we are, the more now the number “All the old protocols were too one priority, vulnerable we become. which means theoretical to be practical. There is “Securing information in transmission cryptography is a big gap between theory and practice. more important is no longer enough. Increased social than ever. The goal was to make them realistic interaction online means that we need in practice,” says David Pointcheval, Cryptography end-to-end cryptography,” says Hilke. 3 has to adapt head of the crypto team at École Cryptography relies on taking and change in normale supérieure, Paris, who order to stay information, known as plaintext, and ahead of the worked on the collaboration. encrypting it so that it is rendered growth in The cost of hardware and software potential unintelligible.