European Space Agency: Space inventions free for ESA and Canadian Member Corporations

Space companies and organizations from ESA Member States and Canada are invited to submit their interest in using ESA’s inventions. 

As a research organisation, ESA encourages, protects and licenses innovations or inventions resulting from its own activities in order to fulfil its mission of cooperation among Member States in space research and technologies and their applications, and supports the worldwide competitiveness of European industry. 

ESA patents up to 20 inventions a year and has a portfolio of about 450 patent applications and patents, which cover subjects such as radio-frequency payloads and systems, structures and pyrotechnics, electromagnetic technologies and techniques, material and processes, robotics, optics, electrical power and propulsion. 

ESA makes its inventions available free of charge via its Technology Transfer Programme Office on a non-exclusive basis to space industry within its 20 Member States. For use by companies outside of ESA’s 

Member States or for non-space applications, a different licensing model is in place, allowing the Agency to request royalties. 

Licensing templates can be downloaded via the link below as well as more information about ESA’s Intellectual Property policy. 

The goal of this call for interest is to make ESA’s portfolio and licensing conditions more openly visible to European space industry and to encourage its use and licensing. The deadline for the call is 5 March 2014. Further information click here 

Read more: Space inventions for free / Highlights / TTP2 / Technology / Our Activities / ESA

ESA - Auto Industry: Space drives e-mobility

Toyota i-Real Electric armchair car

A European Space Agency (ESA) business incubation start-up company is helping major car manufacturers to develop electric vehicle concepts and improve safety systems by turning ideas quickly into virtual prototypes.

Foreseeing products by modelling and simulations can provide big jump-starts ( cost savings) for companies,” explains Johannes Gerl, founder and CEO of German start-up company Modelon GmbH.

They reduce their development efforts by saving on the number of prototypes. In addition, they often reduce the time to market.”

Supported during their start-up phase by ESA Business Incubation Centre Bavaria, their Modelica simulation libraries are now used by industry in several countries for modelling the behaviour of complex automotive and energy systems.

The company’s simulation approach has been used by car manufacturers to develop a wide range of novel e-mobility designs such as more efficient hybrid and electric automobiles.

Engineers at Japan’s Toyota company use Modelon’s simulation libraries in developing novel e-mobility vehicle concepts such as their i-Real for easy city transportation and short commuting.

Small, electric and lightweight, i-Real is almost an armchair controlled by two joysticks.  Toyota modeled, simulated and optimized it with Modelon’s Vehicle Dynamic libraries.

Another customer is Sweden’s Volvo. Here, engineers use Modelon’s libraries for improving car safety systems. Real-life testing using physical prototypes is time-consuming, expensive and often unsafe for the test drivers.  "If you can represent the vehicle behaviour with a mathematical model, you have a great platform for active safety system development,” said Per Ola Fuxin, Manager, Active Safety Functions at Volvo Cars.

Complete vehicle models can be created from construction data and physical tests, and the results can be validated against similar real-life test cases.

"The overall aim is to help our customers save money by using virtual simulation methods and save the number of real prototypes, thereby reduce the development effort,” says Magnus Gäfvert, CEO Modelon AB.

Read more: Space drives e-mobility