Job offer

Organisation/Company: Nantes Université

Department: Science and Technology

Research Field: Engineering » Electrical engineering

Researcher Profile: First Stage Researcher (R1)

Positions: PhD Positions

Country: France

Application Deadline: 15 May 2025 - 12:00 (Europe/Paris)

Type of Contract: Temporary

Job Status: Full-time

Offer Starting Date: 1 Oct 2025

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

The market for drones (UAVs) with long flight times and over long distances is currently experiencing strong growth. Recent technological advances in the fields of energy storage, materials and energy converters have made it possible to envisage fully energy-autonomous UAVs able to carry out missions that are currently performed by costly and polluting technologies such as surveillance satellites and conventional aircraft (planes and helicopters).

With this in mind, XSun, based in Guérande (Loire-Atlantique), has been designing and manufacturing drones able to carry out such missions without CO2 emissions since 2016. Thanks to solar energy and advanced technologies, these drones are already carrying out missions in a wide variety of fields, including land and sea survey, agriculture, 3D mapping of a territory.

The IREENA laboratory (UR 4642, Nantes University) has been supporting XSun since its first developments in 2016. This collaboration has given rise to a first generation of horizontal take-off UAVs, called SolarXOne. These drones already feature an original design: a double wing with an energy core based on solar-battery hybridization.

The first stage of the project will involve drawing on the current state of the art to identify potential management and control solutions that are robust, reliable and flexible. In fact, whether for energy storage or generation, the technologies available in the marketplace are constantly evolving, generally accompanied by different and more severe operational constraints as their performance improves. The latest battery technologies, with their high power and energy capacities, require advanced monitoring and management of temperature, state of charge and state of health. Before any exploratory work can begin, it is therefore essential to define an energy management strategy that considers both technological and UAV control constraints. Once all the constraints have been defined, we'll need to build a complete digital twin of the drone's energy chain, based on sizing models that have already been developed as part of another thesis. The originality of this work lies in the multi-physical nature of the drone's sub-systems, and in the fact that it will consider the different types of missions envisaged, by integrating the evolution of the characteristics specific to each sub-system, both on a mission scale (temperature variation, battery state of charge, flight conditions, etc.) and on a drone life scale (battery state of health, ageing, etc.).

This thesis represents a strategic challenge for XSun, as it will help accelerate the development of its future UAVs. Establishing an advanced digital twin will enable us to continuously test and improve energy management laws, while adapting to the constant evolution of technologies.

Where to apply

E-mail: nicolas.bernard@univ-nantes.fr

Requirements

Research Field: Engineering » Electrical engineering

Education Level: Master Degree or equivalent

Skills/Qualifications

• Master in electrical engineering, optimization, electrical engineering or energy;
• Autonomous, rigorous, ability to communicate and present results, interest in research;
• Knowledge in the fields of multi-sources systems, hydrogen, energy storage solutions, modeling and optimization;
• Software/programming: Matlab (autonomy in programming required);

Languages: FRENCH Level Good

Languages: ENGLISH Level Good

Years of Research Experience: None

Application Process

Application to be sent with CV, cover letter, transcripts of the last two years and a letter of recommendation (or a person to contact) to: nicolas.bernard@univ-nantes.fr

Applications selected at the end of the applications study phase will be invited for an interview.

Only the applications submitted with all requested documents will be processed.

Additional Comments

Funding: LabCom ICARE project (funded by ANR)

Contract: 36 months fixed-term contract, gross salary of 2200 €/month (public prevailing rate at 01/01/2025), possibility of supervising courses at Saint-Nazaire Institute of Technology (IUT) or Polytech Nantes engineering school (additional salary)