Feedback from our intern at Arkane: embedded development, integration of CEREBRO on microcontrollers and flight validation during a launch campaign with the CNES.
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Embedded systems internship: Zackarie integrates CEREBRO in flight
CEREBRO in flight: a mission at the heart of embedded space
Zackarie joined Arkane for a six-month internship as part of his training at IMT Atlantique Brest. Its mission: to contribute to the development and on-board integration of CEREBRO, Arkane’s network management system for communicating nodes, with a view to its deployment aboard an experimental rocket of the PERSEUS project at CNES.
An objective broken down into three areas:
- Deploy CEREBRO on microcontrollers:
Manage a network of nodes through a dual software and hardware approach, from programming to deployment on an embedded platform.
- Validate the system through test campaigns:
Test CEREBRO in various configurations on the test bench, to test its behavior under representative conditions before flight.
- Integrate the network on board an experimental rocket:
Physically embed two microcontrollers in the rocket structure of the PERSEUS project at CNES, and validate their operation under real flight conditions at C-Space 2026.
The main steps: from design to in-flight integration
- Ownership of tools and resumption of the HMI
- Software development and programming of microcontrollers
- Mechanical design and integration
- Solving an energy challenge, on the software and hardware side
All these steps led him to a launch campaign at C’Space 2026 with the CNES’s PERSEUS project, resulting in validation under real flight conditions: mechanical stability, hardware robustness, and communications in severe electromagnetic environments.
A concrete contribution to the CEREBRO project
Beyond his own rise in skills, Zackarie’s work has enabled CEREBRO to progress towards technological maturity on experimental rocket targets – the TRL 5 (validation of a component or mock-up in a representative environment) – by taking the first step in the process of validating components and protocols under real flight conditions. A great step forward, praised by the whole team!
During the review, what our intern remembers is the richness of the project entrusted, the autonomy and the trust granted by our teams from the beginning of the internship.
A great adventure that doesn’t stop there: Zackarie has since joined the Arkane team as a junior engineer in embedded systems. Welcome to the team!
