3.5 Research: UAS Integration in the NAS
Robert J Winn
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-WW-ASCI638
The FAA is developing a project called the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). What are the goals of NextGen, and how does it seek to improve future aviation operations in the NAS?
By changing from a ground-based radar system to satellite based GPS system, NextGen hopes to improve air commerce in the NAS by providing direct routes to destinations (saving time and operating costs), by reducing traffic delays, by increasing capacity and to allow air traffic controllers greater flexibility in managing aircraft operations with increased safety.
Where UAS/NAS integration is concerned, the ultimate goal is to enable a responsive, efficient, timely, coordinated multiagency research and development (R&D) effort that will enable the U.S. to realize fully the benefits of UAS operations in the NAS (Next, 2012).
To ensure this goal is realized a NextGen Unmanned Aircraft Systems Research, Development and Demonstration Roadmap was created. The development and demonstration objectives are intended to address the sense-and-avoid capability for UAS operating in any given density within the NAS. The Roadmap also takes into consideration that “achieving safe UAS integration depends on a complex set of regulatory, technical, economic, and political factors that must be addressed in an integrated and systematic fashion” (Next, 2012).
How do UAS fit into this vision for the future keeping in mind the research you have done on Detect, Sense, and Avoid requirements, and Lost Link scenarios?
In order for UAS to safely integrate the NAS, they will require advanced autonomous technology and standards to avoid other traffic and must mitigate the safety concern regarding loss of communications within the HMI.
Since UAS are unmanned, they have no capability to perform see and avoid mitigations currently required of manned operations. Therefore, some yet to be approved sensory equipment, radar, or operations under visual line of sight (VLOS) must be implemented for this regulatory requirement. The Government Accountability Office (GAO), reported in 2008 that “no technology had been identified as a suitable substitute for a person on board the aircraft in seeing and avoiding other aircraft. Additionally, UASs’ communications and control links are vulnerable to unintentional or intentional radio interference that can lead to loss of control of an aircraft and an accident.”
By 2020, manned aircraft will be required to incorporate continuously improved technologies such as Automated Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) in order to comply with NextGen expectations. As the “payload-envelope” of this technology is reduced and its operating capabilities enhanced, it will contribute significantly to the ability of all manned and unmanned operations in the NAS.
What human factors issues or challenges do you foresee with the implementation of NextGen and the integration of UAS?
Loss-of Link (LOL) during UAS operation in the NAS is probably the most critical factor in the human –machine interface (HMI). Should LOL occur while the UAS is in flight the operator has no ability to implement an evasive maneuver should another aircraft enter into the operating vicinity of the UAS. A study conducted on behalf of ERAU students specifically focused the HMI of UASs and the vulnerabilities of a LOL scenario. The results conveyed four functional goals including: pre-mission building and entering the emergency return profile, updating the lost link profile, detecting lost link and responding to lost link (Kaste, 2012).
References
GAO-08-511, Unmanned Aircraft Systems: Federal Actions needed to Ensure safety and Expand Their Potential Uses within the National Airspace System, Published: May 15, 2008 Publicly released May 15, 2008 retrieved from http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-511
Kaste, K.; Archer, J.; Neville, K.; Blickensderfer, B.; Luxion, S., "An analysis of FAA certification regulations and guidelines for evaluating the unmanned aircraft human-machine interface: Lost link," in Systems and Information Design Symposium (SIEDS), 2012 IEEE , vol., no., pp.150-155, 27-27 April 2012
doi: 10.1109/SIEDS.2012.6215149
Next Generation Air Transportation System, NextGen UAS Research, Development and Demonstration Roadmap Version 1.0, March 15, 2012 retrieved from https://fas.org/irp/program/collect/uas-nextgen.pdf