An Assessment for UAS Traffic Awareness Operations

Technology evolution in the field of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) will affect the Air Traffic Management (ATM) performance regarding to new military and civil applications. UAS, as new airspace users, will represent new challenges and opportunities to design the ATM system of the future. The goal of this future ATM network is to keep intact (or improve) the network in terms of security, safety, capacity and efficiency level. On the other hand, most UAS are, at present, designed for military purposes and very few civil applications have been developed mainly because the lack of a regulation basis concerning their certification, airworthiness and operations. Therefore, UAS operations have always been solutions highly dependent on the mission to be accomplished and on the scenario of flight. The generalized development of UAS applications is still limited by the absence of systems that support the development of the actual operations. Moreover, the systematic development of UAS missions leads to many other operational risks that need to be addressed. All this elements may delay, increase the risk and cost in the implementation of a new UAS application.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Contingency management concept generation for U-space system

Contingency management in aviation is a vital concept that ensures safety, security, and efficiency in operations. To fully benefit from the envisioned Advanced Air Mobility system, the need of a structured and system-wide contingency planning will be even more important since the air transportation system paradigm will shift into a highly automated system that includes high-density traffic. The complexity will increase considerably by enlarging the operations to the underserved urban areas. Therefore, the new system needs to provide a more agile, accessible, and flexible environment. In this paper, the need of a contingency management from a holistic approach is described and the base requirements to build such a system are defined by considering the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder that are defined for the U-space system. Alongside the defined requirements, the tasks of the stakeholders and the expected main contingency sources are explained to have a better understanding of the system. The objective of this work is to provide the base guidelines that help to set appropriate actions by relevant stakeholder under an adverse condition which might compromise the safety and security of the operations within the air traffic network

Threat Management Methodology for Unmanned Aerial Systems operating in the U-space

This paper presents a threat management methodology for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) operating in the civil airspace. The work is framed within an Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) system based on the U-space initiative. We propose a new method that focuses on providing the required automated decision-making during real-time threat management and conflict resolution, which is one of the main gaps in the current U-space ecosystem. Our method is capable of handling all commonplace UTM threats, as well as selecting optimal mitigation actions, trading off efficiency and safety. Our implementation is open-source and fully integrated in a UTM software architecture, implementing U-space services related to emergency management and tactical deconfliction. We demonstrate our methodology through a set of realistic use cases with actual UAS operating in civil airspace. For that, we performed field experiments in an aerodrome with segregated airspace, and we showcased that the methodology is capable of autonomously managing heterogeneous threats in real time.Unión Europea - Horizonte 2020 77629

Key technologies for safe and autonomous drones

Drones/UAVs are able to perform air operations that are very difficult to be performed by manned aircrafts. In addition, drones' usage brings significant economic savings and environmental benefits, while reducing risks to human life. In this paper, we present key technologies that enable development of drone systems. The technologies are identified based on the usages of drones (driven by COMP4DRONES project use cases). These technologies are grouped into four categories: U-space capabilities, system functions, payloads, and tools. Also, we present the contributions of the COMP4DRONES project to improve existing technologies. These contributions aim to ease drones’ customization, and enable their safe operation.This project has received funding from the ECSEL Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 826610. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and Spain, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands. The total project budget is 28,590,748.75 EUR (excluding ESIF partners), while the requested grant is 7,983,731.61 EUR to ECSEL JU, and 8,874,523.84 EUR of National and ESIF Funding. The project has been started on 1st October 2019

NtoM: a concept of operations for pilots of multiple remotely piloted aircraft

The concept of operations proposed here pursues the feasibility, from a human factors perspective, of having a single pilot/aircrew controlling several remotely piloted aircraft systems at once in non-segregated airspace. To meet such feasibility, this multitasking must be safe and not interfere with the job of the air traffic controllers due to delays or errors associated with parallel piloting. To that end, a set of measures at several levels is suggested, which includes workload prediction and balance, pilot activity monitoring, and a special emphasis on interface usability and the pilot’s situational awareness. The concept relies greatly on the exploitation of the potential of Controller-Pilot Data Link Communications, anticipating future widespread implementation and full use. Experiments comparing the performance of the same pseudo-pilots before and after the implementation of part of the measures showed a decrease in the number of errors, oversights and subjective stress.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Contingency Manager for Icarus Simulated Integrated Scenario

Contingency analysis and reaction is a critical task to be carried out by any airplane to guarantee its safe operation in a non-segregated airspace. Pilot's reactions to any kind of incidences that may occur in-flight, like engine malfunctions, loss of electrical power, hydraulic failure, unexpected weather, etc, will determine the fate of the flight. Nowadays, contingency reactions are mainly driven by the airplane manufacturer, with pre-analyzed contingency scenarios covered in the airplane documentation, and by ICAO's rules as defined in the way flight plans should be prepared and landing alternatives implemented. Flight dispatching is the set of tasks related to flight preparation, such as load and balance, meteorology study and briefing, operational flight planning, contingency analysis and planning, etc. However, managing contingencies on a UAS is a much more complex problem basically due to the automated nature of the vehicle and the lack of situational awareness that pilot's in command should face. It is well known from the short history of UAS accidents that many of them are directly imputable to pilot errors when trying to manage an unexpected contingency. The project proposes to develop a Contingency Manager Service in the Icarus Simulated Platform. Also, it is part of this project to develop a Weather Simulator, Engine Simulator and an Electrical Simulator in order to generate contingency situations

Contingency Manager for Icarus Simulated Integrated Scenario

Contingency analysis and reaction is a critical task to be carried out by any airplane to guarantee its safe operation in a non-segregated airspace. Pilot's reactions to any kind of incidences that may occur in-flight, like engine malfunctions, loss of electrical power, hydraulic failure, unexpected weather, etc, will determine the fate of the flight. Nowadays, contingency reactions are mainly driven by the airplane manufacturer, with pre-analyzed contingency scenarios covered in the airplane documentation, and by ICAO's rules as defined in the way flight plans should be prepared and landing alternatives implemented. Flight dispatching is the set of tasks related to flight preparation, such as load and balance, meteorology study and briefing, operational flight planning, contingency analysis and planning, etc. However, managing contingencies on a UAS is a much more complex problem basically due to the automated nature of the vehicle and the lack of situational awareness that pilot's in command should face. It is well known from the short history of UAS accidents that many of them are directly imputable to pilot errors when trying to manage an unexpected contingency. The project proposes to develop a Contingency Manager Service in the Icarus Simulated Platform. Also, it is part of this project to develop a Weather Simulator, Engine Simulator and an Electrical Simulator in order to generate contingency situations

In-Flight contingency management for unmanned aerial vehicles

Postprint (published version