46 research outputs found

    Reliable and Secure Surveillance, Communications and Navigation (RSCAN) for Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) in Controlled Airspace

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    The aviation industry faces a rapidly-emerging need for integrating Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) into the national airspace (NAS). This trend will present challenging questions for the safe operation of UAS in controlled and uncontrolled airspaces based on new Communications, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) technologies. For example, can wireless communications data links provide the necessary capacity for accommodating ever increasing numbers of UAS worldwide? Does the communications network provide ample Internet Protocol (IP) address space to allow Air Traffic Control (ATC) to securely address each UAS? Can navigation and surveillance approaches assure safe route planning and safe separation of vehicles even in crowded skies?Under NASA contract NNA16BD84C, Boeing is developing an integrated CNS architecture to enable UAS operations in the NAS. Revolutionary and advanced CNS alternatives are needed to support UAS operations at all altitudes and in all airspaces, including both controlled and uncontrolled. These CNS alternatives must be reliable, redundant, always available, cyber-secure, and affordable for all types of vehicles including small UAS to large transport category aircraft. Our approach considers CNS requirements that address the range of UAS missions where they will be most beneficial and cost-effective.A cybersecure future UAS CNS architecture is needed to support the NASA vision for an Unmanned Air Traffic Management (UTM) system in uncontrolled airspace and a cooperative operation of manned and unmanned aircraft in the controlled global Air Traffic Management (ATM) system. The architecture must, therefore, support always-available and cyber secure operations. This paper presents UAS CNS architecture concepts for large UAS operating in the ATM system in controlled airspace. Future companion works will consider small UAS operating in the UTM system in uncontrolled airspace

    On provision of resilient connectivity in cognitive unmanned aerial vehicles

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    Mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) can be established in the areas/scenarios where the infrastructure networks are either out of service or no more available. MANETs have a lot of applications in sensor networks. Generally, a MANET deploys mobile ground nodes to set up a network. However, there can be some severe scenarios such as flood, battlefield, rescue operations, etc. where these ground nodes cannot be deployed. In such cases, a network of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be a more viable option. Normally, UAVs operates on IEEE L-Band, IEEE S-Band or ISM band. These bands are already overcrowded, therefore, UAVs will face the problem of the spectrum scarcity. To resolve this issue cognitive radio (CR) is a most promising technology. Hence, in this work, we focus on CR based UAVs. As CR is based on opportunistic spectrum access, therefore, it is quite possible that all UAVs do not have one single channel available to communicate with each other. They need to form clusters for their communication depending on the availability of the channel. However, channel availability is intermittent because of opportunistic spectrum access. This may result in reforming of the cluster again and again. To avoid this frequent re-clustering and to maintain connectivity among the UAVs, in this paper, we present a resilient clustering technique with a concept of introducing a backup channel for each cluster. Simulation results show the significance of the proposed technique

    PoCoLoCo : Positioning through cooperating loquacious communications

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    Aerial Transportation system is based in a legacy infrastructure that supports its different functionality separately. There is a tendency to simplify the infrastructure, increasing its efficiency, technical and monetary. UAS are perceived by the general public as simplified versions of the conventional aviation because they have not any human flight crew on board. In fact, they have a flight crew, but this flight crew is placed on ground adding some complications to the system (e.g: Command & Control link). Conventional aviation perceives UAS as a source of problems, mainly because they have no human flight crew on board capable of creating the situational awareness of the UAS. This lack of situational awareness compromises as well the rest of airspace users safety. This PhD explores the capability of UAS to contribute to the situational awareness of both the own aircraft (generating navigation data) as to the situational awareness of the rest of airspace users (generating surveillance data). The contribution to the situational awareness of both the own aircraft (navigation data) as well as the rest of airspace users (surveillance) is simulated assuming UAS communications based on TDMA and at the communication rates described in the literature. The simulation scenario has been kept simple with a low communication rate and a low number of UAS flying in the simulated area. The results of navigation are in line with the RNP1. The results in surveillance are in line with the 3NM separation but with a refresh rate much higher. Then, with this proposal, UAS could be considered as contributors to the situational awareness instead as the problem that destroys the situational awareness.El sistema de transport aeri es basa en una infraestructura que implementa les seves funcionalitats per separat. Hi ha una tendència a simplificar la infraestructura, augmentant la seva eficiència, tècnica i monetària. Els UAS són percebuts pel públic en general com versions simplificades de l'aviació convencional, ja que no tenen cap tripulació humana a bord. De fet, tenen una tripulació de vol, però la tripulació de vol es a terra, afegint algunes complicacions en el sistema (per exemple: enllaç de comandament i control). L'aviació convencional percep els UAS com una font de problemes, sobretot perquè l'absencia de tripulació de vol humana a bord capaç de crear la consciència situacional de l'UAS. Aquesta manca de consciència situacional, compromet doncs la seguretat dels usuaris de l'espai aeri. Aquesta PhD explora la capacitat dels UAS per contribuir a la consciència situacional tant de la pròpia aeronau (generació de dades de navegació) com a la consciència situacional de la resta dels usuaris de l'espai aeri (generació de dades de vigilància). La contribució a la consciència situacional tant de la pròpia aeronau (dades de navegació), com de la resta d'usuaris de l'espai aeri (vigilància) es simula assumint comunicacions UAS basats en TDMA amb uns ratis de comunicació descrits a la literatura. L'escenari de simulació s'ha mantingut simple amb una taxa de comunicació baixa i un baix nombre d'UAS volan a la zona simulada. Els resultats de la navegació estan en línia amb la RNP1. Els resultats de la vigilància estan en línia amb la separació 3nm però amb una freqüència d'actualització molt més alt que l'oferta pels radars. Com a conclusió, aquesta proposta considera els UAS com a contribuents a la consciència situacional en lloc de com un problema que destrueix la consciència situacional

    Drones

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    Abstract Drone technology is evolving rapidly. Microdrones—what the FAA calls “sUAS”—already on the market at the $1,000 level, have the capability to supplement manned helicopters in support of public safety operations, news reporting, and powerline and pipeline patrol, when manned helicopter support is infeasible, untimely, or unsafe. Larger drones– machodrones”–are not yet available outside battlefield and counterterrorism spaces. Approximating the size of manned helicopters, but without pilots, or with human pilots being optional, their design is still in its infancy as designers await greater clarity in the regulatory requirements that will drive airworthiness certification. This article evaluates drone technology and design and considers how well existing and likely drone capabilities satisfy mission requirements. It draws upon the authors’ collective experience in flying news helicopters, giving helicopter flight instruction, practicing and teaching law, flying drug surveillance mission, evaluating best practices for helicopter support for public safety activities, and in aeronautical engineering. Its analysis and conclusions with respect to microdrones are supported by empirical results obtained from a series of flight tests of currently available microdrones. The ready availability of microdrones will tempt users to deploy them even before their operational use is legal. If the FAA wants to achieve its goal of managing the introduction of these new flight technologies into the national airspace system safely, it must accelerate the regulatory process and do a better job of matching regulatory requirements with mission reality and likely aircraft characteristics. Integration of machodrones will take longer, and the FAA has more time to work with stakeholders to evolve a framework to test the limits of remote control technologies as substitutes for pilots in the cockpit. The main question here is not whether the FAA will be able to channel technology, but whether the ultimate cost and capabilities of machodrones will make them attractive to purchasers and operators and whether actual vehicles will be able to compete with manned helicopters

    Signal classification at discrete frequencies using machine learning

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    Incidents such as the 2018 shut down of Gatwick Airport due to a small Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) airfield incursion, have shown that we don’t have routine and consistent detection and classification methods in place to recognise unwanted signals in an airspace. Today, incidents of this nature are taking place around the world regularly. The first stage in mitigating a threat is to know whether a threat is present. This thesis focuses on the detection and classification of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) jamming radio frequency (RF) signal types and small commercially available UAS RF signals using machine learning for early warning systems. RF signals can be computationally heavy and sometimes sensitive to collect. With neural networks requiring a lot of information to train from scratch, the thesis explores the use of transfer learning from the object detection field to lessen this burden by using graphical representations of the signal in the frequency and time domain. The thesis shows that utilising the benefits of transfer learning with both supervised and unsupervised learning and graphical signal representations, can provide high accuracy detection and classification, down to the fidelity of whether a small UAS is flying or stationary. By treating the classification of RF signals as an image classification problem, this thesis has shown that transfer learning through CNN feature extraction reduces the need for large datasets while still providing high accuracy results. CNN feature extraction and transfer learning was also shown to improve accuracy as a precursor to unsupervised learning but at a cost of time, while raw images provided a good overall solution for timely clustering. Lastly the thesis has shown that the implementation of machine learning models using a raspberry pi and software defined radio (SDR) provides a viable option for low cost early warning systems

    Airborne Directional Networking: Topology Control Protocol Design

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    This research identifies and evaluates the impact of several architectural design choices in relation to airborne networking in contested environments related to autonomous topology control. Using simulation, we evaluate topology reconfiguration effectiveness using classical performance metrics for different point-to-point communication architectures. Our attention is focused on the design choices which have the greatest impact on reliability, scalability, and performance. In this work, we discuss the impact of several practical considerations of airborne networking in contested environments related to autonomous topology control modeling. Using simulation, we derive multiple classical performance metrics to evaluate topology reconfiguration effectiveness for different point-to-point communication architecture attributes for the purpose of qualifying protocol design elements

    National Air Space (NAS) Data Exchange Environment Through 2060

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    NASA's NextGen Concepts and Technology Development (CTD) Project focuses on capabilities to improve safety, capacity and efficiency of the National Air Space (NAS). In order to achieve those objectives, NASA sought industry-Government partnerships to research and identify solutions for traffic flow management, dynamic airspace configuration, separation assurance, super density operations, airport surface operations and similar forward-looking air-traffic modernization (ATM) concepts. Data exchanges over NAS being the key enabler for most of these ATM concepts, the Sub-Topic area 3 of the CTD project sought to identify technology candidates that can satisfy air-to-air and air/ground communications needs of the NAS in the year 2060 timeframe. Honeywell, under a two-year contract with NASA, is working on this communications technology research initiative. This report summarizes Honeywell's research conducted during the second year of the study task

    Dynamic spectrum management with network function virtualization for UAV communication

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    Rapid increases in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) applications are attributed to severe spectrum collision issues, especially when UAVs operate in spectrum scarce environments, such as urban areas. Dynamic air-to-ground (A2G) link solutions can mitigate this issue by utilizing programmable communication hardware in the air and real-time assignment of spectrum resources to achieve high-throughput and low-latency connectivity between UAVs and operators. To mitigate the high-computation issue among ground control station (GCS) networks and provide a broad communication coverage for large number of UAVs, we propose an advanced UAV A2G communication solution integrated with the dynamic spectrum management (DSM) and network function virtualization (NFV) technology to serve urban operations. The edge-cutting UAV communication technologies are surveyed. The proposed scheme is discussed in terms of the high-level system architecture, virtual network architecture, specific virtual functions (SVFs), and affiliated operation support databases. Some major research challenges are highlighted and the possible directions of future research are identified
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