Towards Flight Trials for an Autonomous UAV Emergency Landing using Machine Vision

This paper presents the evolution and status of a number of research programs focussed on developing an automated fixed wing UAV landing system. Results obtained in each of the three main areas of research as vision-based site identification, path and trajectory planning and multi-criteria decision making are presented. The results obtained provide a baseline for further refinements and constitute the starting point for the implementation of a prototype system ready for flight testing

A Technology Survey of Emergency Recovery and Flight Termination Systems for UAS

For safe flight in the National Airspace System (NAS), either under the current interim rules or under anticipated longer-term regulatory guidelines facilitating unmanned aircraft system (UAS) access to the NAS, the UAS must incorporate technologies and flight procedures to ensure that neither people nor property in the air, on the ground, or on or in the water are endangered by the failure of an onboard component, by inappropriate unmanned aircraft (UA) response to pilot commands, or by inadvertent entry by the UA into prohibited airspace. The aircraft must be equipped with emergency recovery (ER) procedures and technologies that ensure that in the event of such a failure that the UA is recovered intact with minimal risk to other aircraft, people, or property. Finally, should ER procedures prove ineffective and it is impossible to recover the UA, the pilot-in-command and/or the UAS may engage flight termination (FT) procedures-activities to ensure that the UA is safely destroyed (should the UA be so equipped) or immediately grounded. Together ER and FT are referred to as emergency recovery and flight termination (ERFT). This paper presents a technology survey of ERFT technologies and procedures as applied toward unmanned aircraft

Depart and approach procedures for UAS in a VFR environment

This paper assesses the depart and approach operations of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in one of the most challenging scenarios: when flying under Visual Flight Rules (VFR). Inspired by some existing procedures for (manned) general aviation, some automatic and predefined procedures for UAS are proposed. Hence, standardized paths to specific waypoints close to the airport are defined for depart operations, just before starting the navigation phase. Conversely, and for the approach maneuvers, it is foreseen a first integration into a holding pattern near the landing runway (ideally above it) followed by a standard VFR airfield traffic pattern. This paper discusses the advantages of these operations which aim at minimizing possible conflicts with other existing aircraft while reducing the Pilot-in-Command workload. Finally, some preliminary simulations are shown where these procedures have been successfully tested with simulated surrounding traffic

An Innovative Human Machine Interface for UAS Flight Management System

The thesis is relative to the development of an innovative Human Machine Interface for UAS Flight Management System. In particular, touchscreena have been selected as data entry interface. The thesis has been done together at Alenia Aermacch

Integration of UAS in the civil airworthiness regulatory system: present and future

The last years are witnessing a number of initiatives worldwide devoted to assess the safety levels of the unmanned aircraft. These initiatives are very heterogeneous; some of them are centred in airworthiness aspects while others focus on operations. From the point of view of a potential UAS manufacturer the actual situation is plenty of uncertainties in relation to the regulations to be applied for certifying the design, manufacturing and maintenance, and from the point of view of the potential operator the situation is analogous with respect to operational procedures. In the present work the emphasis is on the manufacturer’s situation. The objective of this work is to clarify the present civil airworthiness regulatory scene by summarizing all the regulatory efforts up to date and preparing a comparative analysis of them. In this comparison, the manned regulations are included too. The most representative state-of-the-art UAS are analyzed from the point of view of the existing and the future regulatory framework. The main aspects to be considered are related to the airworthiness certification (performances, structural design, etc) for which a quantitative comparison is established in order to clarify how the new regulatory framework, mainly based on the conventional aircraft certification codes, will affect future UAS, compared to the existing regulation