Architecture and Information Requirements to Assess and Predict Flight Safety Risks During Highly Autonomous Urban Flight Operations

As aviation adopts new and increasingly complex operational paradigms, vehicle types, and technologies to broaden airspace capability and efficiency, maintaining a safe system will require recognition and timely mitigation of new safety issues as they emerge and before significant consequences occur. A shift toward a more predictive risk mitigation capability becomes critical to meet this challenge. In-time safety assurance comprises monitoring, assessment, and mitigation functions that proactively reduce risk in complex operational environments where the interplay of hazards may not be known (and therefore not accounted for) during design. These functions can also help to understand and predict emergent effects caused by the increased use of automation or autonomous functions that may exhibit unexpected non-deterministic behaviors. The envisioned monitoring and assessment functions can look for precursors, anomalies, and trends (PATs) by applying model-based and data-driven methods. Outputs would then drive downstream mitigation(s) if needed to reduce risk. These mitigations may be accomplished using traditional design revision processes or via operational (and sometimes automated) mechanisms. The latter refers to the in-time aspect of the system concept. This report comprises architecture and information requirements and considerations toward enabling such a capability within the domain of low altitude highly autonomous urban flight operations. This domain may span, for example, public-use surveillance missions flown by small unmanned aircraft (e.g., infrastructure inspection, facility management, emergency response, law enforcement, and/or security) to transportation missions flown by larger aircraft that may carry passengers or deliver products. Caveat: Any stated requirements in this report should be considered initial requirements that are intended to drive research and development (R&D). These initial requirements are likely to evolve based on R&D findings, refinement of operational concepts, industry advances, and new industry or regulatory policies or standards related to safety assurance

Engage D3.1 Final workshop presentations of wave 1 catalyst-funded projects

This deliverable collates the final presentations of catalyst-funded wave 1 projects, given at Engage thematic challenge workshops

Analysis of AeroMACS Data Link for Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles

Aeronautical Mobile Airport Communications System (AeroMACS) is based on the IEEE 802.16e mobile wireless standard commonly known as WiMAX. It is expected to be the main part of the next-generation aviation communication system to support fixed and mobile services for manned and unmanned applications. AeroMACS will be an essential technology helping pave the way toward full integration of Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle (UAV) into the national airspace. A number of practical tests and analyses have been done so far for AeroMACS. The main contribution of this paper is to consider the theoretical concepts behind its features and discuss their suitability for UAV applications. Mathematical analyses of the AeroMACS physical layer framework are provided to show the theoretical trade-offs. We mainly focus on the analysis of the AeroMACS OFDMA structure, which affects the speed limits, coverage cell, channel estimation requirements, and inter-carrier interference

Integration of UTM and U-Space on Norwegian continental shelf

In this master thesis, we present an overview of the U-Space and Regulations in Europe, while also taking into consideration the progression of the integration of both parts in Norwegian airspace over the Norwegian continental shelf. This thesis is mainly separated into three parts. The first part is taking a look into the European Union's roadmap/plan for establishing an Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) and how they plan to develop their system into a single European sky. The end goal is that essentially every operator of a drone can do so all over Europe without having any issues with crossing borders or different regulations. The second part of the thesis is dedicated to a detailed insight into the technical side of a UTM, the different layers, examples of which systems are the most relevant to be utilized on the Norwegian continental shelf. The third part of this thesis is dedicated to looking at the regulatory side of things, in regards of the UTM system in itself, different factors of drone operations, requirements for every part of an operation. In addition, discussing and concluding about everything we have been though in the thesis. Additionally, there are uses cases where everything comes together to see how it would work in practise and in certain scenarios. In the final part of the thesis the previous parts of the project will be discussed, as well as drawing final conclusions to the project

La configuració U-space impacta en la seguretat, capacitat i flexibilitat

El present treball de final de grau està enfocat a l'estudi del concepte U-space, els seus actuals i futurs serveis i procediments per a permetre l'accés de UAVs a l'espai aeri de manera segura, eficient i flexible, i l'anàlisi dels resultats de simulacions estudiant com a diferents configuracions de l'espai aeri impacten en la flexibilitat i capacitat del sistemaEl presente trabajo de final de grado está enfocado al estudio del concepto U-space, sus actuales y futuros servicios y procedimientos para permitir el acceso de UAVs al espacio aéreo de forma segura, eficiente y flexible, y el análisis de los resultados de simulaciones estudiando como diferentes configuraciones del espacio aéreo impactan en la flexibilidad y capacidad del sistemaThe present final degree study is focused on the exploration of the U-space concept, its current and future services and procedures to allow the access of UAVs to the airspace in a safe, efficient and flexible way, and the analysis of the results of simulations studying how different airspace configurations impact on the flexibility and capacity of the syste

U-space concept of operations: A key enabler for opening airspace to emerging low-altitude operations

Opening the sky to new classes of airspace user is a political and economic imperative for the European Union. Drone industries have a significant potential for economical growth according to the latest estimations. To enable this growth safely and efficiently, the CORUS project has developed a concept of operations for drones flying in Europe in very low-level airspace, which they have to share that space with manned aviation, and quite soon with urban air mobility aircraft as well. U-space services and the development of smart, automated, interoperable, and sustainable traffic management solutions are presented as the key enabler for achieving this high level of integration. In this paper, we present the U-space concept of operations (ConOps), produced around three new types of airspace volume, called X, Y, and Z, and the relevant U-space services that will need to be supplied in each of these. The paper also describes the reference high-level U-space architecture using the European air traffic management architecture methodology. Finally, the paper proposes the basis for the aircraft separation standards applicable by each volume, to be used by the conflict detection and resolution services of U-space.This work has been partially funded by the SESAR Joint Undertaking, a body of the European Commission, under grant H2020 RIA-763551 and by the Ministry of Economy and Enterprise of Spain under contract TRA2016-77012-R.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

3D-in-2D Displays for ATC.

This paper reports on the efforts and accomplishments of the 3D-in-2D Displays for ATC project at the end of Year 1. We describe the invention of 10 novel 3D/2D visualisations that were mostly implemented in the Augmented Reality ARToolkit. These prototype implementations of visualisation and interaction elements can be viewed on the accompanying video. We have identified six candidate design concepts which we will further research and develop. These designs correspond with the early feasibility studies stage of maturity as defined by the NASA Technology Readiness Level framework. We developed the Combination Display Framework from a review of the literature, and used it for analysing display designs in terms of display technique used and how they are combined. The insights we gained from this framework then guided our inventions and the human-centered innovation process we use to iteratively invent. Our designs are based on an understanding of user work practices. We also developed a simple ATC simulator that we used for rapid experimentation and evaluation of design ideas. We expect that if this project continues, the effort in Year 2 and 3 will be focus on maturing the concepts and employment in a operational laboratory settings

National Air Space (NAS) Data Exchange Environment Through 2060

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

System elements required to guarantee the reliability, availability and integrity of decision-making information in a complex airborne autonomous system

Current air traffic management systems are centred on piloted aircraft, in which all the main decisions are made by humans. In the world of autonomous vehicles, there will be a driving need for decisions to be made by the system rather than by humans due to the benefits of more automation such as reducing the likelihood of human error, handling more air traffic in national airspace safely, providing prior warnings of potential conflicts etc. The system will have to decide on courses of action that will have highly safety critical consequences. One way to ensure these decisions are robust is to guarantee that the information being used for the decision is valid and of very high integrity. [Continues.

A Study of Future Communications Concepts and Technologies for the National Airspace System-Part III

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Glenn Research Center (GRC) is investigating current and anticipated wireless communications concepts and technologies that the National Airspace System (NAS) may need in the next 50 years. NASA has awarded three NASA Research Announcements (NAR) studies with the objective to determine the most promising candidate technologies for air-to-air and air-to-ground data exchange and analyze their suitability in a post-NextGen NAS environment. This paper will present progress made in the studies and describe the communications challenges and opportunities that have been identified as part of the study. NASA's NextGen Concepts and Technology Development (CTD) Project integrates solutions for a safe, efficient and high-capacity airspace system through joint research efforts and partnerships with other government agencies. The CTD Project is one of two within NASA's Airspace Systems Program and is managed by the NASA Ames Research Center. Research within the CTD Project is in support the 2011 NASA Strategic Plan Sub-Goal 4.1: Develop innovative solutions and advanced technologies, through a balanced research portfolio, to improve current and future air transportation. The focus of CTD is on developing capabilities in traffic flow management, dynamic airspace configuration, separation assurance, super density operations and airport surface operations. Important to its research is the development of human/automation information requirements and decisionmaking guidelines for human-human and human-machine airportal decision-making. Airborne separation, oceanic intrail climb/descent and interval management applications depend on location and intent information of surrounding aircraft. ADS-B has been proposed to provide the information exchange, but other candidates such as satellite-based receivers, broadband or airborne internet, and cellular communications are possible candidate's