NASA recently successfully demonstrated rural operations of its unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) traffic management (UTM) concept, integrating operator platforms, vehicle performance and ground infrastructure. The next steps involve further validation through Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) test sites.
“UTM is designed to enable safe low-altitude civilian UAS operations by providing pilots information needed to maintain separation from other aircraft by reserving areas for specific routes, with consideration of restricted airspace and adverse weather conditions,” said Parimal Kopardekar, manager of NASA’s Safe Autonomous Systems Operations project and lead of NASA’s UTM efforts.
Engineers at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, are developing UTM cloud-based software tools in four segments of progressively more capable levels. They design each “technical capability level” for a different operational environment that requires development of proposed uses, software, procedures and policies to enable safe operation, with Technical Capability Level One focusing on a rural environment. With continued development, the Technical Capability Level One system would enable UAS operators to file flight plans reserving airspace for their operations and provide situational awareness about other operations planned in the area.
The majority of flight testing occurred at Crows Landing, a remote, closed, private-use airfield, 18 miles southwest of Modesto, California. Prior to flight test, the team deployed a 100-foot weather tower, small weather stations, microphone, Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) in a ground relay station for air traffic feeds, and a radar station for flight test monitoring and data collection.
Eleven collaborators participated in the initial testing that focused on vehicle trajectory, the virtual constraints known as geofencing and tracking aspects, including:
UAS multi-rotor and fixed wing vehicles;
ADS-B transponders providing GPS altitude, airspeed and location information;
ADS-B ground stations and air traffic surveillance displays;
vehicle tracking over the cellular network;
vehicle tracking using low-altitude radar system; and
weather measurement equipment.
NASA collaborators for Technical Capability Level One flight tests included Precision Hawk, Raleigh, North Carolina; Verizon, Bedminster, New Jersey; Gryphon Sensors, Syracuse, New York; Airware, San Francisco; University of Nevada-Reno/Flirty, Reno, Nevada; SkySpecs, Ann Arbor, Michigan; ne3rd, Navarre, Florida; Harris/Exelis, San Francisco; Unmanned Experts, Denver; San Jose State University; and Lone Star UAS Center, Corpus Christi, Texas.
The cloud-based system of UTM is described in four technical capability levels.
Technical Capability Level One involves field-testing of rural UAS operations for agriculture, firefighting and infrastructure monitoring.
Technical Capability Level Two will be demonstrated in October 2016 for applications that operate beyond visual line of sight of the operator in sparsely populated areas. The system will provide flight procedures and traffic rules for longer-range applications.
Technical Capability Level Three will include cooperative and uncooperative UAS tracking capabilities to ensure collective safety of manned and unmanned operations over moderately populated areas and is planned for January 2018.
Technical Capability Level Four will involve higher-density urban areas for autonomous vehicles used for newsgathering and package delivery, and will offer large-scale contingency mitigation. Build Four will be demonstrated in 2019.
As a result of the Level One field test, NASA created implementation and integration guidelines and lessons learned for the UTM system in a rural, remote or over-water environments.
“UTM Level One tests demonstrated awareness of all airspace constraints, and shows promise for vehicle tracking to support initial low-density operations,” said Kopardekar.