National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration in the National Airspace System (NAS) Project

Presented by: Mr. Chuck Johnson

Manager, UAS Integration in the NAS Project

UAS SymposiumMarch 13, 2013

NASA’s Current UAS Operations

• The Science Mission Directorate owns/leases UAS for the conduct of science missionso Wide range of science missions including hurricane tracking, fire sensing and

observations, hyperspectral environmental data collectiono Planned missions including measurement of polar ice melt and atmospheric

particulate data collection

• Science missions are all successfully completed in the NAS using a COAo COA process has become extremely efficiento Resource and time required to acquire the COA has been significantly reducedo Some missions are limited by constraints of the COA process

• The Aeronautics Mission Directorate develops and tests UAS technologies in conjunction with external partnerso Partners include DARPA, AFRL, industryo Testing is conducted in restricted airspace

• The Aeronautics Mission Directorate has established the UAS Integration in the NAS Project to develop technologies for enabling civil access to the NAS

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Problem Statement, Goals, Objectives

• There is an increasing need to fly UAS in the NAS to perform missions of vital importance to National Security and Defense, Emergency Management, and Science. There is also an emerging need to enable commercial applications such as cargo transport (e.g. FedEx)

Capitalizing on NASA’s unique capabilities, the project will utilize integrated system level tests in a relevant environment to eliminate or reduce critical technical barriers of integrating UAS into the NAS

• The project will develop a body of evidence (validated data, algorithms, analysis, and recommendations) to support key decision makers, establish policies, procedures, standards, and regulations to enable routine UAS access to the NAS

• The project will also provide a methodology for developing airworthiness requirements for UAS, and data to support development of certification standards and regulatory guidance for civil UAS

• The project will support the development of a national UAS access roadmap

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Airspace Integration Technical Challenge

• Barriers Being Addressed by NASAo Uncertainty surrounding the ability of UAS to interoperate in ATC environments

and maintain safe separation from other aircraft in the absence of an on-board pilot

o Lack of requirements for Sense and Avoid (SAA) systems and their interoperability with Separation Assurance (SA) functions

o Lack of standards and guidelines with respect to UAS display/informationo Lack of data to validate that civil frequency spectrum allocated during WRC12

for UAS control and non- payload communication (CNPC) communications are secure, scalable, and suitable for safety of flight operations

• Project Contributions to Advance the State of the Arto We will analyze capacity, efficiency and safety impacts of SAA-equipped UAS in the

ATC environment to validate the requirements for SAA and SA/SAA interoperability through simulation and flight tests

o We will evaluate ground control station (GCS) system human intervention in automated systems to inform and validate standards for UAS GCSs through prototyping, simulation and flight tests

o We will develop a candidate UAS CNPC prototype system to validate that allocated civil UAS spectrum is secure, scalable, and suitable for safety-of-flight operations

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Standards/Regulations Technical Challenge

• Barriers Being Addressed by NASAo Lack of civil UAS standards, regulations, and guidelines for GCS design and

display of informationo Lack of validated regulations, standards, and practices for safe, secure, and

efficient UAS CNPC including integration with air traffic control communications

o Lack of safety-related data available to support decision making for defining civil airworthiness requirements specific to the full range of UAS, or for their avionics systems or other components

• Project Contributions to Advance the State of the Arto We will determine the required information to be displayed in the GCS to support the

development of standards and guidelines through prototyping and simulation o We will analyze integration of UAS CNPC system and ATC communications to

validate recommendations for regulations and standardso We will collect and analyze UAS hazard and risk related data to support safety case

recommendations for the development of certification/regulation standards

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Relevant Test Environment Technical Challenge

• Barriers Being Addressed by NASAo Lack of an adaptable, scalable, and schedulable operationally relevant test

environment for evaluating UAS concepts and technologies Due to the constraints and safety implications, it is impossible to fully test

UAS capabilities in the NAS Due to the requirements for the actual test environment, it would be costly

to locate all of the infrastructure required to validate UAS concepts in one location or range

• Project Contributions to Advance the State of the Arto We will develop a Live Virtual Constructive – Distributed Environment (LVC-DE)

linking national assets and capabilities required to conduct high-fidelity testing The nodes of this distributed environment will include NASA Dryden, Ames,

Langley, and Glenn Research Centers; the FAA Technical Center; and, various DoD entities (i.e. Pax River, AFRL, NORTHCOM)

The nodes can be expanded to include other necessary entities such as NASA Kennedy Space Center, NMSU, the six test ranges, other DoD ranges, etc.

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Subproject Technical Challenge Alignment

Airspace Integration

Validate technologies and procedures for unmanned aircraft systems to

remain an appropriate distance from other aircraft, and to safely and

routinely interoperate with NAS and NextGen Air Traffic Services

Communications

PE

Jim Griner - GRC

Separation Assurance/Sense and Avoid Interoperability (SSI)

Co-PEs

Eric Mueller - ARC

Maria Consiglio - LaRC

Human Systems Integration (HSI)

PE

Jay Shively - ARC

Certification

PE

Kelly Hayhurst - LaRC

Integrated Test and Evaluation

Co-PEs

Jim Murphy - ARC

Sam Kim - DFRC

Standards/Regulations

Validate minimum system and operational performance

standards and certification requirements and procedures for

unmanned aircraft systems to safely operate in the NAS

Relevant Test Environment

Develop an adaptable, scalable, and schedulable relevant test

environment for validating concepts and technologies for unmanned aircraft systems to

safely operate in the NAS

PE – Project Engineer

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UAS-NAS ProjectS

SI

HSI

CommAlgorithm Data

Transmission Requirements

Communication System

Performance Estimates Comm

unication SystemPerform

ance Estimates

Pilot/Operator/G

CS Data

Transmission Requirem

ents

Algorithm/Display

RequirementsAlgorithm/Display

Configuration

Cert

Subproject “Body of Evidence” Development

Interface

RTCAWG 2

Data

Plan

WG

3

Data

Plan

WG 1, 2, 3

Data

Plan

WG 4

Data

Plan

Project RTCA InterfaceProject FAA Interface

FAA

UA

SIO

Data

Plan

AVS, ATO, ANG-C2 Test

Requirements

UAS-NAS Project “Body of Evidence” Development

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Body of EvidenceRealization, Evaluation, and Transition

• Continuous FAA & RTCA Involvement (Right Research, Right Methods, Right Deliverables)

IHITL

Re

sultsReadiness

Decisions

Requirements

FT3

Re

sults

Readiness Decisions

Requirements

FT4

Re

sults

Readiness Decisions

Requirements

Separation Assurance/Sense and Avoid Interoperability

Human Systems Integration

Communications … Spectrum Studies, Candidate Communication Technologies, Prototype radio Flight Test, Simulations, Security Assessments …

… Candidate Displays, Part-task HITL simulations, Scenario Development, Continuous Guideline Development…

… Model Development, Fast-time and HITL Simulations, Scenario Development, Continuous Algorithm Improvement …

Body of Evidence

Report

Report

Report

Report

Report

Report

Report

Report

Report

Report

Report

Report

Report

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PT-1 PT-2 PT-3 MR-1 PT-4FM-1 PT-5 PT-6FM-2

A Fast-1 L Fast-1 A HITL-1 A Fast-2 L Fast-2 L HITL-1 A Fast-3

Ch-1 Ch-2 Comm-1 Comm-2 FT Radio FT Sat-1 FT Sat-2 Comm-3 Comm-4 Lg Scale Impact

SSI Technical Activities

Augmented the Airspace Concept Evaluation System (ACES) to model UAS operations and sense-and-avoid systems in nationwide gate-to-gate ATC simulations

Documented NASA UAS-NAS integration concepts according to • mission planning • trajectory-based

operations• separation assurance • sense-and-avoid

Results being published in Air Traffic Control Quarterly Special UAS Edition (May/June 2013)

Showed slow-speed UAS may have less impact on existing traffic than

faster UAS

17 new unmanned

aircraft types

Ground control station, pilot,

comm. link, SAA surveillance and

algorithms

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SSI Technical Activities (cont.)

Controller in the Loop Simulation Software Capability• Sense and Avoid (SAA) implementation concept developed and published• Sense and Avoid-Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (SAA-TCAS)

interoperability analytical model developed and implemented • Control/Communication delay and UA performance models Implemented • Simulation capability developed and demonstrated • Controller in the loop experiment underway for data collection in FY13-14

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HSI Technical Activities

First Part Task Simulation: An Examination of Baseline Compliance

The part task sim, which ran in Feb-March 2012, utilized Multiple UAS Simulator (MUSIM) and the Cockpit Situation Display (CSD) to achieve two main objectives:1. Examine baseline compliance of UAS operations in the current airspace system2. Examine the effects of introducing a traffic display into a UAS ground control station

(GCS) on pilot performance, workload and situation awareness

Main results/conclusions:• Potential benefits to both Pilots and Controllers when a traffic display is present in the

GCS evidence by significantly higher pilot situational awareness (SA) on several dimensions and significantly lower workload for pilots when communicating with ATC

• ATC reported appropriate and immediate compliance by UAS pilots, and comparable levels of perceived workload and safety controlling their sector

Pilot SA

Pilot Workload

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Communications Technical Activities First Air-Ground Channel Propagation Tests

Ground verification testing, followed by a test flight in the airspace northwest of Cleveland during the week of Nov 19, 2012. Two additional flights were conducted on Nov 26, 2012 and Dec 5, 2012.

Data is currently being analyzed, before flight testing is initiated at other ground site locations.

Ground Control Station

Ground Control Station

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LOS + Ground Reflection + Multipath

CIR— TDL Model

From the collected Power Delay Profile data, statistical channel models will be developed for nine different environmental locations.

LOSLOS

GroundReflection Multipath

LOS

Flight tracks during data collection on Dec 5, 2012

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Communications Technical Activities (cont.)Initial results from Dec 5, 2012 flight

0.5 1 1.5 2

x 104

100

110

120

130

140

150

160

170

180

Tx-Rx distance (meter)

Pat

h Lo

ss (d

B)

Free SpaceVertical FlatHorizontal FlatVertical CurvedHorizontal Curved

0.5 1 1.5 2

x 104

80

90

100

110

120

130

140

150

160

Tx-Rx distance (meter)

Pat

h Lo

ss (d

B)

Free SpaceVertical FlatHorizontal FlatVertical CurvedHorizontal Curved

Signal loss (as indicated by the peaks) as well as signal gain (as indicated by the troughs) is observed, due to the arrival of a combination of line of sight, ground reflection, and multipath signals with different phases at the receiver at the same time.

Understanding the environmental effects on the propagation of the two UAS communication bands is critical to the development of UAS control communication systems which can be certified for use in the NAS.

C-band

Path loss vs. Tx-Rx distance for analytical 2 ray model

L-band

Perfect Free- Space Loss

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Certification Technical Activities Draft Report on Perspectives on Unmanned Aircraft Classification for

Civil Airworthiness Standards

Documents the subproject’s identification and examination of different approaches to classification of unmanned aircraft for the purpose of assigning airworthiness standards.

Identifies issues and implications for various approaches to UAS classification for airworthiness certification

Observations:

• UAS classification for airworthiness certification is complicated (more so than obvious)

Because much of the basis for existing aircraft categories is not directly applicable to UAS

• Most UAS classification systems include operational dimensions and other factors in addition to weight

This implies that some classification aspects for UAS may be different from those used for manned aircraft

Aircraft class + weight largely determines airworthiness standards for manned aircraft today

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IT&E Technical Activities

• Integrated a commercial off the shelf (COTS) (Garmin GDL-90) ADS-B onto a large UAS (Ikhana MQ-9)o Full ADS-B Out and In functionalityo Unprecedented traffic situational awareness to UAS

pilots

• Ikhana flight tests (Series 1) completed Mar 15 and 20 for ADS-B Out and May 8 and 11 for ADS-B Ino Collected ADS-B “as installed” performance flight

test datao Verified ADS-B Out met FAA Advisory Circular (AC)

20-165 for ADS-B Out equipageo Valuable FAA Tech Center support with validated

data analysis tools

• System Requirements Definitiono Completed the System Requirements Review (SRR)

for an IT&E UAS Surrogate on Nov 29

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Ikhana flight path as tracked by the national ITT ADS-B Surveillance

Network

Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) Integration

IT&E Technical Activities (cont.)

• Leveraged existing LVC-DE infrastructureo Established a gateway at DFRC to connect to

the LVC environmento Distributed data to Cockpit Situation Displays

(CSDs) and to Air Traffic Control (ATC) workstations

o Integrated Ikhana Pilot Simulatoro Established connection to the Flight Monitor

Server live surveillance data feed at the FAA Tech Center

• Flight tests (series 1) completed May 8 and 11 o Verified data exchange of live, virtual, and

constructive traffic information between all participants

o Verified preliminary voice communications network

o Informed the Team of refinements needed to more accurately time-tag and record data

• System Requirements Definitiono Completed the System Requirements Review

(SRR) for the LVC-DE core connectivity architecture on Dec 12 17

Live Virtual Constructive Distributed Environment (LVC-DE)

StakeholdersPartnerships and Collaborations

Aviation Safety Program

Airspace Systems Program

Foreign Organizations

Academia

Industry

Science Mission Directorate

UAS Integration in the NAS Project

Standards Organizations

Other Government Organizations and

FFRDCs

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telework time-stamp telework time-stamp