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NASA Tests Drone Traffic System
http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/NASA-Tests-Drone-Traffic-System-226142-1.html NASA Tests Drone Traffic System By Mary Grady In the first and largest demonstration of its kind, staffers from NASA and the FAA last week flew 22 drones simultaneously from six test sites across the country to assess NASA's drone traffic management system. Operators outside NASA entered flight plans and planned operations from several locations, using various kinds of aircraft and software. The traffic-management system checked for conflicts, approved or rejected the flight plans and notified users of constraints. The research platform "performed well," said Parimal Kopardekar, NASA's manager for the project. "This test would not have been possible without the six FAA test sites – it was a collaborative effort to ensure a successful test." A total of 24 drones flew multiple times throughout the three-hour test. In addition to the live aircraft interacting with the system, NASA Ames introduced dozens of virtual aircraft into the same airspace. This mixing of live flights with virtual flights provided additional insight for future tests to refine the concept, NASA said. The six test sites were located in Fairbanks, Alaska; Grand Forks, North Dakota; Reno, Nevada; Rome, New York; Virginia Tech's locations in Blacksburg, Virginia, and Bushwood, Maryland; and Corpus Christi, Texas. ---------------------------------------------------- http://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/nasa-marks-success-for-most-complex-drone-traffic-management-test-yet-at-faa-test-sites/ April 21, 2016 NASA Marks Success for Most Complex Drone Traffic Management Test Yet at FAA Test Sites Reporters and researchers in front of a wall of monitors observing UAS test flights San Francisco Bay Area reporters interview NASA researchers and observe the FAA test sites fly 24 drones to test air traffic management platform at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California. Credits: NASA, Dominic Hart Two men flying a drone that is hovering just over their heads Tyson LeRoy and Matt Burton of the Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership flew unmanned aircraft in Blacksburg, Virginia as part of a national campaign testing an Unmanned Traffic Management research platform developed by NASA. Credits: Virginia Tech Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science In the first and largest demonstration of its kind, NASA and operators from the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) test sites across the country flew 22 drones simultaneously to assess rural operations of NASA’s UAS traffic management (UTM) research platform. Man throwing large drone to launch it in field Jacob Moschler, operations and data analyst at the University of Maryland Unmanned Aircraft Systems Test Site, launches a UAV in Bushwood, Maryland, as part of NASA’s UTM test. Credits: Alison Nichols for University of Maryland Operators outside NASA interacted with the UTM research platform, entering flight plans and planned operations from several geographically diverse locations, using various aircraft and software. The UTM research platform checked for conflicts, approved or rejected the flight plans and notified users of constraints. Engineers at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, monitored operations and system load and gathered qualitative feedback to identify capability gaps to further refine the UTM research. drone in a field, man at a distance getting ready to fly it Matthew Westoff, pilot, flies UAV Responder for the Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration program at Poker Flat Research Range, near Fairbanks, Alaska, as part of NASA’s UTM research. Credits: UAF Geophysical Institute man kneeling over a quadcopter drone in a field Pilot in command Steve Warr initiates the startup process on a quadcopter during the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi's Lone Star Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center’s launch in Port Manfield, Texas. Credits: Texas FAA UTM “We didn’t have any testing problems today,” said Parimal Kopardekar, manager of NASA’s Safe Autonomous Systems Operations project and lead of NASA’s UTM efforts. “NASA extensively tested Technical Capability Level one and worked very closely with the FAA test sites, and the UTM research platform performed well. This test would not have been possible without the six FAA test sites – it was a collaborative effort to ensure a successful test.” A total of 24 drones flew multiple times throughout the three-hour test, with 22 flying simultaneously at one point. The mission was declared successful, given the minimum success criteria of 16 simultaneous operations was achieved. In addition to the live aircraft interacting with UTM, NASA Ames introduced dozens of virtual aircraft into the same airspace to further enhance the test. This mixing of live flights with virtual flights provided additional insight for future tests to refine the UTM concept. Conducting a successful test required hours of coordination and logistics. Weather conditions at each of the test sites provided an additional challenge as drones cannot fly in rain or high winds, so engineers monitored weather conditions across the country to ensure the drones could fly. Winds are often greater in the afternoon, so the optimum flight window was 7 a.m. – 3 p.m. PDT. The forecast the prior day predicted a 40% chance of rain for two locations, but the weather cooperated, and all sites – Fairbanks, Alaska; Grand Forks, North Dakota; Reno, Nevada; Rome, New York; Virginia Tech’s locations in Blacksburg, Virginia, and Bushwood, Maryland; and Corpus Christi, Texas – flew during the test. “After so much preparation and practice, it was very rewarding to see all test sites have success with weather, platforms and connectivity,” said Tony Basile, director of operations at NUAIR and New York test site manager. “It was additionally rewarding to hear from NASA that today’s efforts were successful on their end as well.” Joseph Rios, flight test director and UTM technical lead explained, “NASA built the research platform and tested it on a local scale, but we needed the experience and expertise at each of the FAA test sites to exercise the platform in this geographically diverse way. Their efforts and skills in managing field deployments were pivotal to the success of this activity.” Echoing that sentiment, Cathy Cahill, the director of the Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration in Fairbanks, said, “This mission demonstrated the technological advances that can be made when the expertise of NASA is combined with the capabilities of our nation’s UAS test sites.” "We enjoyed working with the NASA UTM team to explore UAS air traffic management concepts through the UTM research platform,” said Richard C. Kelley, chief engineer for the Nevada Advanced Autonomous Systems Innovation Center at the University of Nevada, Reno. “The software performed wonderfully, providing much-needed data and pointing toward open questions for the research community to address as we work to safely integrate unmanned aircraft into the National Airspace System." Each FAA test site determined how they wanted to interact with NASA’s UTM research platform. For example, the Northern Plains UAS test site from the North Dakota Department of Commerce used fixed wing aircraft from four different manufacturers, two of which built UTM software capabilities into their own ground control stations, while the other two used UTM software in their aircraft. “We wanted to test UTM concepts across diverse implementation methods, and partnering with a number of local and regional companies was a key factor in our ability to do so, and our success today,” said Doug Olsen, principal investigator of the project at the University of North Dakota. Many of the operators and test site employees remarked on the potential benefits of future systems that may leverage the results of this work. “Using a traffic management framework to separate the aircraft and provide position awareness to air traffic control or to a mission commander helps us provide space between manned aircraft and unmanned aircraft, and actually promotes the safety of integrating those two into the airspace,” said Mathew Nelson, a UAS pilot at the Texas FAA test site. “NASA is developing forward-thinking solutions to today’s aeronautical challenges with UAS,” said Rose Mooney, executive director of the Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership. UTM is still in the early research stages. This test of UTM Technical Capability Level one addressed rural UAS operations within line-of-site, such as could be potentially used for applications for agriculture, firefighting and power line monitoring. The UTM project has four technical capability levels, each increasing in complexity, culminating with level four – with potential applicability for high-density urban UAS operations. NASA is working closely with the FAA throughout the research process to define deliverables. NASA plans to turn over its UTM research to the FAA in 2019 for further testing. This activity is sponsored by the Airspace Operations and Safety Program under NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. Four of NASA’s research centers – Ames, NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California; Glenn Research Center in Cleveland; and Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia – are actively involved in the agency’s UTM initiative. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/aerospace/2016-04-24/nasa-faa-test-sites-conduct-largest-drone-management-test NASA, FAA Test Sites Conduct Largest Drone Management Test by Bill Carey - April 24, 2016, 9:54 PM Lone Star UAS Center pilot readies quadcopter for flight A researcher with Lone Star Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center readies a quadcopter for demonstration. (Photo: Lone Star UAS Center) NASA conducted the most extensive field test to date under its UAS traffic management (UTM) effort to develop a system to manage low-flying drone traffic. The test on April 19 demonstrated simultaneous operation of multiple drones at six Federal Aviation Administration-sponsored ranges nationwide. It was the first multi-state test of the NASA UTM platform and the first coordinated test involving all six FAA ranges. Drone operators at FAA test locations in Alaska, North Dakota, Nevada, New York, Virginia, Maryland and Texas entered flight plans into the UTM system for the demonstration. NASA engineers monitored the operations and overall “system load” remotely from NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. The UTM system checked for conflicts, approved or rejected flight plans and notified users of any constraints. Twenty-four drones flew multiple times during the three-hour test; at one point, 22 flew simultaneously. In addition to the live drones, NASA introduced “dozens” of simulated aircraft into the same airspace. The UTM Technical Capability Level One test covered rural operations in which small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) were flown within line-of-site of the operator. The UTM project has four technical capability levels, each increasing in complexity. The fourth level will address high-density UAS operations in urban settings. NASA said it plans to turn over its UTM research to the FAA in 2019 for development. “NASA extensively tested Technical Capability Level One and worked very closely with the FAA test sites, and the UTM research platform performed well,” said Parimal Kopardekar, manager of NASA’s Safe Autonomous Systems Project. “This test would not have been possible without the six FAA test sites—it was a collaborative effort to ensure a successful test.” Each FAA test site determined how it would interact with the UTM platform. For example, the Northern Plains UAS test site in North Dakota used fixed-wing drones from four manufacturers, two of which built UTM software into their own ground control stations, and two that use UTM software in their aircraft. The Lone Star UAS test site in Texas launched and landed three quadcopters and one small fixed-wing drone at the regional airport in Port Mansfield, about 140 miles south of Corpus Christi. “Using a traffic management framework to separate the aircraft and provide position awareness to air traffic control or to a mission commander helps us provide space between manned aircraft and unmanned aircraft and actually promotes the safety of integrating those two into the airspace,” said Mathew Nelson, one of the UAS pilots at the Texas site. The FAA sites will participate in another coordinated demonstration in October in Nevada to further test the UTM platform. In a separate announcement on April 15, NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in southern California said it will begin a fourth flight-test series http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/2014-07-11/us-firms-advance-uas-detect-and-avoid-capability using its Ikhana Predator B unmanned aircraft to evaluate detect-and-avoid technology against manned “intruder” aircraft. General Atomics, Honeywell and RTCA Special Committee 228 are participating in the tests. The fourth flight-test series, which runs through June, calls for 15 flights and 270 encounters between aircraft. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/2014-07-11/us-firms-advance-uas-detect-and-avoid-capability U.S. Firms Advance UAS ‘Detect and Avoid’ Capability by Bill Carey - July 11, 2014, 6:05 AM Industry and government testers plan to demonstrate a detect-and-avoid suite on NASA’s Ikhana air vehicle later this year. Industry and government testers plan to demonstrate a detect-and-avoid suite on NASA’s Ikhana air vehicle later this year. The aircraft will be outfitted with an AESA array of General Atomics due-regard radar U.S. government and industry testers plan to begin data-gathering flights later this year using a system that will address perhaps the biggest technological hurdle to widespread use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS)–the ability of a remotely piloted vehicle to “detect and avoid” (DAA) other aircraft. At the same time, a special committee convened by standards organization RTCA is working toward delivering DAA equipment standards by July 2016. General Atomics, Honeywell, BAE Systems, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and NASA will evaluate a DAA system with “self-separation” functionality using NASA’s Ikhana air vehicle–a General Atomics’ MQ-9 Predator B–during flight tests that are scheduled to begin in November at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, part of Edwards Air Force Base in California. The DAA system architecture combines automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) position reporting and TCAS collision avoidance, which are both transponder-based “cooperative” technologies requiring other aircraft to be so equipped, and the General Atomics “due-regard” radar, an active electronically scanned array (AESA) X-band radar that can detect “non-cooperative” aircraft, that is, those without transponders. The testers also plan to introduce an advanced airborne collision avoidance system-X (ACAS X) algorithm the FAA is studying for unmanned aircraft, known as ACAS Xu, developed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Self-separation is the ability of an aircraft to remain “well clear,” or safely separated from other aircraft. Due regard, a term that originated with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), refers to a requirement that military and state-owned aircraft be flown with “due regard for the safety of navigation of civil aircraft” when operating over international waters. Last November, General Atomics conducted the first flight of a DAA system on a company-owned Predator B flown from its Gray Butte flight operations facility in Palmdale, California. The system combined a prototype due-regard radar, BAE’s AD/DPX-7 identification friend or foe transponder with ADS-B in reception and Honeywell TPA-100 TCAS processor, working in unison to detect and track cooperative and non-cooperative aircraft. Honeywell’s sensor fusion algorithm combined data from the multiple sensors into a single track for display in the ground control station, where General Atomics’ conflict prediction and display system aids the pilot in maneuvering the aircraft to stay well clear of traffic. In an interview with AIN, General Atomics executives said self-separation is managed by the pilot on the ground, based on the fused sensor information sent to the ground control station. Track data for collision avoidance, a function of last resort, will be sent both to the ground and directly to the aircraft’s flight computer. The system’s TCAS function and autopilot are coupled. The pilot will have about three or four seconds to respond to a resolution advisory, or recommended evasive action; otherwise the autopilot will perform the maneuver. As efforts to introduce unmanned aircraft into the U.S. national airspace system gather steam, RTCA Special Committee 228, an industry and government group established in May 2013, is developing minimum operational performance standards (Mops) for both DAA capability and the communications and control (C2) datalink that UASs will need to safely fly in nonsegregated airspace. Mops describe technical characteristics and test procedures for avionics systems andcomponents, which the FAA may then incorporate into technical standard orders that manufacturers follow to design and build equipment. SC-228’s initial focus is to develop DAA standards for larger unmanned aircraft equipped to operate in Class-A airspace above 18,000 feet MSL under IFR flight rules, transitioning through lower airspace levels to get there. It expects to produce preliminary Mops for both DAA and C2 systems by next July, with final standards following a year later. At the Unmanned Systems 2014 conference in Orlando, Florida, in May, Satish Krishnan, General Atomics technical director of special projects, said the company’s internally funded due-regard radar development, started in 2011 with a “breadboard” AESA radar on a manned aircraft, had completed 28 manned and two unmanned flight tests, with 80 hours of flight time. General Atomics plans to make available preproduction engineering development model radars to customers in the first quarter of 2015. The full DAA suite will be designed to specifications RTCA released in 2016. “We have a good idea of where the industry is in terms of development, and we are the industry leader,” Krishnan told AIN. Other efforts are progressing in the U.S. to develop DAA systems for unmanned aircraft, a capability earlier and alternately known as “sense and avoid.” The U.S. Air Force started a formal acquisition program in October 2012 for what at the time was a Global Hawk-specific technology. In January 2013, the service adopted a new strategy to develop a common airborne sense-and-avoid system (C-ABSAA). Last September, it issued to industry a request for information seeking potential sources to develop a C-ABSAA system “for large remotely piloted aircraft systems including the Predator and Global Hawk.” General Atomics, for one, confirmed that it responded to the solicitation. The Mitre Corporation joined with NASA Langley Research Center, the University of North Dakota (UND) and Draper Laboratory to test a DAA system using ADS-B as the sensor in 2011. The aim of the Limited Deployment-Cooperative Airspace Project (LD-CAP) was to test a “cooperative autonomous sense-and-avoid” system that would work even if a C2 link to the aircraft was interrupted. Tests involved flying a NASA-Langley Cirrus SR22 single-engine airplane as a “surrogate” UAS, with a safety pilot aboard, to evaluate software maneuver algorithms based on ADS-B detection of nearby aircraft. The project ran some 400 encounters in flight against UND and NASA-flown “intruder” airplanes. At the Unmanned Systems conference, Al Palmer, director of the UAS Center of Excellence at UND, said the LD-CAP project will be extended, and will likely incorporate Northrop Grumman’s SandShark UAS. The university and Northrop Grumman also signed a cooperative agreement to offer pilot training using the SandShark. |
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