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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AIRPASS (Advanced Integrated RPAS Avionics Safety Suite)

Teaser

Summary

The emerging technology of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), or drones, formerly mostly operated by military agencies, is increasingly used to provide non-military aviation services (commercial, non-commercial or governmental non-military) and is expected to boost industrial competitiveness, promote entrepreneurship and create new businesses in order to generate growth. Drones are able to fly in areas or under conditions that are considered to be too dangerous, dull or dirty for manned aircraft, such as flying close to the ground/water. Furthermore, they comprise multiple systems with a great variety of equipment and payloads, making them suitable for a lot of different tasks. Examples of situations for which drones could be useful are coastguard search and rescue, mapping fires, police surveillance, or packet delivery. As such, there is a high demand for drone technologies resulting in additional jobs. Beyond the drone operators, manufacturers and system integrators, the drone industry also includes a broad supply chain providing a large range of enabling technologies (e.g. flight control, communication, energy, sensors, telemetry, etc.). A European Commission report highlights an estimate by the European AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe that 150,000 jobs could be created by the drone industry by 2050.

Since not all key technologies required for drones to fly in non-segregated airspace are currently mature and standardised, drone integration into all types of airspace will be gradual and will evolve as technology, regulation and societal acceptance progress. For this reason, it is difficult to address all of the issues simultaneously, and the European Union (EU) RPAS roadmap provides a prioritised timeline for achieving full integration. The early focus should be on achieving integration with Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) operations in managed airspace, and therefore research in collision avoidance (detect and avoid, D&A) as well as command and control performance is also required. AIRPASS addresses the on-board technologies for drones that are required in order to implement the Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) concept for drone operations in very low level (VLL) conditions and within the visual flight rules (VFR) environment. The investigations will cover D&A systems for cooperative and non-cooperative traffic, autopilot systems as well as CNS systems. AIRPASS will recommend a low cost and open approach for the issue of VLL traffic management on-board systems.

The overall project objective is to examine of the range of technologies on-board the drone itself that are needed, or that need to be developed, in order to implement a UTM concept. The project objective can be viewed from different perspectives: From the societal perspective; objectives in terms of contribution to society in general. From the industrial perspective; objectives in terms of making valuable contribution to realize the ambition of the aerospace industry. From the research perspective; objectives in terms of the knowledge, tools, and capabilities that the consortium members, need to provide in order to be able to conduct the requested activities.

Work performed

During the reporting period, the work packages 1, 2 and 3 were partly conducted. Next to the project management and dissemination activities (project management plan and website published), these key deliverables were submitted:

D2.1 Scope and Boundaries document: Definition of drone classes and airspace classes to be considered; Definition of the area of work for AIRPASS

D2.2 Identification of existing CNS infrastructures: Reviews of currently available CNS infrastructures and technologies

D2.3 Identification of existing on-board technologies: Reviews of existing on-board technologies for unmanned aircraft with respect to very low level flights, dense airspace and possible U-Space integration

D3.1 Requirements for the on-board system concept: A set of 68 functional requirements on several on-board components

This forms the basis for the definition of the on-board system concept that can be used to perform operations harmonized with U-space.

Final results

The existing CNS infrastructure that is available will be reviewed to identify which technologies could or should be used on-board to enable (or optimise) VLL operations within the UTM concept. This is envisaged to be done according to the MoSCoW (must/should/could/wonâ€™t) method, which allows prioritisation of the technologies. Upon these results, the requirements can be identified for the on-board systems with respect to the available CNS infrastructure. Aspects that will be taken into account are the large number of drones, (low) costs, the necessity of miniaturisation, and the impact on frequency spectrum. The definition of an on-board system concept is started by defining the requirements based on the scope and boundaries, identified technologies, and the implementation approach. The functional requirements will be drafted and categorised according to the specific type of drones, taking into account the operational categories as defined by EASA (i.e. open, specific and certified). Once the requirements are clearly defined, a first set of the specifications are drafted for the identified different categories of drones and applicable VLL operational environments. This includes the distribution of the functional requirements over the different on-board systems. Several studies to define the on-board system concept for VLL drone operations within the envisioned UTM concept will be performed. These will (at least) include the following: communications, navigation, surveillance, autopilot, D&A, geo-fencing, miniaturisation, and integration. The studies will cover both hard- and software. If identified or deemed necessary, additional subjects can be added. Aspects, such as compatibility with manned operations, large number of drones, and low costs solutions will be taken into account under the mentioned subjects.

The project will Study various technology solutions tailored to the type of drones and the operation to be conducted and define requirements for a drone on-board system meeting the needs of VLL usage and operations harmonized with U-space. In addition, high level safety requirements will be allocated to the different technical systems needed for operations in VLL environment according to U-space by using the SORA methodology being developed for various VLL operations and apply this for the different technical systems to derive safety requirements.