Report
Teaser, summary, work performed and final results
Periodic Reporting for period 1 - USIS (U-Space Initial Services)
Teaser
U-Space Initial Services project aims to demonstrate the technical and operational feasibility of providing in a very short time frame U-Space services to UAV/RPAS operators and to authorities/airspace managers.The project will operationally demonstrate the following U-space...
Summary
U-Space Initial Services project aims to demonstrate the technical and operational feasibility of providing in a very short time frame U-Space services to UAV/RPAS operators and to authorities/airspace managers.
The project will operationally demonstrate the following U-space services:
• E-identification
• Strategic de-confliction
• Tracking
• Flight Planning Management
• Monitoring
• Drone AIM
• Flight Plan preparation/optimization assistance
• Collaborative interfaces with ATC
The trials will take place in France and Hungary. The Hungarian trials will be based on specific and complex flights (BVLOS, etc.) while the French trials relies on day to day drones operations (in all environments). It will enable to assess the benefits of U-space services to support complex operations but also the deployment and benefits of U-space services in an existing environment for actual operations.
The project combines the expertise of key stakeholders of the future U-Space (Civilian Aviation Authorities/Air National Service Provider, UAV/RPAS Operators, Industries and Law enforcement authorities) in order to insure that the services demonstrated fit for purpose to their requirements, constraints and needs. By bringing 4 Nations together, the consortium puts a particular focus on demonstrating services that can be deployed at a EU level.
The demonstration will prove that U-Space services can be deployed in short time frame enabling safe, secure and efficient UAV/RPAS flight while contributing to their societal acceptance.
Work performed
Work Package 1 – Project Management
The work carried by this WP has been to structure the project, carry the KoM/Mid-Term review meeting with the SESAR JU and set up the internal organization amongst the beneficiaries (internal coordination meeting, etc.).
The KoM/Mid-Term review has been conducted in SESAR JU offices on the 5th of February 2019.
Work Package 2 – Use Cases, Test Plan, Results
The work carried by this WP has been to draft the Study Plan and adjust the milestones/deliverables according to the updated Study Plan structure.
Work Package 3 – Services Provision
The UTM platform has been deployed in France Test Bed and is operational. The deployment consists in granting access to the U-space services to users:
• The users to date are: CTR Supervisor, Tower ATCOs, Local authorities.
• The U-space service available is U2-Flight Management System.
• The configuration is:
• Regulation: French applicable regulation
• Data: Data required to conduct operation assessment against applicable regulation (AIXM 4.5, National boarders, Regional boarders, airport impacting zones, etc.)
A permanent and systematic logs/events collection has been implemented in order to automatically build the operational and technical reporting to support USIS project.
Thales opened its web portal for developers. This portal give access to U-space services public API made available by Thales. This portal is used by Unifly for interfacing its UAS operators application to Thales U-space services.
Work Package 4 – France Test Bed
The activities have been focused on user tests (CTR supervisor, ATCO Tower, Local authorities) and support the project in managing the relations with the local authorities and the UAS operators.
Work Package 5 – Hungary Test Bed
The activities have been focused on re-fining the scenarios to support via U-space services as well as clarifying the requirements on the UTM platform configuration (Regulation to apply, data to ingest, etc.).
Work Package 6 – Communication and Dissemination
Communication and Dissemination activities will start from February 2019.
Final results
Given the fact that the contract has been in execution end of year with a retro-active starting date. It is too early to establish the impact of the project. However via the deployment on the French test bed of U2 - Flight Plan Management, the project has been able to demonstrate that the service can:
Accomodate existing regulations
Manage complex regulation as well as cope to existing administrative structure of a country
Drastically reduce the time of flight request assessment and approval (from days to minutes)
As such, the results tend to demonstrate that U-space services can reach a sufficient level of flexibility to be deployed in an existing environment with legacy conditions as well as facilitating the access to the airspace for drone operators.