+ Visit NASA.gov + Contact NASA Find it at NASA
	+ Home Search Aviation Systems		Unmanned Aircraft Systems in the National Airspace System (UAS in the NAS) Highlights - Fiscal Year 2013 The UAS in the NAS project completed its key decision point (KDP) review in September 2013. The success of this review validated the research plan for the remaining years of the project, and included the endorsement of NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate on the remaining activities and human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulations planned for the remainder of the project. During July 2013, a HITL simulation of levels of UAS automation control and alerting of air traffic was performed at the Flight Deck Display Research Lab at NASA Ames. The simulation supported the goal of reducing barriers to the integration of UAS with the NAS, led by the Human Systems Integration (HSI) sub-project, with significant participation from the Integrated Test & Evaluation (IT&E) and Separation assurance/Sense and avoid Interoperability (SSI) sub-projects. Data was collected on the ability of a pilot to quickly and accurately respond to air traffic control (ATC) clearances and automation advisories/warnings using three different pilot-automation interfaces. The simulation also demonstrated the successful integration of the Air Force Research Lab's Vigilant Spirit Control Station with NASA traffic displays and separation alerting and resolution algorithms that will reduce risk in the execution of future simulations and flight tests. In May 2013, UAS in the NAS researchers met at NASA Langley with the FAA's Airborne Collision Avoidance System (ACAS) and Unmanned Aircraft Integration program offices, the Department of Defense's Air Force Research Lab, and RTCA Special Committee 228 to discuss plans for collaboration. Among the strategic alignment opportunities that were identified during the meetings, NASA and the FAA identified an opportunity for NASA to provide data and analysis from its experiments to help the FAA develop certification standards for ACAS (the next-generation TCAS system for UAS) and Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) for Sense-and-Avoid systems. Also during FY13, the SSI sub-project developed and delivered algorithms that provide the UAS's sense-and-avoid (SAA) capabilities. The SAA system models the UAS's surveillance system, identifying intruder aircraft and displaying them on the Cockpit Situation Display (CSD) for the pilot's situational awareness. The SAA algorithm also evaluates whether intruders will pass closer than an airborne separation standard, also known as a “well-clear violation” and displays such targets to the pilot so an appropriate resolution maneuver can be negotiated with ATC. The SAA algorithm also recommends maneuvers pilots can execute immediately in the event of achieving a collision avoidance threshold. The study will inform key research questions for the UAS community, including definition of the airborne separation standard “well clear,” and the appropriate time and distance thresholds at which to notify the pilot of potential collision situations. In June 2013 the UAS Integrated Test and Evaluation (IT&E) team conducted a series of experiments to measure the time to transmit aircraft state data through the core components of the Live, Virtual, Constructive (LVC) simulation infrastructure. Due to the distributed nature of the LVC test environment, the latencies of messages passed between the LVC components observed in standalone simulations must be characterized and clearly understood to assess the effect of latency on an overall simulation. The test environment focused on measuring latencies between aircraft simulators and virtual air traffic control workstation components at Ames, Dryden, and Glenn. A final test measured the latency of sending data from a live aircraft flying at Glenn utilizing a 3G Cellular data connection into the simulation environment at Ames Research Center. The results indicated that data between virtual systems at the distributed facilities had latencies less then operationally required and would be acceptable for simulation. The data from the live flight test demonstrated latencies greater then operationally required and indicated the need to utilize an alternative method for data transmission and continued testing. The final experiment report was submitted to ARMD as the FY13 APG for the UAS in the NAS Project on September 27, 2013. The UAS in the NAS team published a journal article in the 2013 Air Traffic Control Quarterly's special issue on Unmanned Aircraft Systems, “Effects of UAS Performance Characteristics, Altitude, and Mitigation Concepts on Aircraft Encounters and Delays.”
	+ Freedom of Information Act + Budgets, Strategic Plans and Accountability Reports + NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices + Accessibility Curator: NASA Official: Last Updated: November 7, 2018 + Contact Us + About This Site