Development of a Surrogate Autonomous Aircraft for Entry in the NASA Airspace Operation Challenge

Abstract

The integration of UAS into the National Airspace, although imminent, still presents several technological challenges. Before a sucessful integration can occur, it is necessary to demonstrate different technologies in traffic detection, traffic avoidance, and communications, as well as in the integration of those technologies as a single unit. For this purpose, NASA developed its UAS Airspace Operation Challenge; a Centennial Challenge aimed at the demonstration of these technologies. The challenge consists of developing a UAS solution that can navigate autonomously while detecting and avoiding traffic using ADS-B signals. EmbryRiddle Aeronautical Univeristy developed an entry to this challenge: a UAS consisting of a surrogate UAV, a ground station, and a data link. The traffic detection challenges are addressed by processing images collected from an array of cameras mounted in the wingtips, while the avoidance challenges are addressed with a series of path planning algorithms. For communication, a ground station was built and equipped with a data link for monitoring the aircraft's systems. The individual components were tested sucessfully, but flight test of the integrated unit is still in progress. The challenge was cancelled, but Embry-Riddle's entry remains a valuable asset for UAS integration technology. Nomenclature ADS-B= Automatic Dependent SurveillanceBroadcast IMU = Inertial Measurement Unit AOC = Airspace Operations Challenge INS = Inertial Navigation System CFIT = Controlled Flight Into Terrain N = North Velocity CPT = Control Position Transducer NAS = National Airspace CRC = Cyclic Redundancy Check NI = National Instruments cRIO = Compact Reconfigurable Input/Output ψ = Relative Bearing D = Distance to Collision PPT = Precision pressure transducer E = East Velocity ROC = Rate of Climb EFRC = Eagle Flight Research Center SQL = Structured Query Language ERAU = Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University UAS = Unmanned Aircraft System FAA = Federal Aviation Regulations UAV = Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle GFSK = Gaussian Frequency Shift Keying VFR = Visual Flight Rules h = Rate of Change of Altitude V GS = Ground Speed

Platform-Independent Geofencing for Low Altitude UAS Operations

“…The concept of geofencing to keep a small UAS in a designated test range has been introduced previously 12,13,14,15 but to-date has not been rigorously developed or flight-tested as an automation aid. Basic geofencing or electronic leashing functionality already exists in some off-the-shelf autopilot systems, such as the open-source Ardupilot (http://ardupilot.com/) with upgraded hardware such as Pixhawk 16 (http:// plane.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-autopilots/common-pixhawk-overview/) and APM (http://plane.…”