Page 9 - Aerotech News and Review July 15 2016

Two-month UAS flight test series concludes
As the wheels of NASA’s Ikhana Unmanned
Aircraft System touched down June 30, 2016, a
two-month flight test series came to a close, con-
cluding an essential stage in the agency’s research
into technologies that support safe integration of
UAS into the National Airspace System.
Flight Test Series 4 (FT4), which took place at
Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards,
Calif., began April 26, consisted of 19 flights over
a nine-week period. The flights tested Detect-and-
Avoid algorithms developed by NASA, General
Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., Honeywell,
and other industry partners that, for the first time,
could validate Minimum Operational Perfor-
mance Standards, established by RTCA Special
Committee 228.
The algorithms successfully generated pre-
cise alerts necessary for the pilot controlling the
Ikhana from the ground to remain well clear and
avoid collisions.
Two different NASA-developed algorithms
were tested in the flight test series. The Java Ar-
chitecture for Detect and Avoid Extensibility and
Modeling, algorithm was developed by NASA’s
Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Califor-
nia, and works as an “auto-resolver” integrated
with a pilot display. This algorithm is paired with
the Vigilant Spirit Control Station display, de-
veloped by the Air Force Research Lab, which
provides a tool for pilots to observe traffic and
avoid inflight conflicts.
The other algorithm tested in FT4 was the
NASA Langley Research Center’s Detect and
Avoid Alerting Logic for Unmanned Systems
(DAIDALUS), which helps determine conflicts
and calculates the maneuvers necessary to main-
tain a safe distance between aircraft.
To test these algorithms, over 260 scripted
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July 15, 2016
encounters were performed between the Ikhana In addition to pilot intervention, a number of climb or descend maneuver.”
and manned “intruder” aircraft. These intruders encounters tested the DAA system’s interoper- FT4 applied data collected from its predeces-
included NASA’s B200 King Air, T-34C, G-III ability with automatic collision avoidance ma-
and TG-14 aircraft, a Honeywell C-90 King Air, neuvers, performed using TCAS. The TCAS sor, Flight Test Series 3, and was conducted fol-
and a U.S. Air Force C-12 King Air, and all flew maneuvering was one of the objectives for test- lowing several years of groundwork efforts be-
pre-determined flight paths, which subsequently ing and the collision avoidance performed suc- tween NASA and its partners on the UAS-NAS
triggered the DAA alerting and maneuver guid- cessfully. Mike Marston, lead operations engineer project, including GA-ASI.
ance logic for Ikhana’s pilot, allowing the aircraft for Armstrong’s Integrated Test and Evaluation,
to avoid collisions. The use of the DAA system who supported the flights as chief test conductor, “Flight Test 4 was the culmination of over five
onboard Ikhana demonstrated an airborne capa- indicated that TCAS testing was necessary, given years of intense research and development on be-
bility that can be achieved to make UAS flight the autopilot’s capabilities. half of GA-ASI and our partners,” said David R.
as safe as or safer than current NAS operations. Alexander, President, Aircraft Systems, GA-ASI.
“An advantage of an unmanned aircraft is that “We are very proud to be a part of this historic
The intruders were equipped with different sur- it has an advanced autopilot system,” Marston flight test campaign.”
veillance systems that identified them as either said, “so we can take that system and insert au-
cooperative or non-cooperative aircraft, which is tomatic maneuvering, and allow the aircraft itself Data collected from the flight test series will
a real life aspect of NAS operations. to perform that maneuver, which is currently a be used by RTCA SC-228 to define DAA perfor-
mance standards as a first phase to enable routine
Cooperative aircraft include those intruders NAS access for UAS.
capable of sharing their location, such as an
Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast
(ADS-B) system, Traffic Alert and Collision
Avoidance System (TCAS), or a transponder
facilitating traffic detection and resolution. Non-
cooperative aircraft refer to intruders who either
are not equipped with these systems, or have sys-
tem failures and require an alternative means of
detection.
Including intruders with mixed equipage in
the testing represents a more challenging envi-
ronment, in which not all aircraft feature coop-
erative systems, according to Sam Kim, NASA’s
UAS-NAS Integrated Test and Evaluation Project
Engineer.
“The only sensor currently being used to detect
non-cooperative aircraft is the onboard air-to-air
radar, and because the radar has limited detection
ranges and uncertainties compared to cooperative
sensors, the timeline for alerting and enabling pi-
lot reaction is more compressed,” said Kim.
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