Improving situation awareness for safe and compliant UAV/RPAS operations

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Operation and integration of Unmanned Aerial Systems in the airspace requires a safety management system to sense and avoid incoming aircrafts and eliminate chances of mid-air collision. Seamatica's Apollo System is an integrated ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast: A transponder which broadcasts/receives geo-position information to/from other aircraft). Presently, Apollo depends on a GPS tracker installed on the unmanned aircraft to transmit its GPS position back to Apollo for the display. Two-way communications with the autopilot GCS (Ground Control Station) is desired so that its own UAV's position is communicated to Apollo and for Apollo to command the GCS to initiate an avoidance manoeuvre when the operator does not respond promptly to a NMAC (near mid-air collision) alert from Apollo. This will eliminate the need for an additional GPS tracker on the own unmanned aircraft as well as provide direct ability to initiate an avoidance maneuver when required. In this project we propose to research and integrate the Apollo system with the Micropilot autopilot system we have at our laboratory. This will enable the UAV information received by the UAV's GCS to be retransmitted to Apollo System to display on a dynamic map using FalconView Mapping application with other inputs from ADS-B and other platform identification and tracking systems. An interface will be implemented to receive higher level navigation commands by the autopilot GCS system from the Apollo to initiate UAV avoidance strategy. Further the geo-position information of the tracked aircraft is to be displayed on the autopilot ground control station instead of the Falconview Mapping Software essentially becoming a single control station with situational awareness directly built in to any autopilot GCS. The main tasks of the project are: 1) Build the Interface from Micropilot autopilot to Apollo and Apollo to autopilot's GCS so that geo-position information and other commands can be shared among the two systems; 2) Develop Drivers for autopilot's GCS to get ADS-B information from Apollo; 3) Ground and Flight Test the setup; and 4) Develop procedures for the incorporation of Apollo functionalities into Micropilot's autopilot system.