CAREER: Theoretical Foundations of the UAS in the NAS Problem (Unmanned Aerial Systems in the National Air Space)

由于民用和联邦当局越来越多地使用无人机，以及大量的商业和业余应用，无人机系统(UAS)将被引入国家航空空间(NAS)；问题只是如何安全地做到这一点。今天，NASA和FAA正在为所有飞机设计一种新的(NextGen)自动空中交通管制系统，无论是有人驾驶的还是无人驾驶的。将需要开发新的算法和工具，以便能够计算设计这种系统所固有的复杂问题，同时证明遵守严格的安全标准。研究人员必须开发形式分析工具，以便能够解决NAS中的UAS问题，在NextGen的设计阶段解释UAS集成，并将此设计与车载功能联系起来，以提供运行时系统健康管理(SHM)，确保地面人员和财产的安全。这项建议从三个相互交织的角度着眼于解决无人驾驶系统安全融入国家空域的问题，并从整体角度综合了最先进的进展：从车辆上、从环境(NAS)和从使其能够进行正式分析的基本理论。新的UAS技术发展迅速，但很少有正式的数学严谨程度达到FAA安全关键系统认证所需的程度。该项目弥合了这一差距，将新的UAS和空中交通管制设计与形式分析方面的进步相结合。在自主UAS能力的丰富前景方向中，该项目满足了一个独特的需求，提供了机载UAS SHM、它们必须运行的NAS环境以及两者共同的理论基础之间的直接协同。本研究将有助于建立一个更安全的NAS，增加UAS的容量，并为SHM机载UAS创造广泛的影响能力。改进将需要对更具可伸缩性的模型检查和安全属性的调试进行理论研究。安全属性表达了这样一种感觉，即在任何系统执行期间“不会发生不好的事情”；它们代表了NextGen设计的绝大多数需求，以及研究人员可以在运行时监控UAS上的系统健康管理的所有需求。这项研究将解决在无人机上嵌入健康管理功能的新领域。与美国国家航空航天局的航空航天系统设计师和布鲁诺·凯斯勒基金会的工具设计师的合作将有助于现实生活中的效用和技术转让。通过让本科生参与设计一种开源的、负担得起的、全COTS和3D可打印的无人机，将产生更广泛的影响，这将促进对该项目研究进展的飞行测试。面向学术界的开放式UAS设计既可用于课堂演示，也可用作研究平台。通过使用这一UAS和它在K-12、本科生和研究生的互动教学体验中的研究，以及在指导专门针对在科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)学科取得成就的女孩的外展，将产生进一步的影响。

Due to their increasing use by civil and federal authorities and vast commercial and amateur applications, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) will be introduced into the National Air Space (NAS); the question is only how this can be done safely. Today, NASA and the FAA are designing a new, (NextGen) automated air traffic control system for all aircraft, manned or unmanned. New algorithms and tools will need to be developed to enable computation of the complex questions inherent in designing such a system while proving adherence to rigorous safety standards. Researchers must develop the tools of formal analysis to be able to address the UAS in the NAS problem, reason about UAS integration during the design phase of NextGen, and tie this design to on-board capabilities to provide runtime System Health Management (SHM), ensuring the safety of people and property on the ground. This proposal takes a holistic view and integrates advances in the state of the art from three intertwined perspectives to address safe integration of unmanned systems into the national airspace: from on-board the vehicle, from the environment (NAS), and from the underlying theory enabling their formal analysis. There has been rapid development of new UAS technologies yet few of them are formally mathematically rigorous to the degree needed for FAA safety-critical system certification. This project bridges that gap, integrating new UAS and air traffic control designs with advances in formal analysis. Within the wealth of promising directions for autonomous UAS capabilities, this project fills a unique need, providing a direct synergy between on-board UAS SHM, the NAS environment in which they must operate, and the theoretical foundations common to both of these.This research will help to build a safer NAS with increased capacity for UAS and create broadly impactful capabilities for SHM on-board UAS. Advancements will require theoretical research into more scalable model checking and debugging of safety properties. Safety properties express the sentiment that "something bad does not happen" during any system execution; they represent the vast majority of the requirements for NextGen designs and all requirements researchers can monitor on-board a UAS for system heath management during runtime. This research will tackle new frontiers in embedding health management capabilities on-board UAS. Collaborations with aerospace system designers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and tool designers at the Bruno Kessler Foundation will aid real-life utility and technology transfer. Broader impact will be achieved by involving undergraduate students in the design of an open-source, affordable, all-COTS and 3D-printable UAS, which will facilitate flight testing of this project's research advances. An open-UAS design for academia will be useful both for classroom demonstrations and as a research platform. Further impact will be achieved by using this UAS and the research it enables in interactive teaching experiences for K-12, undergraduate, and graduate students and in mentoring outreach specifically targeted at girls achieving in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects.