Evaluating the Impact of Deploying Unrestricted Unmanned Aircraft Systems in the National Airspace

The increasing proliferation of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUASs) is forcing a paradigm shift in military doctrine surrounding counter-sUAS and sUAS deployment tactics. This work describes an agent-based model that incorporates established infantry small unit tactics with the ability to deploy sUASs to aid in surveillance and indirect fire targeting. The model is based on current military doctrine and real warfighter experiences and is presented as a foundation from which additional simulation capabilities and analyses may be created. A series of randomly generated situations sets a defending force with the potential to have sUAS capabilities against a superior attacking force without sUAS capabilities. A control case considers defenders without sUAS capabilities. In six experimental cases, defending forces deploy a single sUAS in one of six patrol patterns as a surveillance and indirect fire targeting tool. Subsequent analysis reveals that sUASs generally increase the odds of defender survival during an engagement and that short-range, concentrated patrol patterns lead to higher odds of defender survival and increased indirect fire opportunities. A battery of analyses showcase the model’s capabilities in terms of exploring novel sUAS implementation strategies and illustrating the impact of those strategies over a range of combat effectiveness metrics.

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The Impact of Sensor Response and Airspeed on the Representation of the Convective Boundary Layer and Airmass Boundaries by Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems

Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology ◽

10.1175/jtech-d-18-0019.1 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 35 (8) ◽

pp. 1687-1699 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Adam L. Houston ◽

Jason M. Keeler

Keyword(s):

Boundary Layer ◽

Convective Boundary Layer ◽

Sensor Response ◽

Unmanned Aircraft ◽

Unmanned Aircraft Systems ◽

Lapse Rate ◽

Convective Boundary ◽

Aircraft Systems ◽

The Impact ◽

Rotary Wing

AbstractThe objective of the research presented is to assess the impact of sensor response and aircraft airspeed on the accuracy of in situ observations collected by small unmanned aircraft systems profiling the convective boundary layer or transecting airmass boundaries. Estimates are made using simulated aircraft flown within large-eddy simulations. Both instantaneous errors (differences between observed temperature, which include the effects of sensor response and airspeed, and actual temperature) and errors in representation (differences between serial observations and representative snapshots of the atmospheric state) are considered. Synthetic data are retrieved assuming a well-aspirated first-order sensor mounted on rotary-wing aircraft operated as profilers in a simulated CBL and fixed-wing aircraft operated through transects across a simulated airmass boundary. Instantaneous errors are found to scale directly with sensor response time and airspeed for both CBL and airmass boundary experiments. Maximum errors tend to be larger for airmass boundary transects compared to the CBL profiles. Instantaneous errors for rotary-wing aircraft profiles in the CBL simulated for this work are attributable to the background lapse rate and not to turbulent temperature perturbations. For airmass boundary flights, representation accuracy is found to degrade with decreasing airspeed. This signal is most pronounced for flights that encounter the density current wake. When representation errors also include instantaneous errors resulting from sensor response, instantaneous errors are found to be dominant for flights that remain below the turbulent wake. However, for flights that encounter the wake, sensor response times generally need to exceed ~5 s before instantaneous errors become larger than errors in representation.

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Assessment of the Impact of Maintenance-Induced Failures on Unmanned Aircraft Systems to Operations in National Airspace System

AIAA Scitech 2019 Forum ◽

10.2514/6.2019-1786 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Richard S. Stansbury ◽

Russell Gillespie ◽

Mitchell Geraci ◽

John Robbins

Keyword(s):

Unmanned Aircraft ◽

Unmanned Aircraft Systems ◽

National Airspace System ◽

Aircraft Systems ◽

The Impact

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Projecting the Impact of Aircraft Design Decisions on the Performance of a Fuel Cell Power and Energy System in Unmanned Aircraft Systems

SAE International Journal of Aerospace ◽

10.4271/2012-01-2178 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 410-414

Author(s):

George Kiwada ◽

Peter Uth

Keyword(s):

Fuel Cell ◽

Aircraft Design ◽

Energy System ◽

Unmanned Aircraft ◽

Unmanned Aircraft Systems ◽

Design Decisions ◽

Aircraft Systems ◽

Power And Energy ◽

The Impact

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An Exploratory Investigation of UAS Regulations in Europe and the Impact on Effective Use and Economic Potential

Drones ◽

10.3390/drones5030063 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (3) ◽

pp. 63

Author(s):

Ahmed Alamouri ◽

Astrid Lampert ◽

Markus Gerke

Keyword(s):

Legal Framework ◽

Unmanned Aircraft ◽

Unmanned Aircraft Systems ◽

Economic Potential ◽

The European Union ◽

Aircraft Systems ◽

Exploratory Investigation ◽

Effective Use ◽

The Impact ◽

Human Injury

Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) have rapidly become more common in various applications. At the same time, the need for a safe UAS operation is of great importance to minimize and avoid risks that could arise with the deployment of this technology. With these requirements, UAS regulators in the European Union (EU) are making large efforts to enable a reliable legal framework of conditions for UAS operation to keep up with new capabilities of this technology and to minimize the risk of property damage and, most importantly, human injury. A recent outcome of the mentioned efforts is that new EU drone regulations are into force since 1 January 2021. In this paper we aim to provide a sound overview of recent EU drone regulations and the main changes to the rules since the first wave of regulations adopted in 2017. We highlight how such new rules help or hinder the use of UAS technology and its economic potential in scientific and commercial sectors by providing an exploratory investigation of UAS legal frames in Europe. An example of the impact of legislation on the operation of one particular UAS in Germany is provided, which has been in use since 2013 for atmospheric research.

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