UAS Sense and Avoid Development - the Challenges of Technology, Standards, and Certification

Abstract

The routine integration of unmanned aircraft into civil airspace is important to enable a host of national defense, homeland security, and commercial operations. However, many policy, operational, and technical issues exist before safe integration becomes routine. Foremost among these is the lack of an on-board capability to see and avoid other aircraft. Based upon their experience with the National Airspace System (NAS), the authors examine several high-level integration challenges of replacing the see and avoid capability, and discuss the activities underway to address these challenges. The challenges for developing a Sense and Avoid (SAA) capability include defining the extent and applicability of SAA standards, determining the appropriate certification methods, and defining the target and methods of proving the safety of the SAA system. Of a number of activities that have attempted to address these SAA challenges, two major activities are discussed that have provided recent progress.