Sense and avoid technology for unmanned aircraft systems

John McCalmont; James Utt; Michael Deschenes; Michael Taylor; Richard Sanderson; Joel Montgomery; Randal S. Johnson; David McDermott

doi:10.1117/12.720867

7 May 2007 Sense and avoid technology for unmanned aircraft systems

John McCalmont, James Utt, Michael Deschenes, Michael Taylor, Richard Sanderson, Joel Montgomery, Randal S. Johnson, David McDermott

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 6566, Automatic Target Recognition XVII; 65660P (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.720867
Event: Defense and Security Symposium, 2007, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

The Sensors Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), in conjunction with the Global Hawk Systems Group, the J-UCAS System Program Office and contractor Defense Research Associates, Inc. (DRA) is conducting an Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) of a sense-and-avoid capability with the potential to satisfy the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) requirement for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) to provide "an equivalent level of safety, comparable to see-and-avoid requirements for manned aircraft". This FAA requirement must be satisfied for UAS operations within the national airspace. The Sense-and-Avoid, Phase I (Man-in-the-Loop) and Phase II (Autonomous Maneuver) ATD demonstrated an on-board, wide field of regard, multi-sensor visible imaging system operating in real time and capable of passively detecting approaching aircraft, declaring potential collision threats in a timely manner and alerting the human pilot located in the remote ground control station or autonomously maneuvered the aircraft. Intruder declaration data was collected during the SAA I & II Advanced Technology Demonstration flights conducted during December 2006. A total of 27 collision scenario flights were conducted and analyzed. The average detection range was 6.3 NM and the mean declaration range was 4.3 NM. The number of false alarms per engagement has been reduced to approximately 3 per engagement.

Citation Download Citation

John McCalmont, James Utt, Michael Deschenes, Michael Taylor, Richard Sanderson, Joel Montgomery, Randal S. Johnson, and David McDermott "Sense and avoid technology for unmanned aircraft systems", Proc. SPIE 6566, Automatic Target Recognition XVII, 65660P (7 May 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.720867

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