During the first reporting period the TERRA consortium has been focused on identifying the users needs, in terms of ground systems infrastructure, to support safe, effective and efficient VLL drone operations in very environment and traffic density. Requirements have been gathered from drone operators, but also from VFR aviation, to assure their compatibility. Additionally, requirements from other stakeholders (regulators, law enforcement, air navigation service providers, etc.) have also been considered.
These operational requirements have been then translated into functional and non-functional requirements (i.e. what the ground systems have to do) and they have been validated in a workshop, and also coordinated with other sibling projects.
In parallel, existing technologies have been analysed (navigation, surveillance, air-ground and ground-ground communications and DTM computing) to identify the performances provided by each system (accuracy, update rate, availability, integrity and current deployment) as a basis to identify their ability to meet the functional requirements identified. Also new technologies are being explored, in particular, machine learning techniques to aid both monitoring of nominal VLL UAS operations, as well as early detection of off-nominal (trajectory deviation) conditions.
During the second reporting period, new potential technologies have also been explored and a gap analysis between requirements and technologies has been performed. Based on the conclusions of the gap analysis the TERRA consortium then elaborated the most suitable combination of technologies for each of the three business cases. The identification of suitable technologies was performed on a case-by-case basis as the requirements differ depending on the business case.
Conclusions on CNS architecture and feasibility are different for the short-term (already available and ready-to-deploy technologies) and for the long-term (technologies under development and that will be available in the future – 2025+). As a general framework, TERRA conclusions are focussed on standard multirotor of less than 1 m width and below 4kg of Maximum Take-Off Mass. In the future (2025+), new technologies (e.g. 5G, Galileo, etc.) will provide more robust services and will be the basis for a full U-space deployment. But in any case, the development of complex drone operations in a high drone density environment will require the integration of several technological solutions, to provide the required robustness and systems performances that assure the safety of these operations.
Main conclusions of TERRA are related to the maturity of the analysis ground CNS capabilities, which are also recommended to be included as part of the U-space capabilities, the feasibility of the proposed architectures and the results of performance assessments through simulations and live trials.
