Periodic Reporting for period 2 - URClearED (A Unified Integrated Remain Well Clear Concept in Airspace D-G Class)
Reporting period: 2021-11-01 to 2022-10-31
Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) are increasingly becoming a part of our day-to-day life and the wide range of their possible applications is creating a new industry with a large economic potential that is pushing the technological developments at a much faster pace than that for manned aviation.
The SESAR Outlook Study on RPAS clearly states the considerable economic benefit that can derive to EU industry from RPAS integration in civil airspace.
However, due to constraints arising from safety and operational considerations, RPAS can currently only fly in segregated airspace, making their integration in the civil airspace an unsolved challenge. RPAS have to guarantee a level of safety at least equal to that of manned aircraft. This requirement of an equivalent level of safety affects several critical RPA system elements and definitively the detect and avoid (DAA) systems.
In this respect, a large number of studies and projects have been carried out on the development of a Detect And Avoid System for RPAS, and relevant results have been achieved in support of the RPAS integration in airspace classes A-C, where the Air Traffic Control maintains the responsibility for the aircraft separation. Standards (Minimum Operational Performance Standards) have been issued, indeed, for the DAA system supporting RPAS operations under IFR rules in such airspace classes.
However, for a full integration of RPAS with General Air Traffic (GAT) (and possibly Operational Air Traffic (OAT)), an extended capability that performs Detect and Avoid is required. The most challenging environment for the design of this DAA system are operations in Class D-G airspaces. Such a DAA system enables the integration of RPAS in airspace where other aircraft may be flying under VFR or IFR, with a wide variety of equipment levels, with a wide range of aircraft performance, with or without a filed flight plan, flying with or without the ATS control and assistance.
The URCLEARED project aims at contributing to the definition of such a DAA system, and then at having an impact on the improvement of safety, efficiency and sustainability of the air transport system, and enabling remotely piloted flights in more complex scenarios.
In a longer perspective, the URCLEARED project has also the aim to help defining a detect and avoid system for the full exploitation of new concepts in air mobility, namely the On-Demand Mobility and the Urban Air Mobility concepts.
The figure below shows the functional architecture of a DAA system and identifies the RWC functions; the blocks in green highlight the specific functions on which the project will focus, which are: Surveillance data processing, Conflict Evaluation, RWC Decision Support, DAA display.
The SESAR Outlook Study on RPAS clearly states the considerable economic benefit that can derive to EU industry from RPAS integration in civil airspace.
However, due to constraints arising from safety and operational considerations, RPAS can currently only fly in segregated airspace, making their integration in the civil airspace an unsolved challenge. RPAS have to guarantee a level of safety at least equal to that of manned aircraft. This requirement of an equivalent level of safety affects several critical RPA system elements and definitively the detect and avoid (DAA) systems.
In this respect, a large number of studies and projects have been carried out on the development of a Detect And Avoid System for RPAS, and relevant results have been achieved in support of the RPAS integration in airspace classes A-C, where the Air Traffic Control maintains the responsibility for the aircraft separation. Standards (Minimum Operational Performance Standards) have been issued, indeed, for the DAA system supporting RPAS operations under IFR rules in such airspace classes.
However, for a full integration of RPAS with General Air Traffic (GAT) (and possibly Operational Air Traffic (OAT)), an extended capability that performs Detect and Avoid is required. The most challenging environment for the design of this DAA system are operations in Class D-G airspaces. Such a DAA system enables the integration of RPAS in airspace where other aircraft may be flying under VFR or IFR, with a wide variety of equipment levels, with a wide range of aircraft performance, with or without a filed flight plan, flying with or without the ATS control and assistance.
The URCLEARED project aims at contributing to the definition of such a DAA system, and then at having an impact on the improvement of safety, efficiency and sustainability of the air transport system, and enabling remotely piloted flights in more complex scenarios.
In a longer perspective, the URCLEARED project has also the aim to help defining a detect and avoid system for the full exploitation of new concepts in air mobility, namely the On-Demand Mobility and the Urban Air Mobility concepts.
The figure below shows the functional architecture of a DAA system and identifies the RWC functions; the blocks in green highlight the specific functions on which the project will focus, which are: Surveillance data processing, Conflict Evaluation, RWC Decision Support, DAA display.
The key technical activities of the project have been completed. Specifically, the Operational Scenarios and high level requirements for Remain Well Clear (RWC) function in European airspace D to G have been defined. A prototype RWC software has been implemented, including the HMI to be used by the Remote Pilot. A Fast Time Simulation (FTS) tool based on EUROCONTROL CAFE' encounter model and two Real Time Facilities (RTS) for RWC operational validation have been integrated. Such facilities have been used for performing 2 FTS campaigns and 3 RTS campaigns. The FTS campaigns adopted an ‘Open Loop’ approach with straight trajectories uniformly generated and with the CAFÉ encounter model. The RTS campaigns have been executed for a total of 38 real time test sessions, more than 25 hours of simulations, using different unmanned vehicles (tactical fixed wing, MALE fixed wing, vertical take-off and landing and heavy multi-copter) in several locations (Italy, Germany and Hungary) and involving about 8 different air traffic controllers, 9 test pilots, 4 human factor experts and several engineers.
The results from these validation campaigns have been analysed and key conclusions show that RWC can be a useful tool for both RPAS Remote Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers in integrating unmanned vehicles into civil airspace D to G. The key benefit of this tool is that it increases remote pilot situational awareness and mitigates the occurrence of mid-air collision avoidance maneuvers so avoiding traffic disruptions due to such emergency maneuvers. Some risks are related to be possibility that Remote Pilots could be induced to perform some actions too in advance, causing some interference with air traffic controllers and higher workloads, even if the RWC is not issuing any alert. This risk shall be mitigated by defining detailed RWC operational procedures and by appropriate training of the remote pilots.
Key results and news are published on the project's website, a dedicated blog and LinkedIn accounts. Moreover, the project team participated to several scientific conferences and published papers on project results to AEROSPACE journal, EASN Conferences 2021 and 2022, AIAA Aviation Forum 2021, AIAA SciTech Forum 2023, SID 2020, 2021 and 2022. An expert Advisory Board composed mainly by pilots and air traffic controllers supported continuously the activities of the project.
Finally, coordination activities with other SESAR projects (INVIRCAT, SAFELAND and PJ13 ERICA) have been continuously performed in monthly coordination meetings with representatives and the project actively participated to the U-SPACE CONOPS definition activities promoted by EUROCONTROL, by having its own representative involved in almost all coordination meetings and regularly reporting the advances in the project internal bi-weekly progress meetings.
The results from these validation campaigns have been analysed and key conclusions show that RWC can be a useful tool for both RPAS Remote Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers in integrating unmanned vehicles into civil airspace D to G. The key benefit of this tool is that it increases remote pilot situational awareness and mitigates the occurrence of mid-air collision avoidance maneuvers so avoiding traffic disruptions due to such emergency maneuvers. Some risks are related to be possibility that Remote Pilots could be induced to perform some actions too in advance, causing some interference with air traffic controllers and higher workloads, even if the RWC is not issuing any alert. This risk shall be mitigated by defining detailed RWC operational procedures and by appropriate training of the remote pilots.
Key results and news are published on the project's website, a dedicated blog and LinkedIn accounts. Moreover, the project team participated to several scientific conferences and published papers on project results to AEROSPACE journal, EASN Conferences 2021 and 2022, AIAA Aviation Forum 2021, AIAA SciTech Forum 2023, SID 2020, 2021 and 2022. An expert Advisory Board composed mainly by pilots and air traffic controllers supported continuously the activities of the project.
Finally, coordination activities with other SESAR projects (INVIRCAT, SAFELAND and PJ13 ERICA) have been continuously performed in monthly coordination meetings with representatives and the project actively participated to the U-SPACE CONOPS definition activities promoted by EUROCONTROL, by having its own representative involved in almost all coordination meetings and regularly reporting the advances in the project internal bi-weekly progress meetings.
In the URClearED project, relevant steps to support the RWC function of of a Detect & Avoid system for airspace classes D to G have been carried out, strictly interacting with the projects on-going and those that has been started in the time frame of the project. In short, the project supported the current study activities on the RWC functionalities by defining and analyzing operational scenarios in airspace D to G, which allow to assess requirements and assumptions made in current standards and applicable documents, and then paving the way to future industrial level activities on such system.
The following results, that are beyond the current European state-of-the-art have been obtained:
- definition of a set of operational scenarios which are peculiar to integration of an IFR RPAS into European Class D-G airspace, by taking into account current assumptions and requirements as defined in the EUROCAE-OSED ED258 (but also draft OPA, OSA, MASPS under development), also analyzing input from all other relevant focus groups and projects (namely RTCA and SESAR PJ13 Sol 111 and 117);
- development a full Remain Well Clear (RWC) functional prototype, which supports evaluation for the operational conditions in integrating RPAS in European Class D-G airspace;
- definition of a set of scenarios for verification and validation activities;
- execution of both Fast-Time Simulation and Real-Time simulation-Human in the Loop (both Remote Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers) which allowed to analyze such scenarios and provide validation tests and possible enhancements/amendments to EUROCAE OSED, as long as performance, safety (including Human Factors) and interoperability requirements;
- assessment of Surveillance Sensors performance requirements;
- Dissemination to the relevant stakeholder groups, including participation to standardization activities.
The following results, that are beyond the current European state-of-the-art have been obtained:
- definition of a set of operational scenarios which are peculiar to integration of an IFR RPAS into European Class D-G airspace, by taking into account current assumptions and requirements as defined in the EUROCAE-OSED ED258 (but also draft OPA, OSA, MASPS under development), also analyzing input from all other relevant focus groups and projects (namely RTCA and SESAR PJ13 Sol 111 and 117);
- development a full Remain Well Clear (RWC) functional prototype, which supports evaluation for the operational conditions in integrating RPAS in European Class D-G airspace;
- definition of a set of scenarios for verification and validation activities;
- execution of both Fast-Time Simulation and Real-Time simulation-Human in the Loop (both Remote Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers) which allowed to analyze such scenarios and provide validation tests and possible enhancements/amendments to EUROCAE OSED, as long as performance, safety (including Human Factors) and interoperability requirements;
- assessment of Surveillance Sensors performance requirements;
- Dissemination to the relevant stakeholder groups, including participation to standardization activities.