The Guardian Unmanned Aircraft System

Overview

            This request for proposal is to develop an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) capable of executing safe transportation and delivery of medical equipment to first responders in areas affected by a natural disaster. This particular UAS will need to be capable of getting into and out of small areas where a fixed wing type of aircraft is not a plausible solution. For purposes such as this, a helicopter type design is the most suitable design and will be the one that is implemented.  The UAS will be named The Guardian and will be composed of a network of UAS and ground control stations (GCS).

Derived Requirements

1.    Air vehicle requirment

1.1.   Shall be capable of hover flight

1.2.   Shall be capable of flight up to 500 feet altitude above ground level (AGL)

1.3.   Shall be capable of sustained flight (at loiter speed) in excess of one hour

1.4.   Shall be capable of covering an operational radius of one mile

1.5.   Shall be deployable and on station (i.e., in air over mission area) in less than 15 minutes

1.6.   Shall be capable of manual and autonomous operation

1.7.   Shall provide capture of telemetry, including altitude, magnetic heading, latitude/longitude position, and orientation (i.e., pitch, roll, and yaw)

1.8.  Shall provide power to payload, telemetry sensors, and data-link

1.9.   Shall provide capability to orbit (i.e., fly in circular pattern around) or hover over an object of interest

1.10.                 Shall be capable of  carrying at a minimum 50 pounds (lbs)

2.    Payload

2.1. Shall be capable of color daytime video operation up to 500 feet AGL

2.2. Shall be capable of infrared (IR) video operation up to 500 feet AGL

2.3. Shall be interoperable with C2 and data-link

2.4. Shall use power provided by air vehicle element

3.    Cost

3.1 Shall cost less than $150,000(Equipment cost only)

Test Requirements

1.    Air vehicle requirement

1.1            Test air vehicle for hover capability

1.2            Test air vehicle for altitude capability

1.3            Test air vehicle for sustained flight capability

1.4            Test air vehicle for operational radius capability

1.5            Test air vehicle for deploy capability

1.6            Test air vehicle for manual operation

1.7            Test air vehicle for autonomous operation

1.8            Test air vehicle for accurate telemetry

1.9            Test air vehicle for power consumption of onboard payload, telemetry sensors, and data-link

1.10         Test air vehicle for capability to orbit around a point of interest

1.11         Test air vehicle for capability to carry 50 pounds (lbs)

2.    Payload

2.1            Test air vehicle payload ensuring color video in daytime operations is capable at 500 feet AGL

2.2            Test air vehicle payload ensuring infrared (IR) video is capable at 500 feet AGL

2.3            Test C2 and Data-link ensuring that the links are interoperable of each other

2.4            Test power consumption of payloads and verify the air vehicle has enough power to utilize all payloads simultaneously

3.    Cost

3.1            Test the ability to build an air vehicle with required equipment under a budget of $150,000

Development Process

The chosen methodology for implementation is the waterfall model of development. This 6 stage model will help to ensure continuity in system development and implementation. The primary reason for choosing the waterfall model is due to its simplicity and because in order to move to the next stage of development the preceding stage must be completed("What is Waterfall model- advantages, disadvantages and when to use it?", n.d.). This model helps us in our short term project of 12 months, from requirement gathering through deployment of system.

Derived requirements

Many of the derived requirements extend from the need for vertical replenishment (VERTREP). Just like manned helicopters do, the ability to vertically replenish medical supplies is crucial to those first responders on the ground. In instances where a person may travel but not a vehicle, having this capacity to deliver medical supplies to someone who can assist the sick and injured is beneficial. The additional requirements that this air vehicle require are because of the rapid response needed, the need to get to smaller regions not accessible by fixed wing aircraft, unsafe operations for larger helicopters, and the need to carry essential medical supplies.

In regards to payload requirements, the ability to detect people at day and night is crucial to the success of assisting others. Because natural disaster recovery needs to be an ongoing effort, the need for these types of payloads is inevitable.

Need for a UCS

 One system that should be examined is utilizing a UAS control segment (UCS). Having this capacity will ensure that C2 and data-link and interoperable. Using a UCS takes into consideration legacy frameworks that can be adjusted for utilization with regular control stations by opening up their abilities and coordinating them with open UCS interfaces, making existing frameworks interoperable as well as promptly upgradable (Lundquist, 2015, pp. 38-39).

Software

Software that will be utilized by The Guardian will be from Neya Systems. Neya systems has created a vertical takeoff and landing evacuation and resupply tactical interface (VERTI),this in conjunction with a medic interface and the UxFleet/Collaborative mission Planning system will allow for rapid integration and testing (Lundquist, 2015, pp. 38-39). Utilizing UxFleet, coordination of multiple UAS platforms is possible by one person. In addition to having the flexibility of having multiple UAS assets, coordination can also be done with other unmanned systems (Batavia, 2015). According to the President of Neya systems, Parag Batavia (2015):

UxFleet moves away from traditional “functional” user interfaces, which focus on direct control of specific payloads, platforms, and sensors. Instead, UxFleet presents a context-aware, mission-specific interface that walks the user through the steps required for a particular mission, while allowing him to make changes to critical parameters as the tactical situation changes in real time (“Making Unmanned Search and Rescue a Reality: Neya’s VERTI Handheld Used for Collaborative Casualty Evacuation”, para.5).

Final Results

Overall this system should be effective in assisting those most in need of medical attention. The ability to collaborate multiple platforms will increase efficiency and will allow for a rapid response time in the wake of a natural disaster. The chosen model of development in conjunction with the chosen software developer will decrease hardware-in-the-loop simulation (HIL-SIM) that normally take weeks to just days (Lundquist, 2015, pp. 38-39). The end result would be having first responders, such as those from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), have a tablet GCS that could operate a fleet of Guardians assisting in the efforts of disaster recovery.

References

Batavia, P. (2015, April 30). Making Unmanned Search and Rescue a Reality: Neya’s VERTI Handheld Used for Collaborative Casualty Evacuation. Retrieved September 30, 2015, from http://neyasystems.com/43015-making-unmanned-search-and-rescue-a-reality-neyas-verti-handheld-used-for-collaborative-casualty-evacuation/

Lundquist, E. (2015, September). Under control: UCS architecture enables collaboration between big and small Business. Unmanned Systems, 39(9), 38-39.

What is Waterfall model- advantages, disadvantages and when to use it? (n.d.). Retrieved September 30, 2015, from http://istqbexamcertification.com/what-is-waterfall-model-advantages-disadvantages-and-when-to-use-it/

Unmanned Aircraft Missions

Understanding and knowing the impact of hurricanes is always of interest during this time of the year. Hurricane season in the Atlantic begins June 1st and ends November 30^th. The Eastern Pacific hurricane season begins May 15th and also ends November 30^th (“National Hurricane Center”). One of the agencies that does hurricane monitoring is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  Up until recently NOAA has used a small variety of manned aircraft to accomplish tracking and researching hurricanes. One of those manned aircraft is the Lockheed WP-3D Orion.  NOAA has described the Orion as a “versatile turboprop aircraft” because of the Orion’s “unprecedented variety of scientific instrumentation, radars and recording systems ("Lockheed WP-3D Orion").”  The WP-3D Orion has played a pivotal role in data collection and research of hurricanes, this “data is to help forecasters make accurate predictions during a hurricane; and to help NOAA researchers achieve a better understanding of storm processes, thereby improving their forecast models ("NOAA’s “Hurricane Hunter” Aircraft Lockheed WP-3D Orion ").” The overall effective range and crew requirements of the WP-3D Orion is as follows: For lower altitudes the aircraft can operate an area of 2500 nautical miles or 9.5 hours, alternatively at higher altitudes the aircraft has an effective range of 3800 nautical miles or 11.5 hours. The crew consists of 2 Pilots, Flight Engineer, Navigator, Flight Director (meteorologist), 2 or 3 Engineering/Electronic specialists, Radio/Avionics specialist, and a up to 12 Scientist or Media personnel.

An alternative to this mission would be the use of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS). One of the platforms that NOAA has actively acquired in conjunction with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the Global Hawk UAS. “For the last five years, NOAA has teamed up with NASA to fly NASA’s Global Hawk unmanned aircraft to get an inside look at how hurricanes form and intensify over the Atlantic (Allen, "New mission for the Global Hawk").”  The HS3 Global Hawk is a capable UAS that provides an endurance of over 24 hours and an effective range of 12,300 nautical miles ("U.S. Air Force"), almost quadruple that of the manned WP-3D Orion.  Another capable UAS used by both NOAA and NASA is the Aerosonde UAS. The Aerosonde UAS was utilized on September 16^th, 2005, to observe and fly into tropical storm Ophelia. At the time, Ophelia was a 55kt tropical storm and was located off the North Carolina coastline ("NOAA Unmanned Aircraft Systems"). The ability for this particular UAS intercept the tropical storm proved to be critical, as it was “capable of flying at altitudes of 500 feet or less within the high-wind hurricane eyewall environment. This is thousands of feet lower than any manned aircraft is able to operate ("NOAA Unmanned Aircraft Systems").” Again this UAS has a much higher endurance, within the realm of 30 hours ("NOAA Unmanned Aircraft Systems"), to perform a similar mission to the WP-3D Orion.  The last and final UAS up for consideration is Raytheon’s Coyote. This UAS is also used by NOAA in their efforts to collect better data on hurricanes. According to NOAA the Coyote is “dropped from a free fall chute in the belly of the plane, the Coyote is designed to then open its six-foot wingspan and fly through the storm (Pomerleau, "NOAA drones drop in on hurricanes -- GCN").” Like the Aerosonde, the Coyote is capable of collecting data of hurricanes at much lower altitudes, something manned aircraft just cannot do safely(Pomerleau, "NOAA drones drop in on hurricanes -- GCN").
            The capability to use a more cost effective means of tracking hurricanes is one of the benefits using any of these UAS provide. Additionally the data that is collected because of these UAS’s capacity to stay aloft longer can prove to be beneficial in the long-term. From Raytheon’s website they cite that the Coyote “meets current P-3 mission requirements and is developed and tested to save lives, reduce operational costs and provide tactical surveillance data ("Raytheon").” These benefits and cost savings grossly outweigh the use of manned aircraft and should prove to be a valuable asset in the future.

There are problems with using these unmanned aircraft systems however, and that extends from legal issues.  This legal issue is the certificate of authorization (COA) required from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to operate those unmanned systems commercially. The COA allows an operator to use a defined block of airspace and includes special safety provisions unique to the proposed operation. COAs usually are issued for a specific period – up to two years in many cases ("Public Operations (Governmental)"). Many of these UAS’s operate in areas where there is not aircraft, not too many aircraft are willingly flying towards a hurricane, but there is still that requirement to do so legally. In regards to ethical challenges, there are not too many that are opposed to better tracking of a potential disaster. One that comes to mind is the possibility of wasting materials (systems like the Coyote not being always being recovered) and the potential for one of these UAS to crash into the ocean. This stems from an environmental standpoint and could pose a threat to wildlife in the immediate vicinity of the hurricane and the aftermath of spilled fuel, should one of the UAS malfunction or be enveloped in the storm.

This particular type of mission appears to be an “ideal” mission for UAS, and most certainly agrees with the type of dirty, dull, and dangerous operations we most associate with UAS. The greatest challenge that these systems will face is the shear amount of data that they provide, and the time that will be required to analyze such data. In a give and take relationship however, the tradeoff appears promising, as scientists are granted a better glimpse of what is going on inside of hurricanes with the potential to create better forecasting models.

References

Allen, M. (2014, September 11). New mission for the Global Hawk. Retrieved September 20, 2015, from http://research.noaa.gov/News/NewsArchive/LatestNews/TabId/684/ArtMID/1768/ArticleID/10742/New-mission-for-the-Global-Hawk-.aspx

Lockheed WP-3D Orion. (n.d.). Retrieved September 20, 2015, from http://www.aoc.noaa.gov/aircraft_lockheed.htm

NOAA Unmanned Aircraft Systems. (2005). Retrieved September 20, 2015, from http://uas.noaa.gov/projects/demos/aerosonde/Ophelia_final.html

NOAA’s “Hurricane Hunter” Aircraft Lockheed WP-3D Orion. (2005, June 1). Retrieved September 20, 2015, from http://www.aoc.noaa.gov/Backgrounders/Lockheed WP-3D Orion.pdf

National Hurricane Center. (n.d.). Retrieved September 20, 2015, from http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Pomerleau, M. (2015, June 18). NOAA drones drop in on hurricanes -- GCN. Retrieved September 20, 2015, from http://gcn.com/articles/2015/06/18/noaa-hurricane-drones.aspx

Public Operations (Governmental). (n.d.). Retrieved September 21, 2015, from https://www.faa.gov/uas/public_operations/

Raytheon. (n.d.). Retrieved September 20, 2015, from http://www.raytheon.com/capabilities/products/coyote/

U.S. Air Force. (2014, October 1). Retrieved September 20, 2015, from http://www.af.mil/AboutUs/FactSheets/Display/tabid/224/Article/104516/rq-4-global-hawk.aspx

Integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Separation Monitoring)

One of the largest concerns with integration as it relates to unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) is safety. As part of the safety discussion it is important to address the separation of unmanned aircraft systems from other unmanned aircraft in addition to separation from manned aircraft. “The ability to maintain adequate separation between aircraft is a prerequisite for the safe integration of unmanned aircraft into the National Airspace System (NAS).While safe separation from other aircraft can generally be assured through standard air traffic control (ATC) operations in operations under instrument flight rules (IFR) and instrument meteorological conditions (IMC), there will be times in which UAS may be flying under visual flight rules (VFR) (or a corresponding designation) in which the detect, see and avoid (DSA) capabilities are essential (McCarley, 2005).”   So this leads us to ask how can the separation of unmanned aircraft be monitored and maintained (among other unmanned aircraft and manned aircraft) in the NAS?

One way to monitor and maintain separation of aircraft is through the use of air traffic control services. The primary purpose of the ATC system is to prevent a collision between aircraft operating in the NAS and to organize and expedite the flow of traffic. Controllers such as myself use various tools to accomplish this mission. One tool that is used is through the use of radio detection and ranging or RADAR. This is a fairly straightforward approach to separation where the air traffic controller has a RADAR scope and observes a “target” this target is displayed as a blip on a scope which in turn simulates an aircraft this is called a primary target. There is also a secondary block of information that is displayed next to the primary target which displays the aircraft’s speed, altitude, and squawk code. Controllers use this information to separate aircraft from known and/or observed conflicts.  While controllers can separate aircraft using this method it is not always used. So we must ask what other ways can we separate unmanned aircraft from manned aircraft and other unmanned aircraft? This leads to the discussion about DSA technology. The UAS have to be able to detect, sense, and avoid other UAS as well as manned aircraft. One way manned aircraft are accomplishing this is through the use of Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B). From the NextGen Implementation plan of 2015 ADS-B is:

“The more precise, satellite-based successor to radar. ADS-B Out uses GPS to determine an aircraft’s location, airspeed and other data. It broadcasts that information to a network of ground stations (which relays the data to air traffic controllers) and to nearby aircraft equipped to receive the data via ADS-B In. ADS-B In provides operators of properly equipped aircraft with weather and traffic information delivered directly to the cockpit(Huerta, "NextGen Implementation Plan 2015").”

Future users will be required to be equipped with ADS-B out by 2020 but will be a requirement only for those aircraft operating at or above 10,000 feet. This still does not resolve the conflict for aircraft operating at lower altitudes which is one of the questions that are being asked as part of the integration process. Another technology that could be used by unmanned aircraft is the terminal collision avoidance system (TCAS) but the problem with using this “manned” aircraft technology is that it is much too large for use in small unmanned aircraft. This lack of sufficient technology to cover all categories of unmanned aircraft is troubling because we are not able to take advantage of integrating all unmanned aircraft safely. Without the introduction of newer technologies, those wishing to use UAS not capable of detecting, sensing, and avoiding other aircraft, will find themselves extremely restricted under the proposed rules regarding integration. 

References

Huerta, M. (2015, May 1). NextGen Implementation Plan 2015. Retrieved September 6, 2015, from https://www.faa.gov/nextgen/media/NextGen_Implementation_Plan-2015.pdf

McCarley, J., & Wickens, C. (2005, April 1). Human Factors Implications of UAVs in the National Airspace. Retrieved September 6, 2015, from http://www.tc.faa.gov/logistics/grants/pdf/2004/04-G-032.pdf