NASA Prepares For First Small-UAS Airspace

Management Test
Sense of urgency growing as NASA tests system to manage UAS access to low-altitude
airspace
Aug 14, 2015Graham Warwick | Aviation Week & Space Technology

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Taming the Tiger

Against a backdrop of growing concern over rogue unmanned aircraft near airports
and other sensitive areas, NASAhas conducted a dress rehearsal for the upcoming
demonstration of the first version of an airspace system designed to enable safe UAS
operations at low altitudes.
The demo of Build 1 of the UAS Traffic Management (UTM) system is planned for Aug.
26-Sep. 4 at NASA Crows Landing Airport in California. Tests of this initial software
version will focus on how operators reserve airspace for UAS flights and how well the
vehicles follow their planned trajectories.
We will do the test at Crows Landing, then roll out the software to the FAA UAS test
sites and other approved users to do more structured validation. There is even
international interest, says Parimal Kopardekar, manager of NASAs Safe
Autonomous Systems Operations project.
The demo comes amid escalating reports of UAS being sighted by airliner crews on
approach to major airports across the U.S., interfering with aerial firefighting
operations in California, flying over sensitive facilities such as nuclear power plants
and violating peoples privacy.
While UTM by itself will not solve the rogue UAS issue, by managing access to lowaltitude airspace for commercial operators the system should make it easier to detect
unauthenticated vehiclesparticularly when surveillance and tracking capabilities are
added.

UTMs ultimate goal is to enable mixed operations in airspace below 500 ft. by
multiple UAS with different capabilities as well as manned aircraft, based on varying
geographic conditions ranging from rural to urban, and diverse applications ranging
from aerial surveying to package delivery.
The first of four planned builds is centered on enabling a UAS operator to reserve a
volume of airspace for a missions duration. When a second operator requests airspace,
the system will either allow them access or tell them if there is conflict with another
users trajectory.
The demo will involve small unmanned aircraft from NASA and several partners,
including remote-sensing UAS builder and operator Precision Hawk, and autopilot and
operating system developer Airware. We will have multiple vehicles accessing the
airspace, Kopardekar says.

Small UAS from NASA and several partners will participate in the UTM Build 1 demo. Credit: NASA

Build 1 may have application in remote areas or over water, he says. It will be
adequate for farming applications, but is not meant for urban operations. In addition

to agriculture, the software would enable UAS to be used to fight wildfires or monitor
infrastructure in unpopulated areas.
The tests will also look at how closely the vehicles track their flight plans. This is
important to setting up separation minima and buffer zones around vehicles, says
Kopardekar. This is similar in concept to flight technical error, used to define how
closely a manned aircraft follows its planned track.
The Crows Landing trial will also take an initial look at surveillance issues and how
well sensors such as radar and systems such as Automatic Dependent SurveillanceBroadcast (ADS-B) can detect and track small, slow-moving vehicles flying at low
altitude.
The plan is to follow the demo with further validation of Build 1 under the national
initial safe UAS integration campaign, a coordinated data-collection effort involving
demonstration at FAA test sites and other approved locations in the U.S. and overseas.
NASA, meanwhile, will continue work on UTM Build 2, which will enable longer-range
UAS missions beyond line-of-sight of the operator and low-density operations over
sparsely populated areas. What we learn in Build 1 will go into Build 2, and we expect
some changes, he says. The Build 2 demo is planned for October 2016 or soonerwe
will try to do it as fast as we can.
Build 1 is more of a prototype than a system ready to be deployed, but the ability to
certify UTM for eventual operational use will become more important as NASA moves
through Builds 2, 3 and 4, where we have a lot more density and a lot more offnominal operations, says Kopardekar.
UTM Build 3, planned for a January 2018 demo, will bring in tracking, vehicle-tovehicle and vehicle-to-UTM communications and Internet-connected systems,
operations over moderately populated areas and some interaction with manned
aircraft. This build would enable the use of UAS for public safety and limited package
delivery.
The final version, Build 4, planned for demo in March 2019, will be designed to enable
higher-density operations with autonomous UAS in urban environments, for
applications ranging from newsgathering and deliveries to personal use. This build will

add the capability to mitigate large-scale contingencies, such as issuing an all land
order to isolate a rogue UAS.
Previous air traffic management tools developed by NASA have been handed over to
the FAA for further development and integration into the national airspace system.
With UTM, it is not yet clear whether the system would be deployed by the FAA or
commercial low-altitude airspace service providers, such as large fleet operators
Amazon and Google. There is a lot that is not known yet, says Kopardekar. But UTM
can support service providers in different geographic areas.
Amazon, Google and others have made their own proposals for how low-altitude
airspace should be managed, but Kopardekar says the original concept behind UTM
to enable multiple operations with different mission needs to safely share low-altitude
airspaceis holding up.
We are looking at some new information, such as the ability to track drones. If we
agree tracking is important, the issue is how. It could be by ADS-B or cellphone, it
depends where you are, he says. About 45-50% of the U.S. is not covered by
cellphone. For wildlife monitoring in Alaska, for example, we would probably use
cellphone and satellite-based tracking.
The focus is on ensuring that vehicle performance requirements are matched to a UAS
operations geography and application, whether it is rural agriculture or urban
delivery. Kopardekar is proposing the idea of a standardized, independent
performance assessment for UASsimilar to J.D. Power car ratings, Consumer
Reports product reviews or Underwriters Laboratories safety testingto help UAS
manufacturers, buyers and insurers make decisions.
As envisaged, the proposed National UAS Standardized Performance Testing and
Rating (Nustar) system would provide a self-regulatory structure for small unmanned
aircraft, with a vehicles rating against standard tests and scenarios determining the
allowed operations and airspace access. A vehicle with a Nustar rating of 5 would have
the software, hardware and sensors to operate autonomously all the way to the
doorstep, while a rating of 1 would mean only visual line-of-sight and manual
operations are allowed.
As proposed, data collected would include stopping distance after detecting an
obstacle, wind susceptibility, kinetic energy when the UAS falls, battery life, maximum

range and altitude, and noise footprint. Test scenarios could include flying through a
narrow corridor between tall walls, operating in strong winds and in rain or fog, taking
off and landing when people are close by, and moving objects popping up unexpectedly
during flight.
Everybody needs data: the manufacturer, insurer, users, etc., says Kopardekar.
When every home is an airport, how do we say, this vehicle is adequate for checking
your roof?