A design study for the safe integration of Unmanned Aerial Systems into the National Airspace System

Since 2013 Unmanned Aerial Systems, commonly called drones, have become a disruptive technology in the consumer market and the National Airspace System due to their decreasing costs and increased consumer interest. Sales of drones have experienced growth in excess of 500 percent from 2014 to 2016. According to the Federal Aviation Administration the number of incidents involving drones has also grown. The Federal Aviation Administration currently provides few regulations for drones, instead offering advisories to drone operators. In order to determine a course of action for safe integration, the Federal Aviation Administration instituted a pilot reporting database of incidents involving drones. In over 97% of the incidents reported, the drone operators were not following altitude and location advisories. This paper examines the effectiveness of geofencing systems for drones and compares its effectiveness to the current proposed regulations and traditional collision avoidance systems. A Monte Carlo simulation using growth and incident rates of drones based on the incident data is used to determine the utility of each alternative. The alternatives are then analyzed through a utility function and evaluated on a cost/utility basis. The result shows that limiting flight operations to the regulated thresholds provides a cost effective method for adding safety to the operation of drones within the National Airspace System.