Development and Real-flight Testing of Volume-based Situation Awareness Technology for Integrated Reconnaissance Missions

Integration of uncrewed and traditional crewed vehicles at low altitudes will require novel airspace management. Crewed flights operating under visual flight rules (VFR), in particular, are characterized by high unpredictability which makes any strategic and tactical airspace management very challenging. Past research has demonstrated that the concept of operation volumes, or geofenced area around the predicted flight trajectory can be a potential solution for integrated operations. This concept was first proposed in the UTM ConOps and since then has been adopted for airspace management of uncrewed and unmanned vehicles. If the same concept is successfully applied to VFR airspace management, it will be possible to operate such diverse vehicles in the same airspace. As initial steps, the authors focus on disaster response flights, especially reconnaissance missions performed by helicopters. Interviews with disaster response pilots and flight data analyze allowed the authors to develop and verify a trajectory model describing reconnaissance missions along landmarks such as highways and rivers. Deviations from the predicted trajectory and pilot feedback were used to define operation volume which is large enough to allow the crew to perform their mission, but small enough to allow flights of other vehicles in the adjacent airspace. As part of the current research, a decision support tool is developed to improve the pilots’ situation awareness, in particular their relative position regarding the operation volume and predicted trajectory. In August 2022, the robustness of operation volume design and alert functionalities were tested in a helicopter flight test with disaster response experience pilots. It was confirmed that the proposed operation volumes were sufficient for the pilot to complete their mission even when adjustments to the flight trajectory were required to maintain safe flight. Furthermore, factors to be considered in further volume design improvements are also proposed based on the flight test results.