Demonstrating of U-space Benefits for Safety by Using MEDUSA

The current development of unmanned operations in the airspace poses several challenges. One of them is the need to ensure an acceptable level of safety for all participants, even with the increasing capacity of operations. The solution is the system of U -space, which brings new possibilities for the coordination of UAS and traditional aviation in a single airspace, an efficient way of operations management, and an advanced level of automation and digitalization of its services. However, to implement U -space, it is necessary to conduct a safety analysis of such operations. This paper aims to verify whether U -space airspace allows wider possibilities for UAS operations by ensuring a higher level of safety. For this purpose, the MEDUSA method was used, which is designed for safety analysis in U -space airspace. The method was applied to a model operational scenario, which was previously used for the application of the SORA analysis, which is not designed for a higher density of air traffic and, therefore, wider usage of U -space. This enabled a direct comparison of the results of both methods, based on which the benefits and risks associated with the implementation of U -space were described. During processing, it was found that the purely qualitative nature of the MEDUSA method, in combination with limited documentation, strongly limits the conclusions. However, the results show that U -space allows for an increase in air traffic while maintaining the required level of safety.