Investigation of DAA System Effectiveness with a Pilot Decision Model and Realistic Sensor Performance Limits

Detect and Avoid (DAA) system is an essential part of Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) for the safe operations within civil airspace. This paper investigates the performances of a DAA system in a fast-time simulation environment. A pilot decision model was developed to enable fast-time simulation using the Detect and AvoID Alerting Logic for Unmanned Systems that computes the range of maneuvers that are free of conflicts. In addition, realistic constraints about the DAA sensors are applied. Sensor’s limits are set with azimuth angle, vertical angle, and distance as well as update rates. A realistic encounter scenario was generated based on the recorded traffic in a congested terminal area. DAA Sensor performances and update rates as well as alerting criteria were varied to have the total of 24 different configurations. The results revealed that the developed model reasonably resolves conflicts in arrival procedure junctions, but it struggles when the conflict geometry is complicated near a holding pattern. In addition, increasing the update rate was not effective in preventing Loss of Well Clear in these situations.