Real-Time HW and Human-in-the-Loop Simulations for the Validation of Detect and Avoid Advanced Functionalities in ATM Future Scenarios

The full integration of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) in non-segregated airspace is one of the major objectives for the worldwide aviation organizations and authorities. However, there are several technological and regulatory issues due to the increase of the air traffic in the next years and to the need of keeping high safety levels. In this framework, a real-time validation environment capable to simulate complex scenarios related to future air traffic management (ATM) conditions is of paramount importance. These facilities allow detailed testing and tuning of new technologies and procedures before executing flight tests. With such motivations, the Italian Aerospace Research Centre has developed the Integrated Simulation Facility (ISF) able to accurately reproduce ATM complex scenarios in real-time with hardware and human in-the-loop simulations, aiming to validate new ATM procedures and innovative system prototypes for RPAS and General Aviation aircraft. In the present work, the ISF facility has been used for reproducing relevant ATM scenarios to validate the functionalities of a Detect and Avoid system (DAA). The results of the ISF test campaign demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed algorithm in the autonomous resolution of mid-air collisions in presence of both air traffic and fixed obstacles (i.e. bad weather areas, no-fly-zone and terrain) and during critical flight phases, thus exceeding the current DAA state-of-the-art.