T3: Current and Future Surveillance Technologies for Airspace Integration of UAS in Controlled and Uncontrolled Airspace

Date and time: June 6, 2023, time to be announced (half day)

Organizers and Presenters

Maarten Uijt de Haag, Chair of Flight Guidance and Air Transportation
Technische Universität Berlin, Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Berlin, Germany

Christian Janke
Embry Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide
College of Aeronautics, Frankfurt/M., Germany

Tutorial Summary

The challenging question that is answered is: How will Unmanned Aircraft Systems of all sizes, passenger EVTOL and manned aircraft in the future collaborate, communicate, and separate?

As such, this tutorial introduces key technologies for a collaborative Detect-and-Avoid capability to enable future utilization and integration of UAS into the national airspace. Discussion includes systems such as Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) and the use of cellular services to support surveillance functions. After a general introduction of the conventional CNS-ATM (Communication, Navigation, Surveillance – Air Traffic Management) approach used in traditional manned aviation, the underlying challenges for adoption of these principles for Unmanned Aircraft Systems are addressed.

In contrast to non-collaborative airspace integration approaches based on, for example, primary radar, optical sensors, or Lidar solutions, collaborative methods exploit active localization and ubiquitous connectivity. Under this paradigm, every airspace participant shall localize itself and transmit its position and other relevant information via broadcast and networked connections.

The focus is on explaining and proposing a ground-based receiver infrastructure as well as the technical requirements and standards for the UAV-based transceivers and connectivity. Robust and redundant connectivity with Vehicle-to-Vehicle and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure capability are technologies that need to be utilized to advance the state-of-the-art for UAS airspace integration. The discussion addresses the effects of latency and bandwidth, cyber security aspects, as well as the status quo of size, weight, and power requirements for UAS equipage.

In addition, the tutorial includes an on-site demonstration of live-air traffic, including a dashboard and trajectory analysis of current airborne targets.

Topics to be Covered

• Summary:
Overview of traditional CNS-ATM technologies and processes including non-cooperative surveillance systems, such as primary surveillance radar (PSR), independent cooperative systems like secondary surveillance radar (SSR) and multi-lateration (MLAT), and dependent cooperative systems such as ADS-B and Traffic Information Systems – Broadcast (TIS-B). Addressing how target tracking is used to turn the position reports from these surveillance technologies into aircraft tracks and can be used to predict possible future loss of separation between two or more aircraft. In addition, the tutorial covers traditional conflict detection and resolution systems used on manned aviation such as the Traffic Collision Avoidance System II (TCAS II) and the more recent Aircraft Collision Avoidance System X (ACAS-X), and its variance for unmanned aviation, ACAS-Xu. In support of this discussion, discussion centers on various airspaces currently used for manned aviation, the airspaces envisioned for UAS, and relevant communication systems such as VHF and SATCOM.
• From Remote ID to Detect-and-Avoid – how to bring surveillance technology on a UAS:
With a solid basis in the area of traditional surveillance and collision avoidance techniques, this part of the tutorial focusses on detect-and-avoid for UAS including UAS operating at very low levels (VLL), beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS), and UAS operating in an environment with an unmanned traffic management system (i.e., UTM or U-space). Topics include remote identification (ID), flight authorization, traffic monitoring, tracking and position reporting, and conformance monitoring in the U-space environment and the role of current and future (5G) communication systems in this effort.
• Field Demo:
Collaborative demonstration of the state-of-the-art drone surveillance technology, hands-on trial in field test, and active participant dashboard access.
• Summary, discussion, and feedback

Intended Audience

This tutorial is suitable for students, researchers, engineers, and developers interested in technology enabled airspace integration of UAS, enabling future guidance, navigation, and harmonized simultaneous operation of manned and unmanned systems in controlled and uncontrolled airspace. As an outcome of the tutorial participants will gain a deeper understanding of how the traditional aviation tracking and surveillance methods, as well as the processes and technologies that will enable large-scale UAS operations in civilian and public domain applications.

Tutorial Material

Participants will receive detailed presentations and papers. The onsite material will also include a demonstration of ground-based surveillance infrastructure and a live tracking demo of drones via a browser-based dashboard. Surveillance technologies on UAS will be showcased and explained in detail.