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Quantifying situation awareness for small unmanned aircraft

Towards routine Beyond Visual Line of Sight operations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 March 2018

O. McAree ,
J.M. Aitken  and
S.M. Veres
O. McAree*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Science, Liverpool John Moores University, UK
J.M. Aitken
Affiliation:
Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, The University of Sheffield, UK
S.M. Veres
Affiliation:
Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, The University of Sheffield, SysBrain Ltd, Southampton, UK
*
O.D.McAree@ljmu.ac.uk
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Abstract

A novel statistical model is presented to quantify situation awareness in the operation of small civilian Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). Today, the vast majority of small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) operation takes place under Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) of a human operator, who is wholly responsible for the safety of the flight. As operation begins to move to Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS), it is likely that this responsibility will become shared between operator and the increasingly autonomous UAS itself. Before we seek to quantify the safety of such a system, it is beneficial to analyse the safety of existing Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) operations to provide a target level of safety. Prior to considering any on-board decision making, it is essential to ensure that the artificial situation awareness system of a UAS in Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) is at least as good as awareness of a human operator. The paper provides a probabilistic theory and model for the high-level abstractions of situation awareness to guide future assessment of BVLOS operations.

Keywords

Unmanned Aerial SystemsAutonomySituation AwarenessSafety Classification Description: Aerospace SafetyAirworthinessControl ApplicationsHuman FactorsUnmanned Aerial Vehicles
Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 122 , Issue 1251 , May 2018 , pp. 733 - 746
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 2018 

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