Holforty, Wendy L. | Engineering Papers

NASA NTRS2020

Small Unmanned Aircraft System Off Nominal Operations Reporting System Unmanned Aircraft System: Traffic Management Technical Capability Level 4 Implementation, Data Collection and Analysis

NASA performed research and development of technologies and requirements for traffic management of small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). In this effort, a small UAS off-nominal situation reporting system was developed to capture information from off-nominal situations to understand their nature and reduce occurrences. This Technical Memorandum (TM) describes the reporting system and analysis of 116 off-nominal situation reports from 352 small UAS operations, which were conducted at two flight test ranges in Summer 2019.

Jung, Jaewoo↗

NASA NTRS2005

Dynamic wake prediction and visualization with uncertainty analysis

A dynamic wake avoidance system utilizes aircraft and atmospheric parameters readily available in flight to model and predict airborne wake vortices in real time. A novel combination of algorithms allows for a relatively simple yet robust wake model to be constructed based on information extracted from a broadcast. The system predicts the location and movement of the wake based on the nominal wake model and correspondingly performs an uncertainty analysis on the wake model to determine a wake hazard zone (no fly zone), which comprises a plurality of wake planes, each moving independently from another. The system selectively adjusts dimensions of each wake plane to minimize spatial and temporal uncertainty, thereby ensuring that the actual wake is within the wake hazard zone. The predicted wake hazard zone is communicated in real time directly to a user via a realistic visual representation. In an example, the wake hazard zone is visualized on a 3-D flight deck display to enable a pilot to visualize or see a neighboring aircraft as well as its wake. The system substantially enhances the pilot's situational awareness and allows for a further safe decrease in spacing, which could alleviate airport and airspace congestion.

Holforty, Wendy L.↗