By March 2014, the MQ-1C Gray Eagle, an
Army unmanned aerial system, or UAS, will be able to train in the same airspace
as the Boeing 747, with the help of the Army-developed Ground Based Sense and
Avoid system.
The Army recently concluded a two-week
demonstration of the Ground Based Sense and Avoid system, or GBSAA, at Dugway
Proving Ground, Utah. During the demonstration, the Army put the system through
multiple training “vignettes” that validated both the design and functionality
of the system.
“We are ready to begin the certification
process in order to be fielding in March 2014, for the Gray Eagle locations,”
said Viva Austin, product director for the Army’s Unmanned Systems Airspace
Integration.
The five locations for Gray Eagle basing
and training include Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Riley, Kan.; Fort Stewart, Ga.;
Fort Campbell, Ky.; and Fort Bragg, N.C. It’s expected the first system will
field in March 2014 at Fort Hood. About
three months later, the system should field to Fort Riley. All five sites should be equipped with the
GBSAA system by 2015, officials said.
The GBSAA is a radar and warning system
designed to allow soldiers to fly unmanned aerial systems, like the Gray Eagle,
inside the National Air Space, while still meeting Federal Aviation
Administration regulations. The system monitors location and altitude of the
UAS and other aircraft, detects possible collisions, and makes recommendations
to UAS operators on how to avoid those collisions.
As unmanned aerial systems and the
soldiers who fly them return home from theater, the Army needs a way to keep
those UAS operators trained for the next battle, and they need to do that
training inside the United States and inside the National Air Space, or NAS.
The Federal Aviation Administration, or
FAA, requires a pilot be able to “see and avoid” other aircraft flying in the
same airspace. But a UAS has no pilot onboard. The Army can get around that by
meeting other requirements, however. The Army can fly a UAS in the NAS with a
chase aircraft following the UAS, for instance. It is also possible to fly in
the NAS if a trained observer is watching the UAS. But the observer must be
within one mile and 3,000 feet of the vehicle.
Additionally,
the Army can’t fly the UAS in NAS at night.
The GBSAA was developed as an “alternate
means of compliance” for the FAA’s “see and avoid” requirement. The system
senses other traffic in the area, using a 3D radar system, and uses algorithms
to determine if there is danger of collision and how to avoid that danger. That
information is provided to the UAS operator.
When
the FAA approves the system for use, the Army will be able to train UAS pilots
any time of day.
“It’s a significant impact [on
training],” said Austin. “It does two things. One is it allows us to not need
to put chase planes out to follow the aircraft over. It allows us to not have
ground observers standing out there, trying to separate traffic. And it allows
us to fly through the night hours, it gives us 24-hour operations, GBSAA allows
that and opens it up.”
The recent demonstration of the GBSAA
involved seven vignettes at Dugway Proving Ground, involving both live and
synthetic UAVs, as well as synthetic “intruders.”
The first three vignettes used real UAS.
In vignettes 1 and 2, a real Hunter UAS flew at Dougway against synthetic
“intruders” in their airspace. The difference between the two vignettes was the
version of the GBSAA used. In both scenarios, the system performed without
endangering the mission, but on the second run, the Army Phase 2 Block 0
system’s improved algorithms indicated an earlier, safer departure time between
the two intruders.
Vignette 3 pitted two live Shadow UAS
against each other. One of the Shadows served as the intruder aircraft, the
other was guided by the GBSAA. The operator of that aircraft was warned at an
appropriate time and was able to follow the recommended maneuver to avoid the
other aircraft.
The next three vignettes showed the
adaptability of the Phase 2 Block 0 algorithms. They were flown using synthetic
UAS, through the X-Plane system. Each of the three vignettes used replicated
airspace over different military installations, including Marine Corps Air Station,
Cherry Point, N.C.; Fort Stewart, Ga.; and Fort Drum, N.Y.
Finally, in vignette 7, the GBSAA system
was demonstrated again using a synthetic UAS, but was flown against live
aviation traffic data around nearby Salt Lake City, and also against recorded
air traffic data from Boston’s Logan Airport.
“In both cases we were extremely
successful and (it) was even more than we had hoped for,” Austin said.
Austin
said it was difficult to get the GBSAA system into a tough situation that it
couldn’t handle.
“The hardest part of that was actually
trying to get into a situation where the maneuver algorithm was really tested,
getting into a red condition,” Austin said. “Big sky theory kind of held true,
we almost felt like we were trying to chase people down at that point because
air traffic control keeps people separated so well, it was kind of hard to put
yourself in a really stressing situation and test those algorithms out really
well. It was very safe and we demonstrated that the system and the test bed was
really successful.”
Austin did say one thing learned about
the GBSAA is that the algorithm used to safely move UAS through airspace does
not always do things conventionally, as pilots would do them. Austin said that
they will try to work more standard ways into the system, if they can do so
without breaking the algorithm.
By C. Todd Lopez
Army.mil
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