UC Santa Cruz

Integrating unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into the National Airspace System (NAS) is an active area of research. The “see and avoid” functionality on manned aircraft requires a human pilot in the cockpit. Without a human pilot, a new system called detect-and-avoid (DAA) is being implemented to allow to UAS to be “well clear” from other manned aircraft. Two rates loss of well clear (LoWC), the effective and aggregate rates, are evaluated to observe how well they correlate with each other in the event of DAA failure. This study also investigates the validity of using a cumulative exponential distribution function (CEDF) to predict LoWC rates for one day. Airspace Concept Evaluation System (ACES), a simulation tool, was used to provide NAS-wide aircraft interactions needed to make the assessment. It was observed that a CEDF function can be used to statistically model LoWC rates. These rates can be used to set reliability standards for the integration of UAS in the NAS.