Evaluation of Separation Management Algorithms in Class G Airspace

Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in support of government applications has already seen significant growth and the potential for use of UAVs in commercial applications is expected to rapid ly expand in the near future. However, the issue remains on how such automated or operator -controlled aircraft can be safely integrated into current airspace. If the goal of integration is to be realized, issues regarding safe separation in densely populat ed airspace must be investigated. This paper investigates automated separation management concepts in uncontrolled airspace that may help prepare for an expected growth of UAVs in Class G airspace. Not only are such investigations helpful for the UAV integ ration issue, the automated separation management concepts investigated by the authors can also be useful for the development of new or improved Air Traffic Control services in remote regions without any existing infrastructure. The paper will also provide an overview of the Smart Skies program and discuss the corresponding Smart Skies research and development effort to evaluate aircraft separation management algorithms using simulations involving real world data communication channels, and verified against actual flight trials. This paper presents results from a unique flight test concept that uses real -time flight test data from Australia over existing commercial communication channels to a control center in Seattle for real -time separation management of a ctual and simulated aircraft. The paper also assesses the performance of an automated aircraft separation manager. I. Introduction ncreased automation of the Air Traffic Control (ATC) separation assurance process aims to reduce the workload of air traffic c ontrollers and potentially allow an increase of air traffic densities of manned and unmanned platforms while maintaining current safety levels. Boeing Research and Technology (BR&T) has developed an ATC architecture, called the Automated Dynamic Airspace C ontroller (ADAC ). The ADAC allows prototyping and testing of the Separation Assurance function and can be used to evaluate different Separation Management (SM) approaches. Our scope is currently limited to Separation Assurance in uncontrolled Class G airsp ace with the ADAC exercising centralized control over cooperative manned and unmanned aircraft. This approach will allow control of cooperative manned and unmanned platforms from any global location with access to the Internet, in what was previously uncon trolled airspace. The ADAC can also support a decentralized and distributed separation assurance function where the currently centralized functions are executed onboard the aircraft. Such a decentralized structure is an area of ongoing research at BR&T.