The Generic Resolution Advisor and Conflict Evaluator (GRACE) for Detect-And-Avoid (DAA) Systems

The paper describes the Generic Resolution Advisor and Conflict Evaluator (GRACE), a novel alerting and guidance algorithm that combines flexibility, robustness, and computational efficiency. GRACE is “generic” in that it makes no assumptions regarding temporal or spatial scales, aircraft performance, or its sensor and communication systems. Accordingly, GRACE is well suited to research applications where alerting and guidance is a central feature and requirements are fluid involving a wide range of aviation technologies. GRACE has been used at NASA in a number of real-time and fast-time experiments supporting evolving requirements of DAA research, including parametric studies, NAS-wide simulations, human-in-the-loop experiments, and live flight tests.

[1]  Confesor Santiago,et al.  The Generic Resolution Advisor and Conflict Evaluator (GRACE) for Unmanned Aircraft Detect-And-Avoid Systems , 2017 .

[2]  Douglas R. Isaacson,et al.  Air Traffic Controller Acceptability of Unmanned Aircraft System Detect-and-Avoid Thresholds , 2016 .

[3]  Mohamad Refai,et al.  Downstream Effects of Separation Assurance on Encounters Between Unmanned and Manned Aircraft , 2017 .

[4]  John Lygeros,et al.  Stochastic reachability for discrete time systems: an application to aircraft collision avoidance , 2003, 42nd IEEE International Conference on Decision and Control (IEEE Cat. No.03CH37475).

[5]  Hasnaa Zidani,et al.  Collision analysis for an UAV , 2012 .

[6]  H. Erzberger,et al.  Design of a conflict detection algorithm for the Center/TRACON automation system , 1997, 16th DASC. AIAA/IEEE Digital Avionics Systems Conference. Reflections to the Future. Proceedings.

[7]  Rodney E. Cole,et al.  Defining Well Clear for Unmanned Aircraft Systems , 2015 .

[8]  Eric R. Mueller,et al.  Characteristics of a Well Clear Definition and Alerting Criteria for Encounters between UAS and Manned Aircraft in Class E Airspace , 2015 .

[9]  Jens Schiefele,et al.  Method for detecting and avoiding flight hazards , 1997, Defense, Security, and Sensing.

[10]  Wallace E. Kelly,et al.  ADVANCES IN FORCE FIELD CONFLICT RESOLUTION ALGORITHMS , 2000 .

[11]  Plamen Angelov Sense and Avoid in UAS : Research and Applications , 2012 .

[12]  Dr. Andrew D. Zeitlin Progress on Requirements and Standards for Sense & Avoid , 2010 .

[13]  Confesor Santiago,et al.  UAS Well Clear Recovery Against Non-Cooperative Intruders Using Vertical Maneuvers , 2017 .

[14]  Marcel Mongeau,et al.  Aircraft Conflict Resolution by Genetic Algorithm and B-Spline Approximation , 2010 .

[15]  James K. Archibald,et al.  A cooperative multi-agent approach to free flight , 2005, AAMAS '05.

[16]  S. Shankar Sastry,et al.  Generation of conflict resolution manoeuvres for air traffic management , 1997, Proceedings of the 1997 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robot and Systems. Innovative Robotics for Real-World Applications. IROS '97.

[17]  James R. Murphy,et al.  Flight Test Overview for UAS Integration in the NAS Project , 2016 .

[18]  Mykel J. Kochenderfer,et al.  Robust Airborne Collision Avoidance through Dynamic Programming , 2011 .

[19]  Minghong G. Wu,et al.  UAS Integration in the NAS Project: Flight Test 3 Data Analysis of JADEM-Autoresolver Detect and Avoid System , 2016 .

[20]  Heinz Erzberger,et al.  The automated airspace concept , 2001 .

[21]  César Muñoz,et al.  A TCAS-II Resolution Advisory Detection Algorithm , 2013 .

[22]  W. Harman TCAS: A system for preventing midair collisions , 1989 .

[23]  James K. Kuchar,et al.  A review of conflict detection and resolution modeling methods , 2000, IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst..

[24]  Kevin J. Monk,et al.  Maintain and Regain Well Clear: Maneuver Guidance Designs for Pilots Performing the Detect-and-Avoid Task , 2017 .

[25]  Eric R. Mueller,et al.  Pilot Evaluation of a UAS Detect-and-Avoid System's Effectiveness in Remaining Well Clear , 2015 .

[26]  Marcel Mongeau,et al.  A light-propagation model for aircraft trajectory planning , 2012, Journal of Global Optimization.

[27]  Lisa Fern,et al.  Validation of Minimum Display Requirements for a UAS Detect and Avoid System , 2017 .

[28]  Frederick Wieland,et al.  Unmanned aircraft system demand generation and airspace performance impact prediction , 2013, 2013 IEEE/AIAA 32nd Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC).

[29]  Nasrudin Abd Rahim,et al.  Unmanned Aircraft Collision Avoidance System Using Cooperative Agent-Based Negotiation Approach , 2009 .

[30]  John Lygeros,et al.  Control of multiple non-holonomic air vehicles under wind uncertainty using Model Predictive Control and decentralized navigation functions , 2008, 2008 47th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control.

[31]  Eric R. Mueller,et al.  Piloted Well Clear Performance Evaluation of Detect and Avoid Systems with Suggestive Guidance , 2016 .

[32]  S. Shankar Sastry,et al.  OPTIMAL COORDINATED MANEUVERS FOR THREE DIMENSIONAL AIRCRAFT CONFLICT RESOLUTION , 2001 .

[33]  Hak-Tae Lee,et al.  Radar Data Tracking Using Minimum Spanning Tree-Based Clustering Algorithm , 2011 .

[34]  Tamás Péni,et al.  Performance characteristics of a complete vision only sense and avoid system , 2012 .

[35]  Douglas R. Isaacson,et al.  Evaluating Alerting and Guidance Performance of a UAS Detect-And-Avoid System , 2016 .

[36]  Kostas J. Kyriakopoulos,et al.  Towards constant velocity Navigation and collision avoidance for autonomous nonholonomic aircraft-like vehicles , 2009, Proceedings of the 48h IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) held jointly with 2009 28th Chinese Control Conference.

[37]  Confesor Santiago,et al.  Ensuring Interoperability between UAS Detect-and-Avoid and Manned Aircraft Collision Avoidance , 2017 .

[38]  Kevin J. Monk,et al.  UAS Pilot Evaluations of Suggestive Guidance on Detect-and-Avoid Displays , 2016 .

[39]  Maria Consiglio,et al.  DAIDALUS: Detect and avoid alerting logic for unmanned systems , 2015, 2015 IEEE/AIAA 34th Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC).

[40]  Banavar Sridhar,et al.  Deconflicting Wind-Optimal Aircraft Trajectories in North Atlantic Oceanic Airspace , 2016 .