Threat Management Methodology for Unmanned Aerial Systems Operating in the U-Space

• Published in: IEEE access Vol. 10; pp. 70476 - 70490
• Main Authors: Capitan, Carlos, Capitan, Jesus, Castano, Angel R., Ollero, Anibal
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway IEEE 2022; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Air traffic management; Aircraft; Airspace; Computer architecture; Decision making; Drones; Emergency management; Emergency services; Europe; Focusing; Methodology; Real time; Real-time systems; threat management; U-space; UAS; Unmanned aerial vehicles; Unmanned aircraft; UTM
• ISSN: 2169-3536; 2169-3536
• DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3188204

This paper presents a threat management methodology for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) operating in the civil airspace. The work is framed within an Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) system based on the U-space initiative. We propose a new method that focuses on providing the required automated decision-making during real-time threat management and conflict resolution, which is one of the main gaps in the current U-space ecosystem. Our method is capable of handling all commonplace UTM threats, as well as selecting optimal mitigation actions, trading off efficiency and safety. Our implementation is open-source and fully integrated in a UTM software architecture, implementing U-space services related to emergency management and tactical deconfliction. We demonstrate our methodology through a set of realistic use cases with actual UAS operating in civil airspace. For that, we performed field experiments in an aerodrome with segregated airspace, and we showcased that the methodology is capable of autonomously managing heterogeneous threats in real time.