Effects of UAS Performance Characteristics, Altitude, and Mitigation Concepts on Aircraft Encounters and Delays

Abstract

Introduction of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into positively controlled airspace may cause greater per-aircraft impact on the National Airspace System than existing traffic because UAS aerodynamic performance and mission types are often different from aircraft that typically fly in positively controller airspace (i.e. commercial passenger traffic). This paper examines the impact new UAS operations will have on existing aircraft and measures that impact by the number of predicted conflicts and associated conflict resolution delays that occurred in fast-time simulation. The two conflict metrics are quantified as a function of the UAS altitude and cruise speed. Two mitigation approaches are also investigated: increasing horizontal separation requirements for UAS and "burdening" UAS with the responsibility to execute all resolution maneuvers when possible. Results indicate that en route conflict maneuver delay for existing traffic because of new UAS operations can be nearly eliminated by burdening UAS with the responsibility to execute conflict resolution maneuvers and maintaining the current en route horizontal separation requirement of five nautical miles from other aircraft.

Path and Speed Optimization for Conflict-Free Pickup and Delivery Under Time Windows

“…We also assume that the time spent accelerating or decelerating is negligible and that a turn does not slow down the vehicle significantly. This is realistic in port terminal management and in routing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles where the track length is large enough to justify both assumptions: tens of meters or even a few hundred meters in the former case (Branch 2012) and several miles in the latter (Mueller et al 2013). As 5 far as energy consumption is concerned, modern AGVs, whilst decelerating, use a regenerative breaking mechanism that can be used to recover the kinetic energy consumed in the acceleration phase (Young et al 2013, Fiori et al 2016.…”

Effects of UAS-Specific Capacity Constraints on Delays and Aircraft Encounters

“…Recently, Mueller et al 5 investigated the effects of typical UAS missions and performance characteristics on existing NAS traffic. They analyzed the impact of the UAS operations for different independent variables including speed, altitude, and separation criteria for the UAS flights.…”