Investigating collision avoidance for small UAS using cooperative surveillance and ACAS X

Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) have proliferated over the last decade. While these platforms offer many benefits to society, they pose a dangerous mid-air collision hazard. In order to safely integrate into airspace shared by other users, sUAS must be able to avoid collisions with manned aircraft. To better understand sUAS flight behavior and inform Collision Avoidance (CA) systems for sUAS, over 600 active UAS platforms were reviewed. The mean climb rate capability was 720 feet per minute (fpm) for all reviewed sUAS, which suggests that CA systems currently used by manned aircraft (which require 2,500 fpm climb capability) would be inappropriate for implementation on sUAS. Novel CA systems are therefore required. Next, to assess the feasibility of CA system equipage on sUAS, the Size, Weight, Power, and Cost (SWaP-C) of equipment necessary for CA systems were studied.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Deaton, John Logan.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• R. John Hansman.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122375

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/122375