Unmanned Aircrafts for Civil Applications

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EPP Project Spring 2007:  Unmanned Aircrafts in the NAS

 

Each semester, the Department of Engineering and Public Policy in collaboration with the Department of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon runs one or two project courses for upper-level undergraduates in which students work in interdisciplinary groups to solve a complex societal problem that involves science and technology.  The course provides a unique opportunity for students to develop skills in research, policy-analysis, teamwork, and communication.  Project courses typically involve about 30 undergraduate students with a wide variety of backgrounds from electrical and mechanical engineering to psychology.   Overseeing the project are several graduate student managers and faculty members.  The course “deliverable” is a single final project report describing the policy problem and evaluating policy options to address it.  Technical and policy experts from outside Carnegie Mellon are invited to serve on an expert panel to which students present both preliminary and final results of their work for review and comment.

 

In the spring 2007 semester, which runs from January 15 to May 4, one project course will tackle the problem of integrating unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into the national airspace system (NAS).  UAVs [1] are remotely or autonomously-piloted aircraft with hundreds of applications including natural resource management, law enforcement, homeland security, communications relay, package delivery, crop monitoring, and emergency management.  The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which controls access to the NAS, is currently developing regulations for the safe operation of UAVs in NAS, pending the emergence of adequate safety technologies and safety standards.  Their task is complicated by the myriad applications, geographic regions of operation, altitudes of operation, and physical size/configuration of UAVs, as well as by the large variety of stakeholders with widely different concerns about changes in the rules that govern access to the NAS. 

 

    Students in the project course will analyze the safety, economic, regulatory, and institutional aspects of UAVs in the NAS, and will develop a policy analysis designed to help advance UAV regulation.  Specific questions that project participants will address include:

 

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Who are the stakeholders and what are their positions on integrating UAVs in the NAS?  What special role does DoD play, as the world’s largest user of UAVs?

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What processes are underway to bring stakeholders together to reach consensus?  How well are these processes working? 

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What are the risks of UAVs and how do they compare to those of manned aircraft?  What current and emerging technologies can reduce UAV risks? What is the role of human factors in risks for UAVs vs manned aircraft?

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What changes in the air traffic control system would be required to safely accommodate UAVs?  Conversely, what technologies would UAV systems need to be compatible with current plans for ATC modernization?

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How acceptable are UAV risks to the general public?  What safety goals for UAVs would the public demand? With which UAV applications are people most comfortable and uncomfortable?  How do perceived benefits of different UAV applications affect levels of acceptable risk?

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The FAA’s goal is the make UAVs as safe as manned aircraft.  How should this goal be operationalized (e.g., same number of expected fatalities per flight, per flight mile, per operating vehicle, or annually across entire system)? 

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What are the technical and procedural options for managing UAV risk?  Which options are the most cost-effective?  Which options are the most institutionally feasible?

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How cost-effective are UAVs compared to manned aircraft performing similar missions?

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Which UAV applications are most likely to be profitable in the short, medium, and long-term?  How should the overall societal costs and benefits of any particular UAV application be assessed? 

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How do constraints on UAV access to the NAS affect the development of new UAV technologies and markets?

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How might UAV regulations have to evolve to mesh with emerging air traffic control technologies (e.g., ADS-B) and regimes (e.g., NGATS)?

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How important is it for UAV regulations to be harmonized across nations?  What are the principle impediments to doing so?

 

   

The faculty, managers, and students of the 2007 project course on UAVs and the NAS invite participation by government officials, industry representatives, UAV users, manned aircraft pilots, and other interested and affected parties.  

[1] An unmanned aerial vehicle is the flying component of an unmanned aerial system (UAS), which normally includes one or more ground stations for navigation and payload control, as well as communication links.

 

   

 

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Last updated: 04/23/07.