Unmanned Aircraft Traffic Management (UTM)
(Room 261-262)
03 May 16
1:30 PM
-
2:00 PM
Tracks:
Air, Airspace Integration, Commercial, Research and Development
The Unmanned Aircraft System is the fastest growing new technology to come since the advent of public access to aviation for commercial transport. Air Traffic Management (ATM) is about the combining of procedures, technology and human resources which make sure that aircraft are guided safely through the sky and airspace is managed to accommodate the changing needs of air traffic over time. As Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) increase in numbers and uses, their interactions with a mix of general aviation aircraft, there will be need of a way to safely accommodate all of these aircraft at lower altitudes. Currently, there is no established infrastructure to enable and safely manage the widespread use of low-altitude UAS flight operations in the national airspace system (NAS). A UAS traffic management (UTM) system for low-altitude airspace is needed, much like today's surface vehicles that operate within a system consisting of roads, lanes, stop signs, rules, and lights, regardless of whether the vehicle is automated or driven by a human. But what makes ATM possible? In ATM, complex processes and control systems come into play - all of which is what we call air traffic management (ATM). Air Traffic Management is the managing of all systems that assist aircraft to depart from a location of the surface, transit airspace, and land at a destination location on the surface. ATM is the succesful fusion of people, technologies, and operating systems, that begins with the aircraft, and blends together the system of air traffic control (ATC), aeronautical meteorology, air navigation systems (aids to navigation), Air Space Management (ASM), Air Traffic Services (ATS), and Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM), or Air Traffic Flow and Capacity Management (ATFCM). How do we duplicate ATM while dedicating it to Unmanned Aircraft? Unmanned Air Traffic Management (UTM) stands to fill a void in the NAS wherein there is need to operate aircraft in airspace areas that have, up until now, needed little supervision from ATM. UTM stands to provide the very low-altitude UAS operator a quick, safe, and efficient standard of procedures that will be applied through an automated network of land, sea, air and space based terminals. NASA's goal is two-part: 1. The first is the development and demonstration of UTM to safely prove the concept while continuously developing technologies that can be effectively and efficiently applied, and 2. To assist commercial industries in developing an extensive, nationwide network of UTM capabilities that will be seamlessly applicable across the nation.