FEATURES
Innovative Operational UAS Integration (INOUI) - A Roadmap to the Future of UAS
History The INOUI project is a response to the challenge of integrating UAS as Airspace User into the future ATM System. The proposal itself is related to the Research Domain 4.g «Innovative Air Traffic Management Research» of the FP62005-AERO-4, Research Area «Open Upstream Research», by DG TREN of the European Commission. The definition of the scope of the research domain 4.g is as follows: «Novel concepts and technologies with a fresh perspective into a new air traffic management paradigm for all type of aircraft in support of a more efficient air transport system. In this context, particular emphasis will be placed on the ATM and airports component of SRA2 namely: innovative visualisation techniques; ATM for new vehicles (UAVs or ‘individual’ aircraft); highly automated ATM; towerless ATM; innovative all weather operations and enhanced environmental procedures at airport.» Objective The INOUI objective, as part European R&D community, is to help to resolve the question of the UAS integration in the 2020 Air Traffic Management system. Therefore INOUI outcomes will establish a framework for the operation of the UAS in Europe, serving as a booster for the European UAS industry. Hence, European Community could take the leadership in the operational scope (integrated operation of UAS) and in the technical scope (UAS industry). The Members The INOUI consortium was founded by six organizations including UAS Manufacturers, Air Navigation Service Providers, Research Centres and Consultancy Companies from countries across Europe (France, Germany, Spain). Namely the founders are: DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH (DFS), Germany, as co-ordinator; Ingeniería de Sistemas para la Defensa de España, S.A. (Isdefe), Spain; Boeing Research & Technology Europe, S.L. (BRT&E), Spain; Fundación Instituto de Investigación INNAXIS (INNAXIS), Spain; Rheinmetall Defence Electronics GmbH (RDE), Germany; Office National d’Etudes et Recherches Aérospatiales (Onera), France. These six organisations represent a balanced selection from the UAS stakeholder group and combine the required experience for such an objective. Our Beliefs UAS are flying today, mainly on military missions, but some on civilian errands, mainly in segregated airspace, but some in controlled airspace. Looking at this reality it is true that most UAS applications today are of military origin or at least military look alike applications i.e. surveillance. The integration of the actual UAS applications and the UAS itself into the INOUI intends to evaluate current UAS applications, project them into the future and pool ideas for future UAS applications. Furthermore innovations in UAS technology e.g. sense and avoid will be cross checked with the innovations and developments expected within the ATM System up to 2020 in the context of SESAR. The results of these cross checks will support and ensure that innovative UAS applications will not be rendered useless or inefficient by the evolving ATM System and the ATM environment. These activities require a much wider audience than is available with the INOUI members. INOUI expects future UAS applications to be unveiled, which hitherto are not part of the mainstream thinking. Knowing this, one of the main targets, besides alignment with SESAR, must be to incorporate all UAS stakeholders – especially those who as yet might not be aware that they should be part of this stakeholder group. Therefore several workshops are planned to chart the unknown territory of future UAS applications. Information of the public about INOUI and its results is another obvious target, consequently the internet or publications will be used. In addition INOUI members will actively participate in national and international activities related to UAS systems and applications. In short INOUI will investigate and research in the areas of: UAS Applications and their impact/consequences on the ATM system; Integration of UAS into the future ATM Enterprise Architecture; Certification and licensing, especially human resources; Situational awareness, especially including UAS into the System-Wide Information Management (SWIM); Safety of UAS Operations; Airport operations and how they are impacted by UAS operations. Therefore INOUI intends to produce and present results which: (civil) airspace and into the civil air traffic is a challenge of today. This challenge is tackled by different countries, by different organisation and in different ways. INOUI members represent a significant amount of experience with regard to today’s practices. Therefore INOUI members believe they are in a unique position to transport various national activities onto the European stage and in that way foster and support ongoing or new harmonisation activities. INOUI will not stop with looking at today, INOUI members believe it is of utmost importance to look into the future and investigate how existing UAS applications will evolve and what kind of new UAS applications might become reality either due to future requirements of e.g. telecommunications or other «non» ATM industry. This «visionary» activity requires close cooperation with SESAR activities, which is ensured by the fact that the members are deeply involved in such activities. Targets
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Identify operational concepts for UAS applications and describe the resulting procedures and requirements in the different timeframes up to 2020; Identify how the UAS can fit into the ATM System of 2020 and what activities have to be taken especially from the UAS point of view (research roadmap); Identify existing certification requirements and processes and suggest an optimum certification blueprint for UAS related human resources and as far as required UAS related technologies; Identify how UAS can benefit from SWIM and what activities have to be taken to achieve the benefit; Identify the safety issues related to UAS and develop high level safety objectives and requirements; Identify the potential airport types for UAS operations and describe the operational impact. Conclusion INOUI members represent a cross section of the different organisations and their interests existing in today’s UAS stakeholder group. We, as much as everybody else, realised that a concise baseline for UAS and UAS applications on a European (and even global) level is required. Therefore this project «Innovative Operational UAS Integration» with its target to develop a «roadmap to the future of UAS» was created. Nevertheless INOUI is well aware that the integration of outside ideas and opinions is crucial to this project and will strive to achieve a «buy in» by actively participating in UAS related activities, publications and the internet. Furthermore SESAR as the ATM project forms a major cornerstone for INOUI. The SESAR activities will closely be monitored and results will be incorporated into INOUI activities and vice versa.
Achim Baumann Senior Project Manager Aeronautical Solutions DFS - Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH Germany
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