NASA, Reliable Robotics Contract Advances UAS Integration Near Airports and Contingency Operations

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Reliable Robotics, the leader in autonomous aircraft systems, announced a new contract with NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) to perform and collect data from operational demonstration flights of its automated Cessna 208B Caravan at and around airports in the national airspace system (NAS), and from flight tests implementing contingency management procedures. Data collected from the flights will be provided to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) to support the creation and validation of uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) performance standards.

For large UAS to be operationally viable at scale, they must be safe and reliable throughout a variety of dynamic environments and contingency scenarios. Airport environments are critical as they include operations with higher traffic density. UAS operations in this airspace require detailed collaboration with air traffic control (ATC) to enable safe and efficient aircraft movement, and aircraft must operate safely in proximity during critical phases of flight including taxi, takeoff, departure, approach, and landing.

Reliable’s flight tests will demonstrate regional air cargo operations in a terminal area in which maneuvers, procedures, ATC interactions, and implications of visual clearances for remotely piloted operations are assessed. Multiple data collection flights will be conducted, including flights designed to demonstrate contingency scenarios including lost link procedures, “detect and avoid” with visual observers and Global Positioning System degraded and denied scenarios. While these contingencies are unlikely, this partnership will advance specific operational mitigations. The final flight demonstration will be operated in accordance with Reliable’s prior FAA authorizations and have no pilot onboard.

Upon completion of the contract, Reliable will document the functions and features tested throughout the flight test campaign along with a summary of data collection results for NASA, FAA, and SDOs to support the development and validation of Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS), Minimum Aviation System Performance Standards (MASPS), or other standards for large UAS.

“This testing campaign comes at a unique moment in time, when safety-enhancing aircraft autonomy is rapidly nearing FAA certification and entry into service for regional air cargo and military use cases. Efforts like this are how we continue to advance the necessary public policy ecosystem,” said Robert Rose, CEO and co-founder, Reliable Robotics. “We deeply value the continued partnership with NASA to conduct testing that will advance industry-wide efforts to expand remotely piloted aircraft operations at airports.”

The Reliable Autonomy System (RAS) is a FAA certifiable, dual use, aircraft agnostic autonomy system that integrates flight computers, redundant actuators and automated vehicle systems to enhance operational efficiency and safety. It automates all phases of flight from taxi, takeoff, enroute and landing. Its Detect and Avoid (DAA) system enables airspace integration, and consists of a radar, Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) In, active surveillance of aircraft transponders, an airborne processor unit running Airborne Collision Avoidance System (ACAS) Xu and a traffic display for the remote pilot.

This test campaign is provisioned through a Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR) Phase III contract, indicating the advancement of Reliable’s work with the agency. The contract comes just months after the company announced a Space Act Agreement (SAA) with NASA supporting the development of three major aircraft autonomy simulation activities: human-in-the-loop DAA; lost command and control (C2) Link; and interactions as aircraft enter and depart airports.