Innovative RPAS Airspace Integration for Coastguard Missions

Kurzfassung

The use of RPAS for coastguard operations rather than manned aircraft introduces several challenges, which will be addressed in this presentation. Typically the envisioned coastguard tasks involve low level flights Beyond Visual Line Of Sight (BVLOS). This requires the Remotely Piloted Aircraft to be equipped with appropriate sensors and on-board Detect and Avoid (DAA) capabilities. We will present a demonstration flight for the project AIRICA (ATM Innovative RPAS Integration for Coastguard Applications), where the detection and separation will be based on active Mode S interrogation and received ADS-B signals. A Detect & Avoid (DAA) system, AirScout, will be implemented and tested. While operating the RPAS on a mission, different airspace environments will be encountered. ATM involvement is crucial, because of the envisaged take-off and landing at local airfields and the involvement of other (manned) aircraft in the mission. The proposed AIRICA flight will include demonstration of the RPAS under ATC and demonstration of the DAA function with planned intruder aircraft (manned). To prepare the demonstration flights, a real-time man-in-the-loop simulation environment has been set-up, where real air traffic controllers, a real pilot (for other traffic), and a pilot at an RPAS ground control station (GCS) participated to evaluate the concept. The simulations paved the way for real flight demonstrations with a MALE (Medium Altitude Long Endurance) RPAS in non-segregated airspace for maritime surveillance missions.