Trajectory-Based Mission Planner for Multiple RPAS

Abstract

The extent to which Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) are able to autonomously perform basic navigation and flight control tasks currently increases through ongoing technological advances. These novel systems and the increased mission scenario complexity present new challenges to the future RPAS pilot. These new responsibilities will include decisions at the level of mission management and mission planning, which require extensive knowledge of mission objectives and constraints, available resources and terrestrial conditions in addition to the understanding of the aircraft’s systems. The Institute of Flight Guidance of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) currently aims to develop an advanced mission planner to deal with groups of Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA). The mission planner shall be responsible to calculate optimized mission plans based on variable mission objectives and constraints. In the context of an upcoming European demonstration project for crisis management, the new planning module will be applied to determine optimal flight paths for multiple RPA assigned to scan an area of interest in the shortest time possible. One of the key research aspects will be the determination of an appropriate level of RPAS autonomy, when trying to optimize human-machine interaction and improving situational awareness of remote pilots in controlling multiple RPA simultaneously. This contribution provides a summary of current mission planning approaches in the area of RPAS and introduces the concept of 4D trajectory-based mission planning within the framework of DLR’s RPA Ground Control Station (GCS). It also presents an analysis of the newly imposed system requirements and improvement opportunities.