A dynamic airspace planning framework with ADS-B tracks for manned and unmanned aircraft at low-altitude sharing airspace

Abstract

Recently civil unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) feature a higher flight altitude and faster cruising speed as UAV market expanding. It causes a potential collision risk to the approaching commercial airliner and general aviation flight at sharing and controlled low-altitude airspace. As a core surveillance technical approved by ICAO, automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) is realized as an effective method to achieve the monitor of all controlled manned and unmanned aircraft at low-altitude airspace. In this work, a dynamic airspace planning framework based on ADS-B tracks for manned and unmanned aircraft is built. Firstly, an improved Voronoi diagram algorithm is proposed to divide the low-altitude sharing airspace to multiple sectors based on the different assignments of UAVs. Taking advantages of the real-time ADS-B trajectories of manned and unmanned aircraft, a collision risk model between UAVs and manned aircraft is built. Then the initial planned sectors are modified when the potential conflicts between UAVs and manned aircraft are detected. Finally, a revised unmanned aircraft track is planned to reduce the collision probability and send to UAVs' operators. A case study result show the effectiveness of the proposed framework. The built framework can ensure lower safety risk when UAVs and manned aircraft share the low-altitude airspace.