Abstract
The new concept for operation of drones, published by EASA in 2015, enables new ways to influence and possibly reduce the necessary safety targets of certain system components without reducing the overall safety of the unmanned aircraft system (UAS). Based on the safety assessment, the specific category enables new aircraft system architectures and mission designs. In this context, this paper analyzes runtime monitoring as a strategy to contain the UAS in its operational volume. To assure predefined properties in flight and thus assure the safety of the operation in progress with a high robustness, a formal methodology for safe operation monitoring is utilized. With this approach, this work targets to link the concept of safe operation monitoring with the upcoming regulations regarding the specific category and the specific operation risk assessment (SORA). One particular aspect of this safe operation monitoring is geofencing, the capability to contain a UAS in a previously restricted area. In the regulatory framework of a specific operation, risk assessment is required and so is the containment of the UAS in its operational volume. The functional and safety requirements for geofencing regarding their impact on the underlying specific operation risk assessment are discussed. To facilitate this discussion, a taxonomy of geofencing characteristics is derived based on a literature survey. Consequently, the geofencing requirements are assessed regarding their robustness and applicability for certification purposes. As a result, by monitoring the integrity of the system at runtime using geofencing as an example, it is investigated if the requirements and thus costs of development and certification process for the remaining components can be reduced.
Highlights
In late 2015, EASA introduced three categories of unmanned aircraft system (UAS) operation that can be regulated and certified based on the intrinsic risks involved [1,2,3]
This paper details the functional and quality requirements for UAS safe operation monitoring, for the concept of specific operations that was introduced by EASA in late 2015
The proposed approach of safe operation monitoring is exemplified for the use case of geofencing; other use cases could be implemented analogously to the shown approach
Summary
In late 2015, EASA introduced three categories of UAS operation that can be regulated and certified based on the intrinsic risks involved [1,2,3]. The open category is reserved for low risk operation under strict restrictions of unmanned aircraft below 25 kg used in the visual line of sight (VLOS), requiring no or minimal regulation. The DLR (German Aerospace Center) is currently applying the SORA to a cargo application with the project ALAADy (automated low altitude air delivery) [5] and investigates different means to exploit the advantages of the new specific category concept. In this project, different drone configurations are compared, all of which carry approximately one metric ton of payload.
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