Mitigation of Ground Impact Hazard for Safe Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Operations

Abstract

Autonomous operation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) requires development of technologies that allow for safer flight control and response to various flight anomalies. Software for autonomous control should allow the UAV to detect and avoid potential hazards, as well as respond to critical failures midflight without input from a human operator. This paper develops a ground impact and hazard mitigation (GIHM) module that integrates the following: 1) consideration of engine and control surface failure flight modes, 2) generation of feasible ground impact footprints based on glide equations, 3) selection of safest response ground impact sites based on a high-resolution LandScan USA population dataset, and 4) controlled descent to a selected site. For a sample population distribution, integration of GIHM with standard UAV flight software shows a maximum casualty expectation reduction of 97% compared to the flight software without GIHM near highly populated areas. Incorporation of this hazard mitigation module is successful in reducing fatalities per flight hour, bringing UAVs closer to being safe enough for integration into the National Airspace System.