Case Analysis

9.4 - Blog: Case Analysis Effectiveness Post and Blog

I am a student attending Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, taking ASI 530 Unmanned Aerospace Systems course. This is my second online course, and I have worked hard, and I felt very lucky by haven a dedicated Professor and exceptional group of classmates with whom a have the occasion to interact actively during the course assignments, discussions, and peer reviews. They were very helpful. I have the opportunity to learn new knowledge about unmanned airspace systems. This course has improved my knowledge, research technics, analyze and development of recommendations for UAS systems. I have learned to evaluate the challenges associated with the integration of the UAS into our Nacional Airspace System. There were very important discussions about issues relate differences in unmanned systems, evaluation of the role of UAS systems for effective regulations. Very important issues were learned in Analysis and functional requirements, capabilities of the UAS considering cost and weight, and evaluation for the comparative contrast between unmanned systems and manned systems.  There were nine weeks of hard work and interactive assignments that give me the opportunity to get a better know the business and operational problems of UAS systems.

The case analysis has been an important procedure that benefits my improvement my continuum education. Let me acquire better understanding of the UAS Analysis and design with the opportunity to deal with the UAS important issues in communication systems, requirements, capabilities, lifecycle, vehicle subsystems, systems integration, and systems safety and security (Brent, 2015). This case analysis is going to help me in the future of my new unmanned airspace systems aviation career. In my career as a manned pilot, I could make some analogies for the different systems and thru, the analysis and evaluation some hybrids systems could benefit future aerospace systems as well to improve my expertise in the matter of UAS systems. Also, I have learned valuable tools to deeper evaluate and understand the relations between unmanned and manned aircraft. Therefore, to be able to correlated comparison in the systems design, coordination, communication for effective analysis and design of new systems for the UAS market. I will improve effective CMR in the cockpit as an important human factor affecting unmanned and manned aircraft operation. The analysis and evaluation of different applications of the UAS as their use in natural disasters were very effective. The case analysis on issues of UAS in communication systems was a grated experience in learned how to analyze and evaluate problems related to the communication systems of the UAS (Matolak, 2015). I have learned how GPS communication deficiencies could affect all system. There were some other more important safety and security issues for the UAS systems learned (Sait, 2013). I think that the application of the case analysis tool is going to be an effective tool that, I will use in any future analysis and evaluation project for any unmanned airspace systems.  

The course was well organized and dynamic, peer reviews were very important. I really appreciated the ideas from my course peers. The professor communication was very helpful.  

References

 

• Brent, T. (2015). Unmanned Aerospace Systems: Online course Syllabus.

Matolak, D. W. (2015). Communications challenges and future aerial networking.

Sait, M. G. (2013). Anatomy of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Hijacking With Signal Spoofing.

           

UAS Proposal For Natural Desasters

Every year in the United States and other countries of the word, natural disasters leave millions of dollars in destruction and loss of human lives. The need for property and effective information is highly necessary for the companies and agencies responsible to provide recovery and help. The objective of this work is to present the proposal for the design of UAS system that will provide surveillance in the event of natural disasters with the intention for recollection of information, prompt response and recovery.

The system should satisfy the following design requirements, configurations and limitations.

UAS System Proposal:

1.      Transportability

1.1  Transportation shall have DJI Phantom 4 Case professional.

1.1.2 Shall the Interior dimensions 20’’ x 14’’ x 14’’ (Case, 2015)

            1.1.2   Shall Exterior dimension 21.2’’ x 16’’ x 15.6’’

            1.1.3 Shall the case be water resistant and impact resistant?

            1.1.4 Shall Weight 14.6 lbs.

      2.    Air vehicle element

The project vehicle name is the UAV Scout XY

2.1 The Scout shall have vertical take-off and landing VTOL.

2.2 The vehicle shall be a quadcopter requiring not launch equipment

2.2.1 Shall have Height 30 cm (1 ft.)

2.2.3 Shall be loaded weight 5.0 lb.)

2.2.4 Shall have power plant of 4 x electric motor

2.2.4.1 Shall be powered with Intelligent LiPo batteries each one.

2.2.5. Shall have Propeller diameter: 12 inch

2.2.5.1 Shall have max. Speed 31 miles/hr.

2.3. Shall have capability to flight up to 1000 feet altitude above ground level (AGL)

2.3.1 Shall be able to flight for 1 hour and 30 minutes.

2.3.2 Shall be able to operated covering and operational radios of 3.0 miles from the user

2.3.3 Shall by flight directly by the operator or with preprogrammed using GPS.

2.3.3.1 Shall be able to monitors external conditions as wind speed, internal functions, as battery level.

2.3.3.2 Shall be able to take autonomous automated decisions as return to the starting point, land in emergency, hover and maintain steady flight.

2.3.3.4 Shall be able thru GPS to flight following all necessary navigation.

2.3.4 Shall be deployable in less than 15 minutes.  

2.3.5 Shall be able to capture telemetry with payloads that include gimbal-mounted digital still video cameras.

            2.3.6 Shall have close camera for remote sensing and night-vision camera with a stabilized zoom camera.

2.3.7 The power to payload is provided with battery Intelligent LiPo battery that power, telemetry sensors, and data-link.

3        Command and Control (C2)

            3.1 Shall have Manual and autonomous operation of the system with hover in fixed positions?

            3.2 Shall be capable of manual and autonomous operation for altitudes up to 500 feet AGL.

            3.3 Shall have redundant flight control to prevent flyaway.

            3.3.1 Shall provide depict telemetry in all navigation requirements.

            3.3.1.1 Shall have visually depicted sensor views for payloads.

4. Payload

4.1 Shall the system have video operation for more than 500 feet AGL?

4.2 Shall be capable of color daytime and night time video with infrared cameras use a thermographic camera that can perceive infrared radiation.

4.2.1 Shall have use the wavelength of infrared for fog or warm objects different that night vision with operates in visible light and near-infrared ranges (0.4 to 1.0 um).     

4.2.2 Shall capable to use infrared video operation up or exceeding 500 feet AGL

5. Data-link (communications)

5.1 Shall be capable of communication range of three miles visual line of sight (VLOS)

5.2 Shall has redundant communication capability for C2

5.3 Shall provide with an Intelligent-LiPo battery keep charge for more than 1hour.

5.3.1 Shall allow interoperability data-link by using sufficient power from the UAV.

Support equipment

Not support equipment is required to support operation

System development overview

The system will be tested for performance and reliability. This system shall comply with the necessary safety, reliability and capability require for the certification. The system development life cycle will be composed by the reduction of cost given to new electronics that are less expansive. The time for complete development of the project is two years as it is show in the table below.

For demonstrate the chronologic phases of the project. The 10 phase waterfall method is going to be use. See the table below.

	PHASES	Years
	Concept Design	1
	Concept Research	2
	Preliminary Design	1
	Detail Design	1.5
	Specimen Test	0.5
	Development	1
	Certification	2
	Production	2
	Support	5
			Five	Years

Template of this table was taken from template (University, 2015)

System development UAS design requirements

The requirements of the user has been taken in consideration as cost, performance, radios of action, endurance, operating altitude, maximum altitude, maximum speed, climb rate. Also, Design considerations for control station as a mobile unit with portative transportation for deployment.

The system mission, planning and control that monitor the system, offers the possibility of operation LOS and BLOS. Also, the system has the communication and control C23 interfaces for transmitting, processing, and receiving the information. For safety and security, the system will have the future of autonomous landing, take off and take any decision of safety during the system emergency.

For the system considerations for the payloads the number of pay loads will be define by the amount of disaster areas provide for the user, are based in the power consumption and price of the payload. The design considerations for data link are the protection from the external treats and it is done by the use of algorithms and appropriated use of frequencies and the deployment area. The system requirements for traceability are base in the satisfaction, verification and dependency of the system.

For certification of the system the request of the certificate of authorization COA will be obtained with the FAA. During the system development with the FAA regulations is necessary to outline the objective of the use of the system. For establishing the reliability, the revision of the possible failures of the system, the mission and the components and redundancies that directly affecting the life-cycle cost of the system have to be considered.   

Components testing is necessary for determine the commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) of electrical components of the system. Also, evaluation for resistance, temperature, acceleration, strength, materials fatigue life, wear and functionality. Testing of the subsystem is done by capture effects of stress and assemblies to be test as undercarriages, flight control system, and power plant. Integration of the testing is done by check for wear, fluid leaks, and signs of overheating, security of connectors. And check of all communications with antennae. The flight test is performed at the beginning of the life-cycle process. For the process of system certification it will be granted, after the system performance report is done base on endurance and reliability and considering the system limitations and restrictions of range and airspace operating limitations (University, 2015).

References

 

Aeryon, A. l. (2016). Aeryon Scout.

Case, C. D. (2015). Case Club. Retrieved from www.caseclub.com.

University, E.-R. A. (2015). Unmanned Systems: System Development and Test & Evaluation (T&E).

UAS Assigment

UAS Mission

Every year billions of dollars in property damages and loss of many lives are the consequences of enormous wildfires into the United States territory. The Government and private sectors agencies have the responsibility to reduce and respond quickly and effectively to this threat. The mission is to demonstrate the potential capabilities that Unmanned aerial systems UAS have in the US Forest Service, with the objective to provide fire intelligence to management teams. The first platform system outline here is the NASA Ikhana, it is a modified Predator-B (MQ-9) UAV with the altitude of 45000 feet. This autonomous, onboard processing transfer information to the ground personal dealing with the wildfires (V. G. Ambrosia, 2010). The information from the satellite is not completed to monitor individual events that are why NASA needs to get the support of airborne vehicles for thermal sensor data observations. This has impacted greatly the recollection of information, performance, fuel burned. and additional by automating onboard sending information to the ground personal (V. G. Ambrosia, 2010).

The second UAS platform considered to be used in the wildfire surveillance system is the Helicopter base UAS. (Enric Pastor, 2011). This UAS system is good to operate in difficult terrains with the future to provide very important data information to the air and ground squads. The report stated that “The UAV is the Sky Eye system; it is a helicopter base UAS platform that facilitates the development of wildfire remote sensing applications providing tactical support to wildfire monitoring” (Enric Pastor, 2011).  The third UAS platform considered in gathering information to deal with wildfires is  “the ALTAIR high-altitude, long Endurance (HALE) UAS,  which has the potential to increase the image resolution and update rates over satellites base systems” (V. G. Ambrosia, 2010).  Possible applications with some low altitude short endurance (LASE) could  be incorporated into this mission, but, there are some important issues as latency and limited communication ranges that have to be resolved before they could be used in the wildfires business (David W. Caster, 2011). In general, all these systems have showed Tobe very efficient in their mission for the wildfire disaster control. Actually, there are limited regulations for these systems. For the UAS integration into NAS, issues as air safety, airspace operation, mission, and system safety and system performance are the most important considerations for this UAS integration into NAS (Corcoran, 2014). The UAS limited regulations are restricting their full operation. There is a need education at all levels in the regulatory agencies to provide rapidly attention to the UAS growing industry.

References

 

Corcoran, M. (2014). Newsgathering applications of Unmanned aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in covering conflict, civil unrest and disaster. Drone Journalism:.

David W. Caster, D. B. (2011). Cooperative Forest Fire Surveillance using a team of small unmanned air Vehicles.

Enric Pastor, C. B. (2011). Architecture for a Helicopter-Base Unmanned aerial systems wildfire surveillance system.

V. G. Ambrosia, S. T. (2010). The Ikhana Unmanned airborne system (UAS) western states fire imaging missions: from concept to reality (2006-2010).

     

     

 4-4 -   Research: UAS in the NAS.

Separation of manned aircraft is controlled by the pilot, with the procedure that is called seen-and-avoid, here the pilot scans out the window and look for traffic. This procedure works for VFR and IFR flights. Another way of separation in manned aircraft is thru the use of radars and in the airplanes equipped with a transponder, the ATC established communication with the pilot of the aircraft and services as vectors, en-route navigation information, weather, approaches, and departures are provide to pilots. During the IFR Flights separation is granted as the controllers sequence the aircraft in most of the steps of the flight, all this is done via communication by radios. Actually, there are military and commercial airplanes and some in general aviation using the ADS-B technology with the possibility to see traffic around the aircraft. In the case of UAS, the first level of separation to consider is when the Drone is operated with the handle radio control and visual line of sight (LOS) is maintained by the operator at all times. More advanced technology for BLOS has been designed for the sense-and-avoid where the UAS can detect obstacles and transmit the information to the ground station or flight aircraft where the remote pilot will respond to the information. The cameras of the UAS cannot scan as the human eye does. But their use help in the sense-and-avoid procedure when it is been used by the ground station, Pilot. For UAS on semi-autonomous and Autonomous systems with the use of artificial intelligence algorithms, the UAS can take self-decisions for the procedure to perform in the event of sense-and-avoid or separation Situation.

            Sizes for UAS are grouped by category 1 to 5 and they are based in:

“Max gross weight, Normal operating altitude and air speed. And according to with the airframe systems they are also classified as High altitude long endurance (HALE), Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE), Medium range or tactical (TUAV) and Close range (UAV), Mini UAV (MUAV) Micro UAV, Nano air Vehicle (NAV), Unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAR) Unmanned combat rotorcraft (UCAR), Vertical take-off UAV (VTUAV) and Optionally Piloted aircraft (OPA)” (University, November 2015).

By comparing the UAS airframe Systems, considerations for operation of the UAS into NAS are; the Class of airspace, the equipment on board, capabilities of the aircraft, size, ground and air control, and the mission.    

            The modern technology used in the manned aircraft should be considered to be adapted to the UAS is the installation of transponders according to with the FAA rules for Classes of airspace aircraft equipment requirement. Also, by applying the FAA ADS-B (Administration, 2015) requirement for the UAS operations. Regulations for the operation of the UAS with the FAA Next-Gen programs should be used. Education, training and regulations to operate the UAS into NAS should be established as in manned aircraft.

References

Administration, F. A. (2015). NextGen Programs; ADS--B.

University, E.-R. A. (November 2015). Unmanned Systems; Airframe, Flight Control, and Powerplant Systems.

       

UAS Research: Weeding Out a Solution

Considerations

The problem resulted from a miss-understand of information distributed to the team’s members. During the system design, coordination and communication between the two subsystems are the most. The customer requirements have to be satisfied. Date-times for delivery the system, and the engineers should consider the variables affecting the system performance before cost reduction is bringing to the table. Purchasing off-the-shelf hardware rather than a custom design was a bad decision. Now they have to probably re-design the system to the original performance specification (Sutherland, June 2015). The systems engineers’ director should figure out the origin of the problem, what communication could have miss-understood.  Considering that the system is at the middle stage is right after the technology prototype development and not yet at the full-scale hardware and software development, where the two sub-levels still can be modified their design, by considering  changes in operational procedures and with the option to considered technical materials modifications (University, October 2015).

Priorities

Development of the system that complied with the customer needs. Meet with the customer and to explain him/her the situation and recommending solutions, including delivery times and cost increased. The systems engineer should address the possibility to increase the gross weight capacity of the system for futures UAS projects. 

Alternatives

There are two ways to solve this problem. The first is the shift engineer should call the two sub-groups together and request to work in the initial design of the system.  The second is that the hardware to be used should reduce weight and resolving the weight problem, therefore, the good news is the two sub-systems are working and the system has not been developed yet. Corrections can be done to the delivery sub-system.  The Systems engineer director should integrate to the safety engineers on solving the problem and request them to find the way to manage the fuel more efficient while mitigating safety risk. Errors at the middle and at the end of the system development cost too much money and time-consuming, making changes and re-design. This system is already on the stage where hardware can be re-pleased or modified, to satisfied the requirements of the customer. The director Engineer should order to design the off-the-shelf hardware and resolve the weight problem. The main priority here is to correct the weight issue to satisfy the customer.

The prospects for “next generation, enhance”

The solutions of the problem are: Consider if to stay with the original design where the initial customer requirements will be satisfied, or to re-design the system and improvement the gross weight and system performance, for new UAS designs that could go to the UAS markets as a “next generation” these new vehicles with enhanced futures will be more capable than previous generations of the UAS.        

References

 

Sutherland, B. (June 2015). Safe Operational Integration of UAS Drones in national Airspace.

University, E. R. (October 2015). Global System Design Concepts, Concepts, Requirements, and Specifications Overview.