FA864924P0608

Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) Phase II

Airspace Surveillance and Conflict Avoidance Services for Advance Air Mobility (AAM)

As Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) evolves, including the introduction of Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) and electric Vertical Take-off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft, the operational goal is for these aircraft to operate uncrewed with remote pilots. AAM capabilities are seen as having huge potential for DoD missions, including Rapid Global Mobility and Command & Control (C2). One of the biggest challenges with this AAM concept is that these aircraft are required to meet the Federal Aviation Administration s (FAA) Part 91.113 regulation to See-and-Avoid other aircraft. This presents a unique challenge for aircraft systems with remote operators, which need to find an alternate means of compliance to FAA Part 91.113. Ground-Based (and airborne) Detect and Avoid Systems (DAA) systems that are intended to act an as alternate means of compliance for Part 91.113 are being developed by industry and government. However, these systems rely on very expensive ground-radar and/or legacy mobile capability for tactical deployments. To enable scaled AAM capabilities a solution is needed that can seamlessly ingest a wide array of data feeds such as local ground-radars and FAA airspace surveillance data feeds and use that data to provide enhanced and scalable deconfliction services from ground to Class A airspace. Our team has been developing a scalable state-of-the-art tracking system that can (a) ingest a wide variety of airspace surveillance sources, including cooperative (ADS-B, transponder) and non-cooperative (ground radar) traffic surveillance data, but also a variety of counter UAS sensors for a fused wholistic airspace picture; and (b) the market s only known DAA service for scalable UAS operations. This research project will build out, integrate, and test an airspace surveillance and deconfliction services for crewed aircraft and UAs of all sizes. This capability is critical to providing air traffic services for seamlessly integrating new aircraft types into the airspace for both permanent and tactical environments. The project will focus on verifying the performance of both the airspace surveillance tracking and deconfliction services using a combination of local and direct FAA airspace surveillance feeds. We will show equivalent or better performance as measured against existing fielded systems such as the FAA Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) and Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS). The verification of the performance of this technology through this Phase II will enable a path for operational use of this technology for AAM operations throughout the US and globally. Thus, clearing one of the major hurdles for wide adoption of AAM capabilities for both DoD and civil applications.

The goal of phase II is to continue the R&D efforts initiated in Phase I. Funding is based on the results achieved in Phase I and the scientific and technical merit and commercial potential of the project proposed in Phase II.

AFX244-DPCSO1

F2D-10835

X24.4

Meghan Scott