(Press-News.org) WASHINGTON -- While civil aviation is on the threshold of potentially revolutionary changes with the emergence of increasingly autonomous unmanned aircraft, these new systems pose serious questions about how they will be safely and efficiently integrated into the existing civil aviation structure, says a new report from the National Research Council. The report identifies key barriers and provides a research agenda to aid the orderly incorporation of unmanned and autonomous aircraft into public airspace.
"There is little doubt that over the long run the potential benefits of advanced unmanned aircraft and other increasingly autonomous systems to civil aviation will indeed be great, but there should be equally little doubt that getting there while maintaining the safety and efficiency of the nation's civil aviation system will be no easy matter," said John-Paul Clarke, co-chair of the committee that wrote the report and associate professor of aerospace engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
The report uses the term "increasingly autonomous" systems to describe a spectrum of technologies, from unmanned aircraft that are piloted remotely – which describes most such aircraft currently in use -- to advanced autonomous systems for unmanned aircraft that would adapt to changing conditions and require little or no human intervention. Increasingly autonomous systems could also be used in crewed aircraft and air traffic management systems to lessen the need for human monitoring and control.
Development of such systems is accelerating, prompted by the promise of a range of applications, such as unmanned aircraft that could be used to dust crops, monitor traffic, or execute dangerous missions currently undertaken by crewed planes, such as fighting forest fires. The FAA currently prohibits commercial use of unmanned aircraft without a waiver or special authorization.
NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate requested that the Research Council convene a committee to develop a national research agenda for autonomy in civil aviation.
One critical, crosscutting goal that must be achieved before increasingly autonomous aircraft and other systems can reach their full potential is ensuring that they will perform with the high level of safety and reliability expected of civil aviation systems, says the report. It identifies specific technological, regulatory, and other barriers that must be overcome in order to reach that goal.
Technological barriers include the inherent difficulty associated with characterizing and predicting the behavior of systems that can adapt to changing conditions. This poses a particular challenge in engineering increasingly autonomous unmanned aircraft to be compatible with already-existing air traffic management systems and other elements of the national airspace system. Also, the ability of systems to operate independently of human operators is currently limited by the capabilities of machine sensory, perceptual, and cognitive systems.
Regulation and certification barriers include the fact that existing processes, criteria, and approaches for certifying aircraft do not adequately address the special characteristics of advanced autonomous systems. In addition, many existing safety standards and requirements, which are focused on ensuring the safety of aircraft passengers and crew, are not well-suited to ensure the safety of unmanned aircraft operations, where the main concern is the safety of people in other aircraft and on the ground.
Other barriers include social issues, such as public concerns about privacy and safety, and legal hurdles, such as public policy, reflected in law and regulation.
To help surmount these and other barriers, the report recommends a national research agenda that would involve government agencies, industry, and academia. The committee described eight research projects, considering the following four to be the most urgent and difficult:
Behavior of adaptive/nondeterministic systems. Technologies that enable aircraft to adapt to uncertain environments and to learn based on experience will be integral to many advanced autonomous aircraft. As autonomous systems take over more functions traditionally performed by humans, there will be a growing need to incorporate autonomous monitoring and other safeguards to ensure that appropriate operational behavior continues. Research is needed to develop new methods and tools to address the inherent uncertainties in airspace system operations due to factors such as weather and conflicting air traffic and thereby enable advanced autonomous systems to improve their performance and provide greater assurance of safety.
Operation without continuous human oversight. Enabling unmanned aircraft to operate for extended periods of time without real-time human oversight will require that the autonomous systems be able to perform certain critical functions currently provided by humans, such as "detect and avoid" and contingency decision-making. Successful development of these systems and technologies depends on understanding how humans perform their roles currently and how to translate these roles to the autonomous system, particularly for high-risk situations.
Modeling and simulation. Modeling and simulation capabilities will play an important role in the development of increasingly autonomous systems because they enable researchers, designers, regulators, and operators to get information about how an aircraft -- or one of its systems or components -- performs without actually testing it in real life. For example, computer simulations may be able to test the performance of an autonomous aircraft in millions of scenarios in a short timeframe to produce a statistical basis for determining safety risks. The committee recommended the creation of a distributed suite of modeling and simulation modules developed by disparate organizations with the ability to be interconnected or networked; monolithic modeling efforts that are intended to "do it all" and answer all questions posed tend not to be effective.
Verification, validation, and certification. The national airspace system's high levels of safety largely reflect the formal requirements imposed by the FAA for verification, validation, and certification of hardware and software and the certification of people as a condition for entry into the system. Extension of these concepts and principles to highly autonomous aircraft and systems is not a simple matter and will require the development of new approaches and tools.
"The barriers we identify and the research agenda we propose to overcome them is a vital next step as we venture into this new era of flight," said committee co-chair John Lauber, a consultant and former senior vice president and chief product safety officer at Airbus.
INFORMATION:
The study was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies. They are private, independent nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology, and health policy advice under a congressional charter granted to NAS in 1863. The National Research Council is the principal operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. For more information, visit http://national-academies.org. A committee roster follows.
Contacts:
Sara Frueh, Media Relations Officer
Lauren Rugani, Media Relations Officer
Christina Anderson, Media Relations Assistant
Office of News and Public Information
202-334-2138; e-mail news@nas.edu
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences
Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board
Committee on Autonomy Research for Civil Aviation
John-Paul B. Clarke (co-chair)
Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta
John K. Lauber (co-chair)
Independent Consultant
Vaughn, Wash.
Brent Appleby
Deputy to the Vice of President Engineering for Science and Technology
Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Inc.
Cambridge, Mass.
Ella M. Atkins
Associate Professor
Department of Aerospace Engineering
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor
Anthony J. Broderick
Independent Consultant
Catlett, Va.
Gary L. Cowger1
Retired Group Vice President, Manufacturing and Labor
General Motors Corp.; and
Chairman and CEO
GLC Ventures LLC
Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
Christopher E. Flood
Captain and Check Airman
Delta Air Lines Inc.
Round Hill, Va.
Michael S. Francis
Chief, Advanced Programs, and Senior Fellow
United Technologies Research Center
East Hartford, Conn.
Eric Frew
Associate Professor and Director
Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles
Aerospace Engineering Science Department
University of Colorado
Boulder
Andrew Lacher
UAS Integration Research Lead and Senior Principal
MITRE Corp.
McLean, Va.
John D. Lee
Emerson Professor
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
University of Wisconsin
Madison
Kenneth M. Rosen1
President
General Aero-Science Consultants LLC
Guilford, Conn.
Lael Rudd
Autonomy Development Lead
Northrup Grumman Aerospace Systems
Redondo Beach, Calif.
Patricia Ververs
Engineer Fellow
Honeywell Aerospace
Columbia, Md.
Larrell B. Walters
Head of Sensors System Division
University of Dayton Research Institute
Dayton, Ohio
David D. Woods
Professor
Institute for Ergonomics
Ohio State University
Columbus
Edward L. Wright2
David Saxon Presidential Chair in Physics and Professor
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of California
Los Angeles
STAFF
Alan C. Angleman
Study Director
1Member, National Academy of Engineering
2Member, National Academy of Science
Overcoming barriers to successful use of autonomous unmanned aircraft
2014-06-05
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Scripps Florida scientists unravel the molecular secret of short, intense workouts
2014-06-05
JUPITER, FL, June 5, 2014 – In the last few years, the benefits of short, intense workouts have been extolled by both researchers and exercise fans as something of a metabolic panacea capable of providing greater overall fitness, better blood sugar control and weight reduction—all of it in periods as short as seven minutes a few times a week.
Now, in a new study, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) confirm that there is something molecularly unique about intense exercise: the activation of a single protein.
The study, published ...
Interactive teaching methods help students master tricky calculus
2014-06-05
The key to helping students learn complicated math is to understand how to apply it to new ideas and make learning more interactive, according to a new study by UBC researchers. Pre-class assignments, small group discussions and clicker quizzes improve students' ability to grasp tricky first-year calculus concepts.
Students taught in such active-engagement classes were 10 per cent more likely to understand key concepts on subsequent quizzes, according to the study published The International Journal on Mathematics Education. This was true even when compared to students ...
Early palliative support services help those caring for patients with advanced cancer
2014-06-05
Dartmouth researchers have found that those caring for patients with advanced cancer experienced reduced depression and felt less burdened by caregiving tasks when palliative support services were offered soon after the patient's diagnosis. They presented their findings at the American Society of Clinical Oncologist (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago on June 3, 2014.
"Family caregivers are a crucial part of the patient care team. Because the well-being of one affects the well-being of the other, both parties benefit when caregivers receive palliative care," said senior ...
A new way to make laser-like beams using 1,000x less power
2014-06-05
ANN ARBOR – With precarious particles called polaritons that straddle the worlds of light and matter, University of Michigan researchers have demonstrated a new, practical and potentially more efficient way to make a coherent laser-like beam.
They have made what's believed to be the first polariton laser that is fueled by electrical current as opposed to light, and also works at room temperature, rather than way below zero.
Those attributes make the device the most real-world ready of the handful of polariton lasers ever developed. It represents a milestone like none ...
Stem cells found to play restorative role when affecting brain signaling process
2014-06-05
Putnam Valley, NY. (June 5, 2014) – A study by a Korean team of neuroscientists has concluded that when mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs; multipotent structural stem cells capable of differentiation into a variety of cell types) are transplanted into the brains of mice modeled with Alzheimer's disease (AD), the cells stimulate neural cell growth and repair in the hippocampus, a key brain area damaged by AD. The finding could lead to improved AD therapies.
The study will be published in a future issue of Cell Transplantation and is currently freely available on-line as an ...
Research shows compassion and euthanasia don't always jibe
2014-06-05
New research from Case Western Reserve University found that compassion can produce counterintuitive results, challenging prevailing views of empathy's effects on moral judgment.
To understand how humans make moral choices, researchers asked subjects to respond to a variety of moral dilemmas, for instance: Whether to stay and defend a mortally wounded soldier until he dies or shoot him to protect him from enemy torture and enable you and five other soldiers to escape unharmed.
Leading research has said people make choices based on a struggle within their brains between ...
Alcohol-related terms can increase aggression
2014-06-05
New psychology research shows that exposing people to alcohol-related words can influence aggressive behaviour in ways similar to actually consuming alcohol.
Researchers found however that this aggressive behaviour occurred when people were subjected to provocation in a way that was not a clear-cut insult.
Although it has been long known that drinking alcohol can increase aggression, a team of five psychologists, including Dr Eduardo Vasquez of the University of Kent in the UK and others from two US universities, demonstrated in two experiments that participants exhibited ...
Future heat stroke treatment found in dental pulp stem cells
2014-06-05
Putnam Valley, NY. (June 5, 2014) – Scientists in Taiwan have found that intravenous injections of stem cells derived from human exfoliated deciduous tooth pulp (SHED) have a protective effect against brain damage from heat stroke in mice. Their finding was safe and effective and so may be a candidate for successfully treating human patients by preventing the neurological damage caused by heat stroke.
The study is published in a future issue of Cell Transplantation and is currently freely available on-line as an unedited early e-pub at: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/pre-prints/content-CT1100Tseng.
...
Science Elements podcast highlights chemistry for search-and-rescue missions
2014-06-05
The June feature of Science Elements, the American Chemical Society's (ACS') weekly podcast series, shines the spotlight on devices that use chemistry to locate people trapped in collapsed buildings. The episode is available at http://www.acs.org/scienceelements.
Every second counts when people are trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building. As survivors breathe in a confined space, oxygen levels go down and carbon dioxide levels go up, a potentially lethal combination. People also can have severe injuries from the falling walls and other debris.
In the episode, ...
State of wildland fire emissions, carbon, and climate research
2014-06-05
RIVERSIDE, Calif.—Scientists know that wildland fire emissions play a significant role in the global carbon cycle and that its principal component – carbon dioxide – is a primary driver of climate change. But predicting and quantifying the effects of potential future emissions is a difficult process requiring the integration of complex interactions of climate, fire, and vegetation. The current state of knowledge, critical knowledge gaps, and importance of fire emissions for global climate and terrestrial carbon cycling is the focus of nine science syntheses published in ...