Uncrewed Aircraft Systems Traffic Management Ground-Based Radar Performance Analysis

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Date

2023-05

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The Ohio State University

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Abstract

The aerospace industry has recently seen a rapidly growing field emerge that introduces a relatively new form of electric air transportation coined Advanced Air Mobility (AAM). The electrification of aircraft transporting passengers and cargo, specifically in urban environments, requires a well-coordinated ecosystem to ensure safe operations in the National Airspace System (NAS) among crewed and uncrewed aircraft. An Uncrewed Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) system is critical to create a platform for cross-collaboration and communication between numerous agencies to support safe and integrated operations in the NAS. While there are many detect and avoid systems designed to equip aircrafts with collision avoidance capabilities for individual flight operations, there is no established UTM system to comprehensively deconflict the airspace between multiple types of aircraft present in an urban ecosystem, including cooperative aircraft, noncooperative aircraft, and aircraft that do not broadcast their location. Ground-based radars provide a unique solution to this problem to detect and communicate the location of noncooperative aircraft that may be present to support safe crewed and uncrewed operations. Proper placement of radar is crucial to support an advantageous viewshed that is not hindered by natural terrain or human-built infrastructure. This research provides insight to support ground-based radar implementation. A performance study of three ground-based radars located along the US-33 Smart Mobility Corridor and around the city of Columbus was conducted. Radar capabilities were found to perform similarly with each other across two data sets on two different days at the same time frame. Live radar data results and performance characteristics will be used to compare, tune, and validate radar software model predictions to enable rapid ground-based radar emplacement across the state of Ohio.

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Uncrewed Aircraft Systems Traffic Management, Ground-Based Radar, Advanced Air Mobility, Noncooperative Aircraft, Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM)

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