Autonomous Cargo Aviation

Human Factors According to Maurino et al., in the book titled “Beyond aviation human factors: Safety in high technology systems,” the authors look into the link between organizational effects on human factors related to aviation. The authors looked into multiple accidents and found that investigation boards were quick to blame the operators for accidents as technology grew between the 1960s and the 1990s. This boom in technology gave rise to safer aviation overall. The rise in safety led to accidents that were not caused by large blunders but small steps along the way that led to an incident. The authors research and find that organizations that own aviation operations can have an adverse effect on the safety of operation. If the managers of operation were found to create a culture in which the business was more important than the people, it started a slow and insidious chain reaction that ultimately led to an incident in aviation. This relates to unmanned cargo aviation in that an organization like UPS or FedEx are subjectively held to a different standard that commercial carriers that carry human passengers on their aircraft. It is easy for someone to accept an aircraft delay or cancel if their life was in danger due to bad weather. However, it is much more difficult for someone to accept that their package is delayed in delivery due to weather that is nowhere near them and has no effect on their daily life. By creating a culture that focuses on the business and carrying cargo without delays, this can force aircrew to have ‘get there it is,’ which is a common aviation term that describes the mentality of a pilot who is under pressure to fly an aircrew no matter the concerns of weather or maintenance. By allowing the aircraft to operate remotely, the aircrew safety concern can be removed and allow the operators to focus on safety from an aircraft standpoint only. This allows companies to assign multiple pilots to fly the same aircraft from the ground and ensure its success without worrying about crew rest as they can have many pilots on staff that are always ready to fly, no matter the schedule. RQ-4B In the Operational Test and Evaluation Report signed by J. Michael Gilmore, the authors discuss the capabilities and shortfalls of the Global Hawk system. The system was designed to allow for pre-mission planning to upload what the aircrew want the aircraft to do during the flight. The autonomous system onboard would fly the planned route and altitudes to include taxiing out and taking off. The author explains that the system is capable of fully autonomous flight of flight routes and mission operations. The report indicates that the aircraft can be flown using narrowband connections or low bandwidth connection via satellite to the aircraft as well as high band or high bandwidth connections via satellite. The connection allows the operator to monitor and send commands to the aircraft in mid-flight using a satellite connection from a ground station anywhere on earth. This connection has multiple alternate and contingency connections that allow the operator to maintain a constant connection to the aircraft to monitor aircraft health and status throughout its flight. This is one of the biggest pieces of evidence to show that an AUCS is possible. The RQ-4B is an aircraft that has a wingspan of over 133 feet, which is the size of a Boeing 737. With technology to fly large unmanned aircraft demonstrated through the RQ-4B, the possibility of an unmanned cargo system has been tested and proven. The satellite connection used by the aircraft and operator to fly the aircraft shows that it is possible to maintain a safe connection to the aircraft to ensure it is flying the route required for the cargo operation. The autonomous system also allows the pilot to modify the aircraft’s heading and altitude to abide by any Air Traffic Control (ATC) requirements if needed. The RQ-4B as a demonstrator also shows that it is possible for a pilot to monitor and fly multiple aircraft at once. With a mission planning system in place before the flight, multiple aircraft can fly from one location to another as the pilot listens to the same frequencies for all aircraft. The pilots can monitor the progress and implement changes mid-flight if needed for each aircraft as they are operating. This type of user interface would allow the pilots to focus on human factors such as crew rest or duty day by allowing the excess copilots and augmented crews from manned pilots to swap out with the single operator at different intervals to allow for breaks as needed. Ground Control Systems In the paper titled “Multimodal Interface Technologies for UAV Ground Control Stations," written by Maza et al. 2009, the authors discuss the requirements to create an effective ground control station with an appropriate amount if human interfaces to allow the operator to fly their aircraft. The paper discusses the communication between the operator and the GCS and from the GCS to the operator. This connection is the normal focus of most GCS. However, the authors identify the third area of concern, which is the operator’s state. The operator’s state takes into account human factors like the operator’s boredom or exhaustion, depending on their rest or the activity they are working on. The ground control station that the authors are recommending should include some components to ensure more situational awareness and should include human interface concepts that ensure the operator can more efficiently fly their aircraft. A concept that is discussed is 3D audio. By allowing the operator to heard tones or voices in a manner in which they would appear on or inside the aircraft allows the operator to have a better mental picture of what they are hearing. Another concept that is pushed forth by the authors is haptic feedback for the pilot. This haptic feedback would provide a response of feeling to the pilot to allow them to understand how the aircraft is responding to their commands. This would be artificial but would allow the pilot to associate a feeling to what they are doing, which is very similar to how fighter pilots feel their control stick when flying. Pilots in the T-6 Texan II have a 10lb weight on their joystick. This allows the pilots to feel more weight on their joystick as they pull more G forces, which gives feedback to the pilot on how much they are pulling back on the stick. For the operator’s state, the authors discuss, “The operator’s state is the third information flow mentioned above. It can be defined as the set of physiological parameters that allows estimating the state of a human operator: heartbeat, temperature, transpiration, position, orientation, etc. All this information can be used by adaptive systems to improve the operating environment or to reduce the stress/workload of the operator.” (Maza et al., 2009) This type of system would allow the GCS to actually notice if the pilot is feeling fatigued or if temperatures are outside of a comfortable range. The GCS could then theoretically adjust its system settings or set up to ensure the pilot is staying active and awake to pay attention to the flight they are executing. These types of ground control stations would allow unmanned pilots to monitor multiple aircraft as the ground control station ensures that they stay awake and active throughout the process. By using 3D audio, the pilot could monitor two aircraft at once and allow audio to come from the left side and associate that with the first aircraft while any other audio on the right side could be associated with their second aircraft. This would be ideal for Air traffic control if the pilot is listening to multiple frequencies at one time between the two aircraft. Satellite Command and Control In a book titled “Satellite Communications Systems Engineering: Atmospheric Effects, Satellite Link Design, and System Performance” by Ippolito 2008, the author explains the advantages of using satellites for communication over long distances. The author explains that the cost to use the satellite is approximately the same regardless of the bandwidth or the distance in which communication is traveling. There is also an explanation of how there is a low error rate between the user on both ends of the satellite. The satellites are also required to have a ground station that can relay information from a ground control station to the aircraft in flight. Since satellites have a large footprint on the earth, it is safe to assume that the aircraft would fly within the footprint of the satellite, which would allow for constant communication to the aircraft throughout its flight from its origin to its destination. Satellites can also allow for high bandwidth and fast transfer speed between the operator and the aircraft. This is important to allow for the health and status of the aircraft to continuously flow back to the operator throughout the flight to ensure safe operations. In an AUCS, the aircraft would need enough bandwidth and coverage from a satellite to ensure a constant connection to the aircraft and the operator. The system would also require a back-up connection in the event of bad weather over the ground station. Since the satellites have a large footprint, the operator can change ground stations to a location that has better weather to ensure a better connection during the flight. Using satellites would also allow the operator to control multiple aircraft at one time. The author of the book goes on to explain multiple access techniques such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), where the same signal meshes multiple codes together and transfers there as a single signal. This means that an AUCS could utilize multiple aircraft in the same footprint on the same frequency and allow the signal to use the same background architecture to send data back to the operator from the multiple aircraft. Aircrew Training Aircraft Autonomy Category 3 ILS Automatic Landing Systems Design Overview Crew Composition Ground Control Station Autonomy Command and Control Links

Current technology allows for a single operator to monitor and control multiple aircraft from a location on the ground. The technology used to fly the RQ-4B was designed in the 1990s, and processing power has improved to a point in which we can start to modify current manned aircraft to allow for autonomous systems to fly the cargo missions. Replacing manned pilots with unmanned systems allows operators to have more control over the operations of their systems. The increased efficiency and lack of human factor requirements allow for the companies to maintain a constant schedule and allow for multiple pilots to fly one aircraft over the course of a mission. The operator of the aircraft can also monitor and control multiple aircraft at once, thus allowing the cargo companies to focus on the operations of the aircraft and less on the pilots that are flying them. The autonomous systems involved in this process would allow for the companies to ensure the aircraft is safely operated and focus on the cargo itself as the autonomous systems would ensure safe operations of the aircraft. The removal of the aircrew from the cockpit will allow the manufacturers and operators of the aircraft are focusing less on pilot ability and comfort and more on the execution of the cargo mission.

Bestaoui Sebbane, Y. (2016;2015;). Smart autonomous aircraft: Flight control and planning for UAV. Boca Raton, Florida; New York;London, [England];: CRC Press. Breda, L. V. (2012). Supervisory Control of Multiple Uninhabited Systems-Methodologies and Enabling Human-Robot Interface Technologies (Commande et surveillance de multiples systems sans pilote-Methodologies et technologies habilitantes d’interfaces homme-machine) (No. AC/323 (HFM-170) TP/451). NATO RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY ORGANIZATION NEUILLY-SUR-SEINE (FRANCE). Cummings, M. L., Bruni, S., Mercier, S., & Mitchell, P. J. (2007). Automation architecture for single operator, multiple UAV command and control. Massachusetts Inst Of Tech Cambridge. Donmez, B., Nehme, C., & Cummings, M. L. (2010). Modeling workload impact in multiple unmanned vehicle supervisory control. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics-Part A: Systems and Humans, 40(6), 1180-1190. Gilmore, M. J. (2012). RQ-4B Global Hawk Block 30 Operational Test and Evaluation Report. Department of Defense, http://pogoarchives. org/m/ns/pentagonot-and-e-eval-rq-4b-global-hawk-20110526. pdf, last accessed September. IPA. (n.d.). Independent Pilots Association. Retrieved from http://www.ipapilot.org/ Ippolito, L. J. (2008). Satellite communications systems engineering : Atmospheric effects, satellite link design and system performance. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com FAA.Fact sheet – pilot fatigue rule comparison. Retrieved from https://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsKey=12445 Maza, I., Caballero, F., Molina, R., Peña, N., & Ollero, A. (2010). Multimodal interface technologies for UAV ground control stations: A comparative analysis. Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems, 57(1-4), 371-391. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/10.1007/s10846-009-9351-9 Maurino, D. E., Reason, J., Johnston, N., & Lee, R. B. (2017). Beyond aviation human factors: Safety in high technology systems. Routledge. Nehme, C. E., Crandall, J. W., & Cummings, M. L. (2007, June). An operator function taxonomy for unmanned aerial vehicle missions. In 12th international command and control research and technology symposium (pp. 19-21). Tso, K. S., Tharp, G. K., Tai, A. T., Draper, M. H., Calhoun, G. L., & Ruff, H. A. (2003, October). A human factors testbed for command and control of unmanned air vehicles. In Digital Avionics Systems Conference, 2003. DASC'03. The 22nd (Vol. 2, pp. 8-C). IEEE. Yanushevsky, R. (2011). Guidance of unmanned aerial vehicles. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com Zhihao, C., & Ruyi, Y. (2011, August). Multi-level optimization mission planning and control methods for unmanned aerial vehicle. In Proceedings of 2011 International Conference on Fluid Power and Mechatronics (pp. 306-310). IEEE.