This paper aims to provide a methodology using both agent-based simulation and also game engine-based simulation to find critical areas of concern regarding the FAA right-of-way (RoW) rules as they apply to interactions between small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) and other unmanned aerial systems (UAS) or manned aircraft. Avoiding collisions between sUAS, other sUAS, or manned aircraft is crucial for advancing safety and security of all flight and our airspace. While modern sUAS have collision avoidance on board, these must be based on the RoW rules developed by the FAA. The specificity and growing use of sUAS may cause these RoW rules to be insufficient in avoiding collisions. As sUAS are used increasingly, airspace encounters between sUAS and UAS or manned aircraft become more common and provide the opportunity for scenarios in which the RoW rules may be insufficient or unclear. This is especially important in interactions between sUAS and manned aircraft. Due to the possibility for injury or loss of life in those interactions, new methods to validate sUAS conflict resolution must be developed. The approach we propose uses a combination of an agent-based simulator, Anylogic, and a higher-fidelity game-engine based simulator, AIRSIM, to simulate encounters. This approach is efficient and modular to determine scenarios that may need closer examination within a reasonable amount of time and test different types of collision avoidance algorithms and aircraft. These simulations iterate through different encounter scenarios and manipulate encounter parameters such as speed, altitude, and heading for each encounter. Simulations are first run in Anylogic. Any iterations where the actors collided or had a near miss are then identified. These iterations are then run in AIRSIM’s higher fidelity simulation. The results of these AIRSIM simulations are used to indicate critical areas of concern that necessitate real-life flight tests.
Keywords
AGENT-BASED SIMULATION, VERIFICATION, VALIDATION AND ACCREDITATION (VV&A)
Additional Keywords
sUAS, Anylogic, AIRSIM
