Background
Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) are becoming increasingly important for non-military applications such as aerial photography, agricultural remote sensing and application, pipeline and power line surveillance, fisheries and wildlife monitoring, fire-fighting, weather and climate studies, law enforcement, rescue and recovery missions. The integration in non-restricted airspace is currently almost ignored.
A wealth of civil and governmental UAS applications exist, they face similar problems and now strive for a common solution. Furthermore military UAS missions face exactly the same problems and challenges as non-military UAS. The main issue is the integration of all UAS as a new airspace user into the future ATM System. For the time being UAS are only partially considered by SESAR DoWs.
Scope of the INOUI project
The project INOUI, funded by the 6th Framework Programme of the European Commission, focuses on the integration of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) in non-restricted airspace. Basic understanding within the UAS Stakeholder Community is that:
UAS are the 3rd group of airspace users.
UAS are already in the skies, albeit either at a very low altitude or in segregated airspace.
UAS usage will significantly increase, especially for civil and governmental purposes.
The INOUI objective, as part European R&D community, is to contribute for the solution of UAS integration in the 2020 Air Traffic Management system, especially the SES implementation programme SESAR.
UAS are facing significant problems
Lack of international regulations for UAS > 150 kg and diversified national regulations, certifications and licensing for UAS < 150 kg hamper product development for global markets.
Manufacturers are ready to start further testing and validation, including UAS flight trials, real time simulation(s) or combination of both. Theoretical concepts valid for practical operations are already available plus experience based on national tests.
Producers/Manufacturers and potential users need reliability on regulatory and certification issues. Fragmented national rules for non-military UAS prevent an integrated approach from the industry for civil and governmental applications.
Missing and/or fragmented rules & regulations are cost drivers for the industry.
Political and public acceptance is necessary to promote flight trials and stepwise implementation.
Operational safety concepts need to be concluded => Flying in segregated airspace is not an acceptable solution.
Objectives of the INOUI project
Identify the spread of operational concepts for UAS applications and describe the resulting procedures and requirements in the different timeframes up to 2020.
Identify how the UAS can fit into the ATM System of 2020 and what activities have to be taken especially from the UAS point of view (research roadmap).
Identify existing certification requirements and processes and suggest an optimum certification blueprint for human resources and as far as required UAS related technologies.
Identify how UAS can benefit from SWIM and what activities have to be taken to achieve the benefit.
Identify the safety issues related to UAS and develop high level safety objectives and requirements.
Identify the potential airport types for UAS operations and describe the operational impact.
Positioning of the INOUI project in the UAS Stakeholder Community
SESAR as the future ATM target concept forms the major cornerstone for INOUI.
The INOUI consortium is well aware that the integration of outside ideas and opinions is crucial to this project. The team members participate in UAS congresses & workshops, UAS research, working groups and publications.
The input of the Stakeholder community is of the utmost importance. Therefore, INOUI project members invite the UAS stakeholders to participate in workshops to ensure their valuable input, to validate the work done and to get further input for future activities.
The UAS Stakeholder Community is fragmented and the challenges are tackled in several working groups. The INOUI project represents a holistic approach to the future UAS integration into the ATM environment 2020+.
The goal of INOUI is providing a stepwise approach to enable the earliest possible use of UAS applications.