7.5 - Research: Request for Proposal (RFP)

Introduction

            For the last few decades, Indonesia has experienced rapid land use as forests and peat swamps have been cleared for plantation such as palm oil and timber. Fires are used as the predominant method of clearing and managing land during dry seasons by the farmers and plantation owners. The practice is part of the tradition and also the most economical and efficient. In recent years, large scale land clearance is the main reason that causes uncontained wildfires. The related emissions affect public health by contributing to regional particulate matter and ozone concentrations and adding to global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations (Marlier, et al., 2015).

In view of this, there are many advantages by deploying UAVs to spot and monitor the pattern and movement of wildfires so that the rescue and fire contain operations can be managed more efficiently. Indonesia is a developing country with limited infrastructure at the remote areas. Deployment of UAVs is a better way to detect and monitor wildfires with a fraction of the costs compared to manned aircraft. More importantly, it is much safer to the pilot and property as uncontained wildfires can be very dangerous. For this proposal, the UAV must be able to withstand high temperature and strong wind. Another important factor is the hovering capability of the UAV to maintain at required height for detailed monitoring.

System Development

            The system development encompasses life cycle and design process of the product based on the requirements from designers, developers and manufacturers. Before the product is delivered to users, it must go through product certification conforming to the standard stipulated by regulatory and authority to ensure safe operation. Certification requires product manufacturer to establish traceability and reliability of the development process. Reliability of the product requires various ground testing such as component testing, subsystem testing, integration testing, and most importantly, in-flight testing. For this proposal, waterfall method is used to project the life cycle of the system development. The design process of UAV must be robust and structured. The process is estimated to last 6 months inclusive of system development, ground testing, and in-flight testing.

Design Process & Criteria

To achieve the mission of spotting and monitoring of wildfires in remote areas, it is important to design a robust UAV that can withstand high temperature and strong wind when close monitoring of wildfires is necessary. The UAV must fulfill the following criteria such as easy transportability, affordable cost with solid air vehicle frame; accurate command & control, effective payload, undisrupted data-link and support equipment so that the operation can be carried out safely and effectively. Following are the design requirements (Austin, 2010):

•          Cost-effectiveness of system
•          Reliability, availability, and maintainability
• ·        Mobility, transportability, and deployability
•          Sustainability
•        Environmental operating conditions
•          Survivability and vulnerability
•          Safety
•          Interchangeability and modularity of systems

Following are the requirements necessary to design UAV that is suitable for detecting and monitoring wildfires operation in the remote areas of Indonesia:

Transportability

            Entire system with all elements shall be transportable in a hardened case and weight less than 50 lbs. to allow single person to carry the case with ease. Following are the requirements for transportation case:

•         To provide cutout for air vehicle element.
•        To provide cutout for ground control equipment.
•          To provide cutout for power equipment.
•          To withstand drop from height of five feet with minimal surface damage.
•        Weigh less than 50 pounds when filled with UAS components.

Cost

            The cost of each UAV shall be less than $100,000 for equipment only. It excludes the cost to train and hire UAV pilots or controllers.

Air vehicle element

            In order to monitor wildfires safely, the UAV must be robust and able to perform with the following requirements:

•         Capable of flight up to 500 feet altitude above ground level (AGL)
•          Capable of sustained flight (at loiter speed) in excess of one hour
•          Capable of covering an operational radius of one mile
•         Deployable and on station (i.e., in air over mission area) in less than 15 minutes
•         Capable of manual and autonomous operation
•          Provide capture of telemetry, including altitude, magnetic heading, latitude/longitude position, and orientation (i.e., pitch, roll, and yaw)
•         Provide power to payload, telemetry sensors, and data-link
•         Shall provide capability to orbit (i.e., fly in circular pattern around) or hover over an object of interest

Command & Control (C2)

            The reliability of command and control of the UAV is very important especially at remote areas in view of the logistic shortage. Rediscover of lost UAV in the midst of Indonesia forest is almost unlikely. Following are the requirements:

•         Shall be capable of manual and autonomous operation
•     Shall provide redundant flight control to prevent flyaway
•          Shall visually depict telemetry of air vehicle element
•         Shall visually depict payload sensor views

Payload

•         Shall be capable of color daytime video operation up to 500 feet AGL
•          Shall be capable of infrared (IR) video operation up to 500 feet AGL
•          Shall be interoperable with C2 and data-link
•         Shall use power provided by air vehicle element

Data-link (communications)

•         Shall be capable of communication range exceeding two miles visual line of sight (VLOS)
•          Shall provide redundant communication capability (backup) for C2
•         Shall use power provided by air vehicle element

Support equipment

·         Design shall identify any support equipment required to support operation

Testing Requirement

            Testing is necessary to capture effects of stresses and loads (physical, electrical, and environmental) on integrity and performance capabilities of the system, subsystem and components. Example of integrated assemblies to be tested are as follows:

•         Undercarriages
•          Flight control system
•          Power plant
•          Payloads
•          Transportability

  Item Storage:

• Inspect the transportation case to confirm equipment storage cutouts
• Test fit the air vehicle element in the transportation case
• Test fit the ground control equipment in the transportation case
• Test fit the power equipment in the transportation case

·         Durability

o   Verify that case can withstand drop from height of five feet

o   Verify that the equipment is not damaged after drop from height of five feet

o   Verify that the damage remains in place after drop from height of five feet

·         Weight

o   Verify the weight of fully loaded case is less than 50 pounds

Conclusion

            This proposal to design and develop UAV for wildfires detection and monitoring is estimated to last 6 months. Another option is to buy existing commercially-off-the-shelf (COTS) UAV, which can perform similar operation with shorter development life cycle. Most of these UAVs have been certified by the regulatory in meeting required standards and specifications. Prior to on-site deployment, in-flight testing is mandatory to compare specifications provided by the manufacturer with those observed on-site. The difference between them are to be compared and recorded for further fine tuning and adjustment in order to achieve safe operation.

Reference

Marlier, M. E., DeFries, R., Pennington, D., Nelson, E., Ordway, E. M., Lewis, J., Faculty of Science. (2015). Future fire emissions associated with projected land use change in Sumatra. Global Change Biology, 21(1), 345-362. doi:10.1111/gcb.12691

Austin, R. (2010). Unmanned aircraft systems: UAVS design, development, and deployment. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K: Wiley.

6.5 - Research: UAS Mission

      Introduction

            In Malaysia, the mobile communication coverage is relayed via communication towers. Before building a tower, site survey of panorama view at 200 to 300 feet above ground level is needed to find out any obstructions along line-of-sight. Most of the time, the surveyor will engage crane service to lift a person to the height and take pictures of panorama view. Similar practices are conducted for regular inspections and maintenance works. The crane has its limitations. The solution to this is to deploy UAV to perform site survey, inspection and maintenance of tower structure s and antennas. There are two advantages. First, it is more cost effective. Second, the portability and mobility of UAV enables the operation to be carried out anywhere with the permission from local aviation authority.

UAV Platform

There are two types of UAV commonly used in commercial sector. Fixed wing is powered by engine to move its propellers. The advantage is higher power to weight ratio than a comparable electric motor leading to higher payload capability and long-range operation. The actual payload capacity allows for the installation of instrumentation and sensors needed to fulfill the requirements of the mission. The long-range operation will allow for wider area surveillance (Jaimes, Kota, & Gomez, 2008).

            On the other hand, a quad-rotor UAV are highly maneuverable. It has the potential to hover at required altitude, able to take-off and land vertically within small areas. This capability has huge advantage for commercial applications as long runway is not necessary for the mission. Quad-rotor UAV has four motors located at the front, rear, left and right ends of across frame. Changing the speed of rotation of each motor controls the quad-rotor. The front and rear rotors rotate  in a counter-clockwise direction while the left and right rotors rotate in a clockwise direction to balance the torque created by  the spinning rotors (Jaimes, Kota, & Gomez, 2008).

            For site survey and maintenance purposes, the recommended platform is quad-rotor UAV. The most important attribute is its hovering property. Visual inspection of tower structures, line transmission and antenna discs requires the UAV to be hovered at certain altitude and remains static so that the controller on ground is able to zoom and focus the camera on defective areas for detail analysis. As for the site survey, the UAV is used to hover and to remain static at 200ft to 300ft above ground level in order to take panorama view of the site surrounding. It is important to ensure that there is no obstructions along the line-of-sight of the communication tower so that the transmission of signals can be received by all mobile phone users in the future.

Legal Issues

            According to Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) of Malaysia, the controller of UAV, also known as UAV pilot must be a private pilot license (PPL) holder for the UAV with weight more than 20kgs (DCA, 2016). In view of this, it is mandatory to deploy UAV with weight less than 20kgs for site survey and maintenance purposes so that the controller may not be PPL holder. The idea of deploying UAV is to reduce high cost of engaging crane services and also to reduce the time taken to take videos and photos of the site in order to achieve cost efficiency. Nevertheless, it is important to demonstrate to aviation authority that the UAV controller with the weight of UAV less than 20kgs is well trained with basic flight knowledge, human factors and situational awareness. It is mandatory to educate the controller that safety is paramount for any flight operations.

Conclusion

The use of UAV to carry out site survey and inspections on communication tower is inevitable. It is the only way to achieve cost efficiency and increase productivity. Equally important is to enhance overall safety of tower inspection. Climbing on the communication tower and to perform inspection to locate defects at the same time requires experience technicians and inspectors. Proper safety measurements such as safety harness, wind conditions must be observed. Liability is too great for any company if someone fall from the tower accidentally. UAV is the only solution to perform general inspection quickly. If defects are found, inspector can target on them and time taken to repair will be relatively shorter.

Reference

Department of Civil Aviation. (2016, September 12). Aeronautical Information Services. Retrieved from http://aip.dca.gov.my/aip%20pdf%20new/AIC/AIC%20200804.pdf

Jaimes, A., Kota, S., & Gomez, J. (2008). An approach to surveillance an area using swarm of fixed wing and quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles UAV(s). IEEE.

4.5 - Research: UAS in the NAS

      Introduction

            UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) are an emerging sector of the aerospace industry with great opportunity and market demand that can be leveraged to high profitability in the near future. Undoubtedly, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are the most predominant segment of the UAS market (Lucintel, 2016). To further grow the sector, it is time for the UAV industry to incorporate the safety standard, which has been practiced by commercial aviation industry for many years in mitigating aircraft incidents and accident. More importantly, to emphasize the culture of human factors and its contribution to overall aviation safety. For the purpose of this research, some of the current safety practices and systems implemented by civil aviation will be discussed.  

Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum (RVSM)

            RVSM was implemented to reduce the vertical separation above flight level (FL) 290 from 2000-ft minimum to 1000-ft minimum. It allows aircraft to safely fly more optimum profiles, gain fuel savings and increase airspace capacity yet maintaining minimum distance between two aircraft. Today RVSM represents a global standard for 1000-ft vertical separation (FAA, 2016). Although UAV carries no passenger, crashing of UAVs jeopardize the property and people along its flight paths. It is mandatory for regulatory body to adopt similar concept as to impose minimum separation between two unmanned aircraft at certain altitude in relation to their speeds and sizes.

Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B)

            Another solution to mitigate collision and to integrate UAVs safely into national airspace is by adopting Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) and to equip each commercial and military UAV with similar capability. ADS-B uses GPS satellites to determine an aircraft's location, ground speed, and other data. ADS-B Out uses onboard avionics to broadcast an aircraft's position, altitude, and velocity to nearby aircraft equipped to receive the data via ADS-B In and to a network of ground stations, which relays the information to air traffic control displays. ADS-B In provides operators of properly equipped aircraft with traffic information directly to the cockpit (FAA, 2016).

For UAV operation, similar information can be delivered to UAV controller at ground station. When UAV senses possibility of collision, it triggers warning signal and generates alarm. At the same time, the warning system will generate check list to guide controller how to maneuver UAV safely. More importantly, the warning system enhances controller’s situational awareness even though aircraft is remotely controlled.

Conclusion

It is mandatory for the UAV industry to adopt and implement ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) practices to improve safety of UAV operations. Safety starts with training and awareness. Similar to pilot training, regulatory body must standardize training framework. It is compulsory for UAV controllers to be trained before flying or operating UAVs. The training includes modules such as basic flying skills, knowledge of human factors and situational awareness. Finally, controller must accumulate minimum flying hours before permit- to-fly can be granted by aviation authority.

                                                                        Reference

FAA. (2016, Sep 02). Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast. Retrieved from http://www.faa.gov/nextgen/update/progress_and_plans/adsb/

FAA. (2016, Sep 02). Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum (. Retrieved from https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/separation_standards/rvsm/

Lucintel. (2016, Jun 18). Growth Opportunity in Global UAV Market. Retrieved from http://www.uadrones.net/civilian/research/acrobat/1103.pdf