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Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS)

Article Information

Category: GeneralGeneral

Content source: SKYbrary About SKYbrary

Content control: SKYbrary About SKYbrary

Contents

1 Description

2 The development of UAS

3 The civil applications of UAS

4 UAS Operational Issues

5 Safety Regulation

6 UAS Operational Safety Issues

7 The Future

8 Accidents and Incidents

9 Further Reading

Description
An Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) has three components:

An autonomous or human-operated control system which is usually on the ground or a ship but may
be on another airborne platform;

An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV);

A command and control (C2) system - sometimes referred to as a communication, command and
control (C3) system - to link the two.

These systems include, but are not limited to, Remotely Piloted Air Systems (RPAS) in which the UAV
is controlled by a 'pilot' using a radio data link from a remote location. UAS can also include an
autonomously controlled UAV or, more likely, a semi autonomous UAV. In recent years, the tendency
to refer to any UAV as a Drone has developed but the term is not universally considered appropriate.
UAVs can vary in size from those which can be hand launched to purpose built or adapted vehicles
the size of conventional fixed or rotary wing aircraft.

The development of UAS

Military and other State use of UAS has developed rapidly since it began apace in the USA in the early
1990s and has utilised satellite communications and GNSS navigation to operate UAVs at very long
distances from their controllers. However, well before this, the first recorded use of large UAVs was
in 1935, when the British Royal Navy began using adapted DH82 Tiger Moth aircraft called 'Queen
Bees' which were flown under radio control for gunnery target practice. A total of 380 of these were
built and used by both the Navy and the RAF before they were retired in 1947. In recent years, fixed
wing UAVs have been joined by increasing numbers of rotary and multi-rotor UAVs. As previously,
the military has led the way in using UAVs and only more recently have they become, at the smaller
size, accessible to civil users who were previously limited to the longstanding hobby activity of flying
radio controlled model aircraft.

The civil applications of UAS

The recent rapid progress in extending the scope of military and State use of UAS has led to
recognition of the very widespread potential for civil commercial applications of various UAS, the
majority of which are small UAVs operating below the height above terrain normally used by manned
aircraft or at least below about 1000 feet agl. Many of these uses are now well established and
include:

Security surveillance

Emergency response including SAR

Facilitation of communications and broadcast

Small package and bulk cargo transport

Visual, spectral and thermal examination of structures

Monitoring of linear network infrastructure such as railway tracks, power lines and pipelines
Photography and cartographic survey

Agricultural fertiliser and chemical application

Aircraft external maintenance inspection

Atmospheric research

UAS Operational Issues

The issues which have had to be addressed for this type of operation have centred on both the safety
of other aircraft and issues of public (third party) safety and the protection of privacy. The latter has
been especially prominent due to the fact that many UAS applications involve the use of the UAV as a
platform for a high definition camera. The relatively small UAVs typically used are in contrast to the
much larger range of UAV sizes which has collectively typified military use.

The development and use of Military UAS which has been so important in driving the scope and
capability of these systems, especially the larger UAVs, has been possible because the airspace in
which they have been used has been either permanently or temporarily segregated, with access by
manned aircraft excluded or strictly controlled. This has often reduced initial and continuing
airworthiness standards considered acceptable for military operations to levels below those which
would satisfy civil safety regulation requirements. It has also limited the need for the sense and avoid
technology which will be essential for operation of all but the smallest UAVs in shared non-
segregated airspace if the risk of collision between aircraft and UAVs - or between UAVs - is to be
adequately mitigated. In this matter, the objective for civil RPAS is currently seen to be a
demonstration of at least an equivalent level of risk to that to which manned aircraft are currently
exposed. However, deciding what this level of safety is in operational terms outside controlled
airspace has proved problematic.

The issue of permissions for commercial UAS to operate at low levels - typically below 400-500 feet
agl - in non-segregated airspace has generally been associated with the complete prohibition of UAV
entry into controlled airspace which extends to the surface or to any uncontrolled airspace to which
access could interfere with aerodrome operations. Such permissions have also generally addressed
the risks of third party injury, undue invasion of privacy and operator training. As a result of
requirements for the latter, new training organisations dedicated to the training of RPAS operators,
most of whom controlling civil UAVs do not have experience as a pilot of a manned aircraft, have
appeared - and been embraced and approved by some regulatory authorities such as the UK CAA.
Operator training is also becoming an increasing focus for military and State users of RPAS, as system
deployment increases in line with increasing task capability and the availability of former military
pilots and navigators to act as RPAS operators diminishes.

Whilst the terms UAV/UAS and RPAS are of relatively recent origin, they have been retrospectively
applied to the long-established leisure activity of flying of radio-controlled model aircraft within
Visual Line Of Sight (VLOS). It is this type of restricted UAV operation which is where current growth
in both leisure and commercial use is taking place, but means to permit the more complex civil use of
UAVs which can be controlled Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) and/or safely within un-segregated
controlled airspace are also being actively pursued. Such operations are likely to require
demonstrably resilient C2 systems and effective 'Detect and Avoid' (sometimes called 'Sense and
Avoid') mechanisms. It is widely recognised that the latter will need to deliver a level of safety
equivalent to that achieved by manned aircraft. However, defining what that level of safety actually
is within various classifications of airspace is as yet unresolved.

Safety Regulation

The two areas of safety regulatory oversight of UAS - operations and UAV airworthiness, are being
overseen on a supra-national basis by the Joint Authorities for Rulemaking on Unmanned Systems
(JARUS). This body was established in 2007 and describes itself as "a group of experts from National
Aviation Authorities (NAAs) and regional aviation safety organisations" which aims to provide
guidance material to facilitate "a single set of technical, safety and operational requirements for the
certification and safe integration of UAS into airspace and at aerodromes" and thereby enable each
authority to write their own requirements whilst achieving cross-border harmonisation and avoiding
duplication of effort. Founder Members include the FAA, the EASA and EUROCONTROL and members
from around the world now represent the interests of 35 States, including both China and the
Russian Federation. One of the many challenges for JARUS has been to consider the extent to which
regulation of a UAS might be based on the size - however defined - of a UAV.

UAS Operational Safety Issues

The operational safety issues raised by UAS depend essentially on:

the risk and potential consequences of mid-air collision with another UAV or a manned aircraft

the risk of loss of control of a UAV

the risk of intentional misuse of a UAV

whether the use to which a UAV is put is Military/State, Commercial, Leisure or Hobby

These issues are the focus of the currently mixed picture between States on the most appropriate
balance between regulatory requirements and their communication and the issue of guidance. In
some cases, prohibition is being applied to certain uses or classes of user pending the development
of a comprehensive approach, and much of the commercial use of UAS is being controlled by ad hoc
application to safety regulators such as the FAA or UK CAA for a uniquely-specified permission which
is then issued on that basis. So far, there are no internationally-recognised licensing or airworthiness
certification systems for UAS operators and outside segregated airspace, only experimental
engagement with the ATM system. Efforts are beginning to be made to communicate both regulatory
and non-regulatory guidance to leisure operators of very small UAVs but since their identity is not
known, this has not been wholly successful. In some countries, publicising successful prosecutions for
use of UAVs in breach of local regulations is also being used as a means to spread awareness.

In Europe, it is widely recognised that harmonised State Regulations right across the range of UAV
sizes is highly desirable but the current arbitrary split is based on UAV weight. This is currently being
used in Europe to distinguish between NAA and EASA regulatory competence - respectively 'below
150 kg' and '150 kg or more'. This is now generally accepted to be an arbitrary distinction
unsupported by evidence which is not necessarily significant in terms of the safety issues raised by
UAS operations. In particular, it has been recognised that the third party risks of UAV operation are
not necessarily proportional to the weight or size of the UAV. Another challenge is that leisure-use
small UAVs everywhere are flown by two rather dissimilar types of operator. The established group
of model aircraft enthusiasts are mostly members of, or at least are content to take guidance from, a
national body which oversees the safe and 'reasonable' conduct of their activity in liaison with the
National Aviation Authority (NAA) and/or directly from the NAA. This group of people have long
demonstrated that their enthusiasm for what they do is almost always associated with their
receptivity to guidance. By contrast, it has become clear that the recent and rapidly growing number
of other leisure users of small UAVs are interested as much in what they can do with a UAV - often
fitted with a camera - as in the safe and 'reasonable' use of it and will have usually have no previous
experience of aviation. A situation similar to the new leisure users applies to the majority of
commercial users of small UAVs, but this has so far generally been directly regulated with
appropriate risk mitigation requiring at least the completion of sufficient operator training to be able
to demonstrate a minimum level of competence.

The Future

Other than established model aircraft enthusiasts flying their planes in the knowledge of what is
permitted (VLOS operation) and what is not (generic restrictions on when and where flying can take
place), the extremely rapid growth of leisure use of similar sized and smaller UAS by persons
unfamiliar with that hobby is currently seen as the main 'public interest' issue, but in the main it is
arguably not the greatest operational safety risk to manned aviation. This is because even the
smallest UAS operated commercially under a permit or an exemption are rapidly coming under a
regulatory regime which requires at least some UAV operator training and are beginning to also
require a form of standardised competency certification for the specific UAV to be flown such as the
"Basic National UAS Certificate" (BNUC™) or the "Basic National UAS Certificate for Small Unmanned
Aircraft (BNUC-S™) which are available through training organisations approved by the UK CAA and
are currently being widely recognised outside the UK in the absence of any comparable alternative.

Safety Regulation of civil UAS in Europe is likely to change to the risk-based approach outlined in the
September 2015 EASA document 'Proposal to create common rules for operating drones in Europe'.

In the USA, the FAA has already regulated the civil use of small UAS by publishing in August 2016 CFR
14 part 107 - Small unmanned aircraft systems. Since December 21st 2015 an UAS must be registered
if it weighs more than 0.55 pounds and less than 55 pounds.

The development of the new approach to airborne collision avoidance (currently known as ACAS X)
includes variants extending collision avoidance protection to situations and user classes that
currently do not benefit from TCAS. The ACAS XU is being designed for UAS.

Accidents and Incidents

The following Loss of Separation events involved a UAV:

None on SKYbrary

Further Reading

ICAO
Circular 328 - Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), 2012.

ICAO Doc 10019: Manual on Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), First edition, 2015

ICAO requirements concerning the authorisation of UAS flight across the territory of another State
are published at Appendix 4 to ICAO Annex 2, Rules of the Air at Amendment 43.

European Commission

Riga Declaration on Remotely Piloted Aircraft (drones); "Framing the future of aviation", EU Riga, 6
March 2015.

EASA

Technical Opinion: Introduction of a regulatory framework for the operation of unmanned aircraft,
18 December 2015.

Concept of Operations for Drones - A risk based approach to regulation of unmanned aircraft, 29
May 2015.

Report: UAS Safety Risk Portfolio and Analysis, 2016.

EUROCONTROL

EUROCONTROL Specifications for the Use of Military Remotely Piloted Aircraft as Operational Air
Traffic Outside Segregated Airspace, 2nd edition, February 2012.

Unmanned Aircraft Systems – ATM Collision Avoidance Requirements, May 2010.

EUROCONTROL RPAS website

UK CAA

Current UK CAA information on RPAS and its regulation.

CAP 772 - Unmanned Aircraft System Operations in UK Airspace - Guidance, 6th edition, 31 March
2015.

FAA

CFR 14 part 107 - Small unmanned aircraft systems.

Current FAA information on UAS.

Fact Sheet - Unmanned Aircraft Systems, March 2015.

AC 91-57A - Model Aircraft Operating Standards, September 2015.

JARUS

Current information on JARUS

ISASI
Unmanned Aircraft System Handbook and Accident/Incident Investigation Guidelines - International
Society of Air Safety Investigators (ISASI), January 2015.

Other

ACRP Report 144 - Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) at Airports: A Primer, K. Neubauer et al. (US
Transportation Research Board), September 2015.

Flight Safety in the Drone Age: Safety Guidance for Manned Aircraft Pilots Operating in the Presence
of Drones, Aviators Model Code of Conduct, June 2016.

A safety analysis of remotely piloted aircraft systems, 2012-2017, by the ATSB, 2017

Final Report for the FAA UAS Center of Excellence Task A4: UAS Ground Collision Severity Evaluation,
April 2017

Categories: Loss of SeparationLoss of Control

This page was last modified on 29 March 2018, at 10:22.

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Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), sometimes also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), are
simply any aircraft that does not have a human pilot. While in many contexts they are commonly
referred to as drones, due to the negative connotations of that word most people who use them in a
commercial setting prefer to call them either UAV or UAS.

UAS have a range of uses in variety of fields including recreational, commercial, or military purposes.
It’s important to note though that in the United States, all aerial vehicles, manned or not, are
governed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). All non-recreational, civil aircraft operations
in the country must comply with FAA regulations.

While they can be used for several different types of inspection, UAS are primarily used for visual
inspection. They tend to be equipped with incredibly high resolution cameras, which allow them to
get a close up, accurate view of a structure, even from a great distance.

They can be used to inspect nearly any structure, both indoors and outdoors, but they are most
useful in the inspection of structures that are difficult to reach by traditional means. This can include
tall structures, such as flare stacks, elevated pipe trays, and cooling towers. It can include confined
spaces in which space is limited for traditional inspections. It can also include structures that are over
water such as bridges or the undersides of oil rig platforms.

Compared to traditional inspection, the use of UAS is cheaper, faster, and safer than traditional
methods. For example, when inspecting flare stacks, traditional inspection is incredibly difficult and
time consuming. UAS can inspect the stack in less than an hour, without requiring shutdown, the
construction of scaffolding, or sending inspectors into dangerous situations.

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Missions of the UAVs

PrintPrint

Welcome to section 1.5! Here we will discuss the different missions of the UAS.
Naming the different missions for UAVs is a difficult task, as there are so many possibilities and there
have never been enough systems in use to explore all the possibilities. However, the two main
classifications for UAS missions are the following:

The military mission: Military applications focus on weapons delivery and missiles guiding support
(guided missile support?) as well as directing artillery and spotting enemy positions.

The civilian mission. Civilian applications of UAS are open to the imagination and only time will tell of
the future missions of UAVs for civilian applications. As of today, civilian missions include various
applications such as:

Security awareness;

Disaster response, including search and support to rescuers;

Communications and broadcast, including news/sporting event coverage;

Cargo transport;

Spectral and thermal analysis;

Critical infrastructure monitoring and inspection, including power facilities, ports, bridges, and
pipelines;

Commercial photography, aerial mapping and charting, and advertising.

On the geospatial and mapping applications side, the UAS can be used for the following activities:

Aerial photography

Mapping

Lidar

Volumetric Surveys

Digital Mapping

Contour Mapping

Topographic Mapping

Digital Terrain Modelling

Aerial surveys

Photogrametry

Temporal/Spatial Correlation for Terrain Reconstruction

Geophysical Survey
Military and civilian missions of UAS overlap in many areas. They both use UAS for reconnaissance
and surveillance. In addition, they both use UAS as a stationary platform over a point on the ground
from which to perform many of the communications or remote sensing satellite functionalities with a
fraction of the cost.

UAS System Overview

PrintPrint

The way a pilotless aircraft is controlled determines its categorization. In general, there are three
main names for pilotless aircraft:

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV): a pilotless aircraft that is either manually controlled with a joystick
or a mouse or autonomously flown by following a preprogrammed mission. The acronym UAV is the
most widely used term in describing a civilian pilotless aircraft.

Remotely Piloted Vehicle (RPV): a pilotless aircraft that is steered or controlled from a remotely
located position. Manually controlled pilotless aircraft means manually controlling the aircraft
position by manually adjusting its heading, altitude, and speed. In many cases, the terms UAV and
RPV are interchangeably used to describe any pilotless aircraft.

Drone: one of the oldest terms used to describe a pilotless aircraft. A drone is defined as a pilotless
aircraft controlled by radio signal. Even with the emerging of the UAV and RPV names, the name
“drone” is still used even for civilian pilotless aircraft. For the purpose of this course, the word drone
is used to describe a pilotless aircraft equipped with lethal payload. It is usually used by defense
apparatus.

Whether it is named a UAV, an RPV, or a drone, at a minimum, the pilotless aircraft should include
the following elements:

Air vehicle

Mission planning element

Command and control element

Communication link

Launch and recovery element (for some of them)

Payload
Classification of the Unmanned Aerial Systems

PrintPrint

There is no one standard when it comes to the classification of UAS. (In this course, the terms UAS
and UAV will be used interchangeably.) Defense agencies have their own standard, and civilians have
their ever-evolving loose categories for UAS. People classify them by size, range and endurance, and
use a tier system that is employed by the military. For classification according to size, one can come
up with the following sub-classes:

Very small UAVs

Micro or Nano UAVs

Mini UAVs

Small UAVs

Medium UAVs

Large UAVs

UAVs also can be classified according to the ranges they can travel and their endurance in the air
using the following sub-classes developed by the US military:

Very low cost close range UAVs

Close range UAVs

Short Range UAVs

Mid-range UAVs

Endurance UAVs