11
The Use of Low-Cost Mobile Radar Systems for Small UAS Sense and Avoid
11.1 Introduction
The overarching goal of the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS)1 community is to achieve routine, regular and safe integration of UAS into the national airspace system (NAS). Access to airspace, however, is often restricted to small geographic areas and the time required for gaining approval for this access can often be measured in months. Thus, for time-critical applications such as bushfire monitoring, the current situation is unacceptable.
UAS have demonstrated their ability to fly, navigate and perform useful missions. The challenge is to provide UAS with a capability that replicates a human function: the ability to see and avoid. The inability to meet this challenge is holding back the integration of UAS into the NAS.
In order to realise the benefits of UAS for commercial and civilian applications, it is necessary to achieve a greater degree of operational freedom within the NAS. To gain this freedom, however, there is an overarching requirement for UAS to have a level of safety that is at least as good as manned aviation. Thus, until sense and avoid (SAA) for UAS reaches an equivalent capability to that of see and avoid, the operation of UAS within the NAS will continue to be restricted.
This chapter focuses on the use of low-cost mobile radar systems for small UAS sense and avoid. These systems are relatively low cost when compared ...
