See-and-avoid comparison of performance in manned and remotely piloted aircraft

See-and-avoid is the current FAA approved method for pilots to avoid objects and other aircraft while flying in visual meteorological conditions (VMC). Although fully autonomous “sense-and-avoid” or “detect-and-avoid” systems are in development, none are currently certified. Thus existing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations are limited to case-by-case restricted airspace or require escort by manned aircraft. Many UAVs are equipped with at least a forward-looking camera. In the transition between current technology and future fully autonomous, certified sense-and-avoid systems, it seems reasonable to require a ground-based operator to perform the see-and-avoid function. This discusses the flight-testing performed to establish air traffic detection ranges for low-time pilots, and for a low-cost UAV camera system. The system was evaluated to determine if it could provide the equivalent see-and-avoid performance as the tested pilots.