A concept for UAV operator involvement in airborne conflict detection and resolution

One of the biggest challenges in the development of detect, sense and avoid systems is to achieve both an extremely low missed detection probability and an acceptable false alarm rate. In case of a fully autonomous system, every falsely identified threat will cause an unnecessary avoidance maneuver. In this paper, a concept is described that combines the requirement of collision avoidance function availability and continuity (e.g. in case of a control link failure) with the benefits from operator involvement in the detect, sense and avoid cycle for those situations where the time to conflict provides a sufficient margin. When involving the human operator, it must be ensured that the positive effects of a warranted contribution outweigh the negative effects of an unwarranted one. A second challenge when involving the operator is to find the right balance between system- and operator authority. This paper starts with an identification and analysis of opportunities and constraints. The requirement of function availability in case of a control link failure is translated into a range of possible authority levels for the detect, sense and avoid functions. Based on the results, a concept for operator involvement is proposed and it is illustrated how the level of system authority affects the role of the operator. From an analysis of earlier work in the area of conflict prediction, assessment and resolution, conflict probing is identified as a means to support the operator in determining, selecting and/or assessing maneuvers. To explore the potential of the probing concept, a multi-dimensional conflict probe has been integrated into a cockpit display of traffic information and a head-up display. Results from an initial evaluation show an improvement in the assessment of the traffic situation, resulting in more effective and efficient conflict resolution maneuvers and less unwarranted maneuvers.