The University of Newcastle, Australia and Boeing Research and Technology Australia have launched a five-year project to develop a tool to evaluate whether unmanned aircraft meet the same levels of safety as piloted aircraft for particular operations.
The team is developing a tool to allow aviation authorities to assess and certify different aircraft for particular missions. It is also preparing a report for Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority detailing the research.
“At the moment, UAS are not operating in shared air spaces with manned aircraft because in order to do that you need to demonstrate certain levels of safety and reliability,” said Associate Professor Tristan Perez, director of Advanced Control and System Dynamics at the University of Newcastle’s School of Engineering. “Although the industry has evolved significantly, they are still not at that level. We envisage that with the advances that we have in new technology, we are quickly going to reach that level. Therefore, we need tools to be able to assess what these aircraft can and cannot do, and where can they be improved.”
“It means that we will have tools with which we will be able to assess how suitable UAS are for particular missions and what needs to be improved to perform that mission.” The researchers are also working on technology that will be able to assess the decision-making of the aircraft in different areas. The $1.5 million project will also look at robotics for manufacturing in the aerospace industry.
Source: The Australian