ASABE Technical Library - Abstract

Abstract. This paper provides preliminary performance results of a new safety beacon to help minimize risk of collision between Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and low flying aircraft. Unmanned aircraft are poised to realize a significant increase in use across the United States, with agricultural applications projected to be the single largest market for unmanned aircraft technologies. It is anticipated that there will be a large number of UAS flying in the National Air Space, especially at low altitudes and over fields used for agricultural production. Actually, this is already occurring as “early adopter” producers and consultants acquire the technologies and fly over production operations. While it is currently illegal to fly UAS for commercial purposes, except under limited exceptions, the Federal Aviation Administration has recently finalized rules that allow for commercial flight of “small” unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) that will be final August 29, 2016.

At the same time, agriculture enjoys the benefits of piloted aerial aviation, offering services such as spraying, dusting, and seed sowing, resulting in increased agricultural production. The aerial aviation industry plays an important part in any yield gains that have, and will be achieved in the future. Agriculture aviation is well known to conduct virtually all flight operations at low altitudes, and traveling at high speeds (on the order of 160 mph). The potential for an unintended collision increases as more obstacles are introduced into the airspace.

It is essential that attention be focused on the very likely convergence of two technologies that will likely play key roles in sustained agricultural productivity: 1) Unmanned aircraft systems, and 2) Agricultural aerial flight operations. At this time there are no guidelines, or best management practices, for agricultural field operations that involve both unmanned aircraft and human piloted aircraft.

This presentation describes an unmanned aircraft safety beacon, termed the NU-AIRE Safety Beacon, which is outfitted with directional strobe lights located on the top of the ground control vehicle associated with the unmanned aircraft. Bright strobes catch the attention of an aerial pilot, thereby alerting the approaching pilot that unmanned aircraft operations are taking place in the area. Development of the safety beacon, and flight test demonstration results are highlighted. The main point of the safety beacon is that “see and avoid” is a required and critical part of aviation safety, and since unmanned aircraft are small and don‘t have the typical visual cues (i.e., strobes and lights – due to power and technical constraints), there will be a need to rely on the ground support vehicle to provide the “see and avoid” visual cues for unmanned aircraft flight operations.