National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNational Aeronautics and Space Administration

Evolution of a Distributed Live, Virtual, Constructive

Environment for Human in the Loop Unmanned

Aircraft Testing

Jim Murphy: NASA Ames Research Center

Neil Otto: Flight Research Associates

RAeS Modelling and Simulation in Air Traffic Management Conference 2017

Human Systems Integration

UAS ground

control station

Noncooperative aircraft

Cooperative aircraft

Air traffic services

(en route)

Detect

and Avoid

Command

and Control

Air traffic services

(Near airport)

UAS-NAS Project Overview

Integrated Test

and Evaluation

2

Detect and Avoid Overview

3

Collision Avoidance Threshold

Collision Avoidance

Remain Well Clear

Preventive Alert

Remain Well Clear Detect-and-Avoid Threshold

RWC AlertCA Alert

Detect and Avoid

ATC Coordination

Controlled Separation

Conflict Alert

UAS use “Detect and Avoid” in place of “see and avoid”

LVC-Distributed Test Environment

UAS Surrogate

Live Intruders

Live: Real people operating real assetsVirtual: Real people operating simulated assetsConstructive: Simulated people operating simulated assets

Unmanned Aircraft

4

LVC-Distributed Test Environment

UAS PilotAir Traffic Control

Network

Target Generation

UAS Surrogate ConstructiveIntruders

Live Intruders

Live: Real people operating real assetsVirtual: Real people operating simulated assetsConstructive: Simulated people operating simulated assets

Unmanned Aircraft

4

LVC-Distributed Test Environment

UAS PilotAir Traffic Control

Network

Target Generation

UAS Surrogate ConstructiveIntruders

Live Intruders

Live: Real people operating real assetsVirtual: Real people operating simulated assetsConstructive: Simulated people operating simulated assets

Unmanned Aircraft

4

LVC Architecture Build-Up

GCS

Virtual Assets

HLA – High Level Architecture

LVC Gateway

Constructive Assets

LVC GW Toolbox

ATC Toolbox

Pilot Toolbox

Sim Toolbox

Legacy Core LVC

5

DAA System

Integrated HITL

LVC/DAA Simulation and Flight Activities

6

UAS ADS-B Flight

LVC Characterization

Full Mission Sim

FY12 FY13 FY14 FY15 FY16 FY17

Collision Avoidance Flight Test 1

Terminal Operations Simulation

Flight Test 3

Test Bed Architecture

DDS – Data Distribution Service

Test BedSupport Services

Test Bed Visualization Services

Traffic Generators Component A

GovCloud

UAS Traffic Management (UTM)

ExternalSimulators

Component C

Component X

Component B

7

ATM FunctionalServices

Conflict Detection

Trajectory Generator

ConflictResolution

Scheduler

StakeholderTools

LVC-DE

LVC Gateway

UAS LVC-DE

LVC Enhancement

• Live: Real people operating real assets• Virtual: Real people operating

simulated assets• Constructive: Simulated people

operating simulated assets• Autonomous: Simulated people

operating real assets

Real Assets Simulated Assets

Real People

Live Virtual

Simulated People

Autonomous Constructive

9

Conclusion and Next Steps

• NASA’s UAS Integration into the NAS project has developed an LVC architecture to support testing of unmanned Detect and Avoid research

• LVC Distributed Test Environment was built up from legacy infrastructure and designed to meet DAA test objectives and requirements

• Integrating with NASA’s SMART-NAS Test Bed will enable continued use of the LVC technologies

10