Test analysis of a scalable UAV conflict management framework

© IMechE 2019. This study elaborates the conflict management framework of unmanned aerial vehicles, focusing on the identification of the spatiotemporal interdependencies between them, with consideration of the future scalability problems in highly dense traffic scenarios. The paper first tries to justify the applied separation criteria among small cooperative unmanned aerial vehicles based on their performance characteristics and the planned missions’ type. The adopted criteria, obtained from the simulations of 160 missions, present a testing asset, referring to a current lack of the spatiotemporal requirements and a need for extending the research in this area to provide a more rapid integration of these vehicles into the civil controlled airspace. The paper then elaborates the computational framework for the conflict detection and resolution function and operational metrics for causal identification of the spatiotemporal interdependencies between two or more cooperative vehicles. The vehicles are considered as a conflict mission system that strives to achieve an efficient solution by applying certain maneuvering measures, before a loss of separation occurs. The operational trials of five local, short-range missions, supported by the simulation scenario, demonstrate the potential for a time-based complexity analysis in the conflict resolution processes with less demanding and more efficient coordinated maneuvers. The results show that those maneuvers would not induce any new conflicts and disrupt the cooperative mission system when the spatial capacity only might not be favorable in provision of the avoidance maneuvers within an available airspace.