Unmanned Systems Technology 018 | CES show report | ASV Global C-Cat 3 USV | Test centres | UUVs insight | Limbach L 275 EF | Lidar systems | Heliceo DroneBox | Composites

A range of ground tests should be conducted before each flight to ensure all systems are safe for testing (Courtesy of Northern Plains UAS Test Site) 40 Focus | Test centres the function) who is charged with directly overseeing the sending of commands and receiving information from the UAV. This officer should be the first point of ‘active involvement’ with the aircraft. That covers programming waypoints for autonomous flight tests, conducting pre- flight simulations, and overseeing ground tests and inter-operational adjustments to system architectures. Appointing further personnel such as payload and comms engineers, and other crew to help with ground and air operations, should also be considered. At first glance, the value of real-world testing may seem to be low when considering the advances in recent years in CFD software capabilities for gathering simulated data on design aerodynamics and operational effectiveness. Indeed, CFD may be used not only for design and development but also to examine propulsion, lift, aero- elastics, acoustics, icing-up of surfaces and other real-world concerns. For some companies, however, running CFD tests and analyses remains prohibitively expensive and time- consuming compared with flight tests. Licencing fees, computing processor cores and power costs for running CFD software can rise over time with the number of data points gathered, whereas running actual flight tests tends to produce a flatter cost curve. The accuracy of such simulations is also not guaranteed to perfectly predict or reproduce what the UAV will experience in actual flight. These concerns might be mitigated over time as computer hardware becomes more powerful and less costly. However, the issue of operator liability will provide an incentive for simulation data – and the UAV specifications derived from them – to be validated at testing sites. Risk assessments In manned aircraft testing, it is standard procedure to carry out test hazard analysis, in which every possible risk is judged and rated for its probability and effects. Much like other manned flight test paradigms, however, the model needs to be adjusted to fit with unmanned testing. The foremost safety concern is the risk to humans, yet there are no onboard personnel. Also, UAVs increasingly come with unique architectures and configurations – just look at the vast array of VTOL transition-capable UAVs to see the range of failure modes that could occur. The chances and adverse effects of flight hazards are harder to anticipate when no aircraft resembling a given unmanned system has ever been flown before. Therefore the impact classifications should be reconfigured to fit the unique requirements and complexity of each UAV. Electromagnetic effects should also be closely considered. UAVs are far more susceptible to errors from EM interference than manned aircraft, given their smaller size and the fact that they rely so heavily on RF connectivity with the GCS. As a function of that, crews should pay close attention to what action the UAV is programmed to take when comms are lost. That may be an immediate and controlled descent to avoid flying outside test airspace, for example, or automated circling to try to re-acquire the lost signal. Crews should also conduct extensive pre-flight ground tests that are consistent with the requirements for air traffic approvals. It is also useful to draw up pre-agreed contingency plans in the event of an emergency. For example, if the February/March 2018 | Unmanned Systems Technology It is vital to appoint key roles in flight testing operations to ensure clear division of labour and a smooth flow of tests and data output (Courtesy of Qinetiq)