21 help with numerous projects at Langley under the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. “That I’m contributing to multiple projects means that I can see linkages among the research we are doing in different places, and I can draw insights from those linkages and make connections,” he says. “And, through those insights, I can think strategically, and offer that thinking to the project and programme leaders, and to the management at the Langley Research Center.” This makes the job essentially one of thought leadership. Finding linkages One of the links that Lacher has made is between a programme for digitally enabled cooperative operations and one for multiple vehicle flight control. The first is centred on defining and developing a new operating mode for highly automated UAS that dovetails with established operating modes for manned aircraft, the most prevalent of which are visual flight rules (VFR) and instrument flight rules (IFR). The second is focused on operations in which multiple vehicles are controlled by a single pilot, which has become known as m:N (‘m to N’). Here, Lacher is facilitating the development of an industry whitepaper on what airspace operations might look like to enable them. The link between m:N and digitally enabled cooperative operations is that both teams are considering a VFR-equivalent capability. “The idea is to use technology to give the operator the same flexibility that a VFR operator has today, and where we have crewed VFR operations we can also have this VFR equivalent for UAS,” Lacher says. Although he joined NASA only three years ago, Lacher has worked in industry on the introduction of uncrewed aircraft into civil airspace for more than two decades. Despite considerable progress, the principal barriers remain in the same four areas of detect and avoid, command and control links, airworthiness, and air traffic management (ATM) integration. “We have to figure out a way to allow an aircraft that doesn’t have a pilot on board to be aware of other aircraft around them, so they can remain safely separated,” he says. “We all know that command and control links are not perfect: the radio spectrum can have interference, there could be a physical or electronic blockage between the antenna and the transceiver such that the link could be interrupted, and there could be latencies and other challenges. “With airworthiness, we have to be able to demonstrate that we can rely on software to do things that are critical to the safety of life. That software is complex, and we’re making it more and more complex,” he adds. “So demonstrating its airworthiness becomes harder and harder.” A question of scale Moving on to ATM, Lacher acknowledges that it is flexible enough to accommodate UAS operations today, but he cautions that being able to do this is different from doing it at scale. Andy Lacher | In conversation Uncrewed Systems Technology | August/September 2024 The model for fitting uncrewed systems into civil airspace still relies heavily on voice communication between a pilot/operator and an air traffic controller, particularly in critical phases of flight NASA’s Airspace Operations Lab evaluates ATM concepts and explores human/ system interaction issues in a simulation environment. It played a key role in the rapid prototyping of next-generation concepts
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mzk4