UAS situational awareness shortcomings, gaps, and future research needs

1. Determine how much UA system monitoring information is necessary and design inference logic capable of using this information to safely mitigate the aberrant behavior, for resolving aberrant flight behavior both remotely and autonomously. 2. Examine and propose means for validation and verification of algorithms used in autonomous UAs and their operations. Define minimum success levels for determining aberrant behavior, the causal factor(s), the impact on the flight, and the actions taken by the UAS. 3. Explore the human factor issues for situational awareness for all aspects of POM operations. POM human factors are as significant as POM equipage and POM autonomous logic. For example, when assuming control from an automated or autonomous flight, and for the challenges presented by managing multiple UA and multiple simultaneous off-nominal events. 4. Investigate alternative traffic management paradigms to address the interaction between 55+ pound BVLOS operations and UTM. 5. Analyze C2 service issues including service availability and reliability at all altitudes and in all environments, multi-service resolution across multiple service providers and multiple technologies and spectrums, and spectrum and channel allocations in dense UA operating environments. 6. Address issues related to autonomous UA communications with ATC. 7. Establish minimum performance levels for Surface DAA encompassing all UA types and operating environments. Assess alternative sources of DAA information. a. Incorporate UA sensor data, for example from EO, IR, and Lidar sensors. b. Assess other detection technologies, for example millimeter wave. C. Establish a system to capture, synthesize, and distribute UA airborne DAA information. D. Establish a system to capture, synthesize, and distribute ground based non-aviation information related to atmospheric conditions, traffic activity, intrusion events, and obstacle presence. 8. Establish a system to capture, synthesize, and distribute UA airborne weather information. 9. Develop a specification for a minimum level of contingency planning, UA system and flight monitoring equipment, and real-time analysis capability. 10. Research and propose resolution to security concerns spanning GPS, ADS-B, and C2 link vulnerabilities, flight data and flight service vulnerabilities, and verification of automated flight modes and flight plans. 11. Evaluate issues related to multiple UA operations including linked failure modes, management of simultaneous off-nominal events, and unique fleet DAA behaviors. 12. Assess Minimum degree of precursor analysis for off-nominal events. Use trend analysis to predict off-nominal events and enable mitigations before the events occur.