Study of unmanned aircraft systems procedures: Impact on air traffic control

The demand for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) access to the National Airspace System (NAS) is increasing as agencies find more ways to use them to complete their missions. The Department of Defense (DoD) flies UASs in the NAS primarily for training and some operational missions, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) flies UASs in the NAS for scientific missions, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) flies UASs in the NAS to patrol our borders. These are some of the uses of UASs that are currently being operated by public entities. Many of the UASs that operate in the NAS are flying in airspace controlled by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic controllers and, because of their unique operating characteristics and procedures, have an impact on those controllers´ abilities to safely manage the airspace for which they are responsible. This human-in-the-loop (HITL)¹ simulation looked specifically at the lost command and control (C2) link procedures of UASs and how those procedures affected the controllers´ abilities to manage the traffic within busy airspace when lost C2 link events were occurring. The study focused on two key aspects of the lost C2 link. First, it analyzed the time it took controllers to identify that a lost C2 link had occurred. Second, it analyzed the time period between the initial indications of a lost C2 link and the initiation of a contingency procedure. The study found that most controllers recognized a lost C2 link situation within a minute of the indication. The study also found that controllers experienced a reduced workload when the time between the notification of the lost C2 link and the aircraft maneuvering was approximately one minute. Additional research is needed to further validate these initial findings. In general, such analytic results need to be taken into account when standardized lost C2 link and other contingency procedures are developed so as to not overload the controllers- - who are working the airspace in which the UASs are flying.