Peer Review 2

     According to Edgar Munoz, CEO of Aeronyde, a company currently in the process of producing an unmanned traffic management (UTM) system that is safe and reliable for all Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), says that Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) are increasingly becoming more popular around the world.  Although, there are a few things that need to be ironed out prior to implementing UASs into cities as commercial services to the public.  For example, the traffic management for UAVs is in its infant stages to be able to fly low in our National Airspace System (NAS) (Munoz, 2019).

      Munoz also mentions, that there seems to be no standardization between all of the technologies and regulations in regards to using UASs.  All government agencies are looking towards private companies to come up with standards for the safety of using UAS in the NAS.  Although, there are some states developing Collaborative Research and Development agreements to update regulation as the technology develops (Munoz, 2019).

     The UAS industry is working this issue along with government organizations to set standards for the safe integration of UAS technology. We have to ensure each part of the specialized environment that supports urban UAS flight is overseen in a mindful and straightforward manner. Together, NASA, the FAA, and various privately owned businesses are recognizing and tending to what is required for a dependable self-sufficient system that makes it safe to fly in urban communities (Munoz, 2019).

     Currently, there is a Global group of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management (GUTMA) shareholders that are working together to improve UTM throughout the world.  The main objective of GUTMA is to proficiently incorporate unmanned aerial vehicles into the national airspace system safely (Munoz, 2019).  In the works from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), is a registration system that will allow a U.S unmanned aerial vehicle to be able to fly in Europe and vice versa.  In other words, a trackable unmanned aerial system anywhere in the world with the ability to know who is flying it (Munoz, 2019).

     Even today, the command and control of unmanned aerial systems needs to be improved along with standardization of hardware and software to ensure safe unmanned aerial system utilization.  Munoz says, that the future is in Autonomy or Artificial Intelligence (AI) for unmanned aerial systems since remote control is the thing of the past and implementing autonomous aircraft will ensure safe and secure flying (Munoz, 2019). 

     Munoz also mentions that Artificial intelligence (machine learning) and “detect & avoid” will increase autonomous UAS situational awareness, and enable autonomous aircraft to safely react to their environment. For example, a fleet of UASs are able to complete its mission using the autonomous system with only human observation.  This in turn will cause the UAS industry to continually change from C2 to autonomy; in other words, intelligent systems replacing piloted systems (Munoz, 2019). 

     The unmanned aerial system industry is growing at a tremendous rate along with technology.  Munoz says that UAS are an incredible innovation, and with that power comes an enormous obligation: we have to guarantee, as an industry and as a worldwide society, that UAS are used in a safe, translucent and confident way (Munoz, 2019).  He also says that UAS technology is transforming the world to be a better place by assisting humankind in all facets of life from logistics to emergency response (Munoz, 2019).  Intelligent UASs will become a valuable service in all cities of the world as long as they are safe and regulated.

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Peer Review #2

Grandview Research (2016) conducted a study and found that the global commercial Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) market is expected to be over two-billion U.S. dollars by the year 2022.  The report stated that every industrialized country is investing in military, homeland security, retail, and agriculture UAS applications.  Although military use is the largest consumer of UAS, the commercial industry is catching up quickly (Grandview Research, 2016).  The military use of UAS in the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS) has mainly been in Special Use airspace for training purposes.  With growth in the commercial industry, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) must make adjustments to the other classes of airspace within the NAS to regulate commercial UAS traffic.

One such regulation is that all UAS 0.55 lbs. to 55 lbs. must be registered with the FAA.  The FAA announced the UAS registration regulations in December 2015 according to Kang (2015).   The registration process was suspended in May 2017 because of the 2012 FAA modernization and reform act which did not allow for laws against hobbyists explained Glaser (2017).  The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) shortly thereafter reinstated the requirement in December 2017 (Sundberg, 2017).  Since then, hobbyists must register as a “modeler” and pay the five-dollar registration fee that is good for three years under the 14 CFR Part 107.13 Registration rule (eCFR, 2019).  However, UAS for commercial use must be registered aircraft in accordance with Part 91.203 (eCFR, 2019).  In addition to the registration of UAS, the remote operator must hold an FAA-issued remote pilot certificate with a small UAS rating under §107.12 or be a certified pilot under §61 with a small UAS rating endorsement (eCFR, 2019).

The UAS industry is ready to grow beyond visual line of sight (BLOS).  Companies such as Amazon, Google, and UPS want to make commercial deliveries with UAS.  These companies will need to register for Air Carrier Certifications under §135 (eCFR, 2019). Alphabet Wing Aviation, a Google X project received the approval to start deliveries in a remote town of Virginia earlier this year (Chappell, 2019).  UAS delivery will need a power source that allows for longer endurance to travel greater distances.  Improvements to battery power such as the Protonex fuel cell allow for UAS to remain beyond visual line of sight for periods up to 9 hours (Ballard, 2017).  Traveling greater distances for longer periods of time beyond visual line of sight will call for a need to sense and avoid other aircraft as well as stationary objects.

Light detection and ranging (LIDAR) as explained by Ramasamy, Sabatini, Gardi, and Liu (2016) is an active sensor that emits a laser beam.  The return energy processes any detections of differences in the amount of time of return as a picture of what is in the surrounding area.  Ramasamy et al. continue to explain that this detection sensor will give the UAS the capability to be aware of its surroundings.  With this type of information, the UAS can then send the data to its computer to make a decision on how to maneuver to avoid the obstacle in its path.  The LIDAR sensor will allow for the UAS to maneuver based on an immediate obstacle to its path.  However, an automated air traffic management system should maintain control of BLOS UAS.  Such a system should take digital flight plans, filed by the originator of the UAS, and plan a route of flight from origin to destination.  This system will be an automatic collision avoidance tool for automated UAS delivery services within a region.  Such a system is currently under development by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (2019) to enable safe low-altitude operations.

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Peer Review 3

The utilization and implementation of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) is a rapidly increasing industry. The growth of UAS in the United States has recently increased due to the introduction of low-cost, straightforward systems that can now be purchased off the shelf by the general population. In order to integrate UAS into our airspace, the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) vision is to allow manned aircraft and UAS to operate and occupy the same airspace. With such integration, significant risks present themselves in the form of potential ground and airborne collisions.

In 2014, the FAA was mandated by Congress to establish the UAS Center of Excellence, to bring together the FAA, NASA, state, and local government along with the U.S. Department of Defense and numerous other public sectors (FAA, 2018). Once established, the Center of Excellence began researching manned and unmanned integration, where significant results were developed. According to the FAA (2018), when an unmanned aircraft collides with a manned aircraft, it causes worse structural damage than a bird strike. The Alliance for System Safety of UAS through Research Excellence (ASSURE) conducted as in-depth study providing comprehensive knowledge for the aviation community. The research spanned over 14 months and covered 140 collision scenarios (ASSURE, 2017) discovering, for example, that UAS componentry that are stiffer provide the most damage to the manned aircraft. ASSURE suggested the FAA manufacture technology to minimize potential impacts through “detect and avoid” or other geofencing capabilities (ASSURE, 2017). Conducting further research on various impactors is needed to assess the severity of ground and airborne collisions accurately. Overall, without the proper procedures in place, the risk of collision is heightened between unmanned and manned aircraft. The FAA has been researching ways to seamlessly integrate UAS into manned airspace.

On the other hand, UAS brings considerable benefits to governmental and commercial use. One example of UAS being successfully integrated into the national airspace of a country can be found in what may initially seem like an odd place; Rwanda. This small African country has been piloting a new service by a company called Zipline, which delivers blood and other vital medical supplies by UAS. These UAS are relatively simple with pre-programmed flight plans, but the company does coordinate with the nearby airport to make sure that air traffic in the small nation will not be hampered in any way (Overly, 2016). Rwanda makes use of the UAS not only for their ability to get blood transfusions to remote hospitals quickly but because the UAS can operate in all weather conditions as local roads are nearly unusable during the rainy season. Systems like these show that with the proper planning and coordination, UAS can easily be integrated into air traffic systems, both large and small, to great benefit. Zipline began as a robotics start-up in 2014, delivering blood or medical supplies to those in need (Grose, 2017). Not only is Zipline delivering blood and medical supplies in Rwanda, but recent advancements in Zipline’s capabilities have also caught the interest of other countries. For example, in 2018, multiple Canadian doctors approached Zipline during a TEDMED conference about utilizing their services in Canada (Glauser, 2018). Zipline is open to the potential future with other countries, especially third world countries where the impact of their work can be felt the most (Glauser, 2018).

Overall, UAS pose significant risks to the manned aircraft industry; however, the fact that Zipline is utilizing UAS to help save lives demonstrates the future impact of UAS utilization.

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