Risk Assessment of Small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS) Operations

摘要

The rapid growth of the Small Unmanned Aircraft System sector raises questions about the risk of accidents and incidents in National Airspace System (NAS). The purpose of this research is to propose a process to analyze the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)'s UAS sighting data using cluster analysis to classify sUAS encounter incidents into different groups based on a set of selected variables. The identified clusters help researchers understand the nature, characteristics, and risk factors of incidents, based on which a risk assessment model can be developed to predict the risk of incidents and collision in NAS.