ASTM International Sense-and-Avoid Standard, for Use with UAV Certifications, Adopted by U.S. Department of Defense

摘要

THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE recently recognized an ASTM International standard to govern the performance of automated sense-and-avoid systems it procures for its unmanned aircraft. ASTM Committee F38 on Unmanned Aircraft Systems developed the standard, F 2411, Specification for Design and Performance of an Airborne Sense-and-Avoid System, last year. The Federal Aviation Administration has implicitly relied on the eyesight of human pilots as the "last chance" means of avoiding midair collisions when radar coverage is absent or transponders are inoperable or not installed. Without a human onboard, unmanned aircraft have lacked this "see and avoid" capability. A number of optical, infrared and radar systems are now emerging to provide what is termed "an equivalent level of safety" by automating the see-and-avoid capability of humans. ASTM F 2411 provides the first common yardstick against which to measure the performance and quality of such systems.