Abstract
Future unmanned aircraft systems are allowed to incorporate operational aspects for flight approval due to the new EASA “specific” category. Incorporating operational aspects offer new possibilities for the verification and validation of complex functions used especially in highly automated vehicles. For these functions, verification and validation can focus on predefined operational aspects prior to flight. In-flight, limits of the operation are monitored to assure the correct working environment for these functions resulting in a safe operation. In this paper, we present the notion of safe operation monitoring and depict operational limits to be supervised. One prominent example for such an operational limit is geofencing. Geofencing prevents an unmanned aircraft from entering a forbidden airspace by using virtual fences. Specifically, in this paper, we present an algorithm and describe parameters for the buffer distance used for the geofence boundary values. The algorithm can be highly parallelized which is important when considering realistic geofences of future operations. Further, we highlight the use of a formal specification language and simulation results which support the verification and validation of geofencing, respectively. The chosen specification language is not limited to geofencing, other operational limits can be expressed and monitored in-flight to assure the safe operation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Adolf FM, Faymonville P, Finkbeiner B, Schirmer S, Torens C (2017) Stream runtime monitoring on UAS. In: Lahiri S, Reger G (eds) Runtime verification. RV 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 10548. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67531-2_3
ASTM (2017) F3269-17 Standard Practice for Methods to Safely Bound Flight Behavior of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Containing Complex Functions. ASTM
Bartocci E, Falcone Y, Francalanza A, Reger G (2018) Introduction to runtime verification. In: Bartocci E, Falcone Y (eds) Lectures on runtime verification. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 10457. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75632-5_1
Baumeister J, Finkbeiner B, Schwenger M, Torfah H (2019) FPGA stream-monitoring of real-time properties. In: International conference on embedded software
Colombo C, Pace GJ (2018) Industrial experiences with runtime verification of financial transaction systems: lessons learnt and standing challenges. In: Bartocci E, Falcone Y (eds) Lectures on runtime verification. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 10457. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75632-5_7
D'Angelo B, Sankaranarayanan S, Sánchez C, Robinson W, Finkbeiner B, Sipma H, et al (2005) Lola: runtime monitoring of synchronous systems. In: 12th international symposium on temporal representation and reasoning, June 2005
Dauer JC, Dittrich JS (2021) Automated cargo delivery in low altitudes: concepts and research questions of an operational-risk-based approach. In: Dauer JC (ed) Automated low-altitude air delivery - towards autonomous cargo transportation with drones. Springer, Heidelberg
EASA (2015) Introduction of a regulatory framework for the operation of unmanned aircraft. Technical opinion. https://www.easa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/dfu/Introduction%20of%20a%20regulatory%20framework%20for%20the%20operation%20of%20unmanned%20aircraft.pdf. Accessed 08 Oct 2020
EASA (2015-10) Introduction of a regulatory framework for the operation of drones. Advance Notice of Proposed Amendment. https://www.easa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/dfu/A-NPA%202015-10.pdf. Accessed 08 Oct 2020
EASA (2017) Introduction of a regulatory framework for the operation of drones. Advance Notice of Proposed Amendment. https://www.easa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/dfu/NPA%202017-05%20(B).pdf. Accessed 08 Oct 2020
Ellis K, Krois P, Davirs MD, Koelling J (2019) In-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance (ISSA) Concept of Operations. NASA Technical Reports. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citatio6ns/20190032480. Accessed 08 Oct 2020
Faymonville P, Finkbeiner B, Schirmer S, Torfah H (2016) A stream-based specification language for network monitoring. In: Falcone Y, Sánchez C (eds) Runtime verification. RV 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 10012. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46982-9_10
Faymonville P et al. (2019) StreamLAB: stream-based monitoring of cyber-physical systems. In: Dillig I, Tasiran S (eds) Computer aided verification. CAV 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 11561. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25540-4_24
Geist J, Rozier KY, Schumann J (2014) Runtime observer pairs and bayesian network reasoners on-board FPGAs: flight-certifiable system health management for embedded systems. In: Bonakdarpour B, Smolka SA (eds) Runtime verification. RV 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8734. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11164-3_18
Gilabert RV, Dill ET, Hayhurst KJ, Young SD (2017) SAFEGUARD: progress and test results for a reliable independent on-board safety net for UAS. In: IEEE/AIAA 36th digital avionics systems conference (DASC), St. Petersburg, FL, pp 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1109/DASC.2017.8102087
JARUS (2016) Guidelines on Specific Operations Risk Assessment (SORA). Draft for public consultation
NASA (2017) Reliable Geo-Limitation System for Unmanned Aircraft - An Assured Safety Net Technology for UAS. Patent reference. https://ntts-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/t2p/prod/t2media/tops/pdf/LAR-TOPS-244.pdf. Accessed 08 Oct 2020
Nguyen T, Bartocci E, Ničković D, Grosu R, Jaksic S, Selyunin K (2016) The HARMONIA project: hardware monitoring for automotive systems-of-systems. In: Margaria T, Steffen B (eds) Leveraging applications of formal methods, verification and validation: discussion, dissemination, applications. ISoLA 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 9953. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47169-3_28
Nikodem F, Rothe D, Dittrich JS (2021) Operations risk based concept for specific cargo drone operation in low altitudes. In: Dauer JC (ed) Automated low-altitude air delivery - towards autonomous cargo transportation with drones. Springer, Heidelberg
Pellizzoni R, Meredith P, Caccamo M, Rosu G (2008) Hardware runtime monitoring for dependable COTS-based real-time embedded systems. In: Real-time systems symposium, Barcelona, 2008, pp 481–491. https://doi.org/10.1109/RTSS.2008.43
Rozier K (2017) On the evaluation and comparison of runtime verification tools for hardware and cyber-physical systems. In: Reger G, Havelund K (eds). RV-CuBES 2017. An international workshop on competitions, usability, benchmarks, evaluation, and standardisation for runtime verification tools, vol 3, pp 123–137
Russell J (2018) Flugmechanische Untersuchungen zu Flugabbruchsystemen von unbemannten Frachtflugzeugen. Master Thesis at RWTH Aachen University
S.A.E. (2010) Guidelines for development of civil aircraft and systems, ARP4754A. SAE International. https://www.sae.org/standards/content/arp4754a/
Sachs F (2021) Configurational aspects and vehicle specific investigations for future unmanned cargo aircraft. In: Dauer JC (ed) Automated low-altitude air delivery - towards autonomous cargo transportation with drones. Springer, Heidelberg
Schirmer S, Torens C, Adolf FM (2018) Formal monitoring of risk-based geo-fences. In: AIAA information systems-AIAA infotech @ aerospace, Florida, Kissimmee, USA. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2018-1986
Schopferer S, Donkels A (2021) Trajectory risk modelling and planning for unmanned cargo aircraft. In: Dauer JC (ed) Automated low-altitude air delivery - towards autonomous cargo transportation with drones. Springer, Heidelberg
Skoog MA, Hook LR, Ryan W (2020) Leveraging ASTM industry standard F3269-17 for providing safe operations of a highly autonomous aircraft. In: IEEE aerospace conference, Big Sky, MT, USA, 2020, pp 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1109/AERO47225.2020.9172434
Solet D, Béchennec JL, Briday M, Faucou S, Pillement S (2016) Hardware runtime verification of embedded software in SoPC. In: 11th IEEE symposium on industrial embedded systems (SIES), pp 1–6
Stamenkovich J, Maalolan L, Patterson C (2019) Formal assurances for autonomous systems without verifying application software. In: Workshop on research, education and development of unmanned aerial systems (RED UAS), Cranfield, United Kingdom, 2019, pp 60–69. https://doi.org/10.1109/REDUAS47371.2019.8999690
Stevens MN, Rastgoftar H, Atkins EM (2019) Geofence boundary violation detection in 3D using triangle weight characterization with adjacency. J Intell Robot Syst 95:239–250. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-018-0930-5
Stevens M, Atkins E (2018) Layered geofences in complex airspace environments. In: Aviation technology, integration, and operations conference, Georgia, Atlanta, USA. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2018-3348
Torens C, Durak U, Nikodem F, Schirmer S (2019) Formally bounding UAS behavior to concept of operation with operation-specific scenario description language. In: AIAA scitech forum, California, San Diego, USA. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2019-1975
Torens C, Durak U, Nikodem F, Dauer JC, Adolf FM, Dittrich, JS (2018) Adapting scenario definition language for formalizing UAS concept of operations. In: AIAA modeling and simulation technologies (MST) conference, Florida, Kissimmee, USA. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2018-0127
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Reactive System Group lead by Prof. Bernd Finkbeiner, Ph.D., for the close collaboration on runtime monitoring using the formal specification language Lola.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Schirmer, S., Torens, C. (2022). Safe Operation Monitoring for Specific Category Unmanned Aircraft. In: Dauer, J.C. (eds) Automated Low-Altitude Air Delivery. Research Topics in Aerospace. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83144-8_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83144-8_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-83143-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-83144-8
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)