A Certification Means of Compliance Process for Advanced Air Mobility with Increasing Autonomy

In recent years there has been a proliferation of new vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicle concepts, many featuring electric propulsion systems and advanced autonomous capabilities, designed for the urban air mobility marketplace as air taxis and personal air vehicles. The Vertical Flight Society is tracking the progress of these vehicle concepts via a web portal that currently identifies 189 vectored thrust, 90 lift plus cruise configurations, and over 150 wingless multicopters. Many of these vehicles have flown as scaled proof of concepts, while several others are now flying as full-scale prototypes. These vehicles almost exclusively feature fly-by-wire flight control systems including advanced control modes (i.e., response augmentation), increased automation, and autonomous systems of varying levels. Following the Simplified Vehicle Operations (SVO) and progression of the UAM Maturity Levels (UML), technological, infrastructure, and certification advancements are required to ultimately lead to fully autonomous operations. Because of the complexities involved in control system design, autonomous systems, and operating environments, new certification means of compliance methods are needed to ensure safe operations within the national airspace, especially dense urban environments. To address this critical need, a team led by Systems Technology, Inc. (STI) that includes Penn State University (a Rotorcraft Center of Excellence), Barron Associates, and Tiltrotor Flight Test Consulting proposes to develop in Phase II a prototype of the Simulation-based Automation and Failure Evaluations (SAFE) system, easily exercised via a tablet-based computer, that will provide a means of compliance certification method for autonomous and degraded modes that is safe, repeatable, and discriminating. In recent years there has been a proliferation of new vertical takeoff and landing concepts, many featuring electric propulsion systems and advanced autonomous capabilities, designed for the urban air mobility marketplace. Many of these vehicles have flown as scaled proof of concepts, while others are flying as full-scale prototypes. These vehicles feature fly-by-wire flight control systems including advanced control modes, increased automation, and autonomous systems of varying levels. Because of the complexities involved in control system design, autonomous systems, and operating environments, new certification means of compliance methods are needed to ensure safe operations within the national air space, especially dense urban environments. To address this critical need, a team led by Systems Technology, Inc. is developing the Simulation-based Automation and Failure Evaluations (SAFE) system, exercised via a tablet-based computer, that will provide a means of compliance certification method for autonomous and degraded modes that is safe, repeatable, and discriminating. The overall objective of the proposed Phase II program is to develop a prototype of the SAFE system. The specific technical objectives are as follows: Create a full-featured prototype of the tablet-based SAFE software application that will guide users through means of compliance assessments as vehicle operations move with increasing autonomy from Human-within-the-Loop to Human-over-the-Loop. Develop and mature assessment methods that will be used to evaluate the impact on handling qualities of increasing autonomy and control system failure modes. Enhance the Phase I tiltrotor model to support transition and forward flight conditions, new autonomous modes, and additional failure modes and evolve the SAFE process through a series of limited piloted simulation evaluations. Prepare a high-fidelity advanced air mobility (AAM) model that features increasing levels of autonomy and failure modes to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness of the SAFE process via piloted simulations in the Penn State University full motion simulator with pilots of varying skill levels. Final deliverables include the Final Technical Report, a prototype version of the SAFE Toolbox, Project Summary, Briefing Chart, Final NTSR, and New Technology Report. A SAFE Users Guide will be included as an Appendix to the Final Technical Report.
Benefits: This proposal addresses ARMD Strategic Thrust 5 In-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance and Thrust 6 Assured Autonomy for Aviation Transformation as SAFE provides a certification process for autonomous systems. SAFE directly supports NASA’s RVLT Project and its goal to develop tools that “overcome key barriers to the expanded use of vertical lift configurations in the nation’s airspace.” SAFE is directly applicable to the National Campaign and its “goal to promote public confidence and accelerate the realization of emerging aviation markets...” The target commercial market for SAFE is the burgeoning urban air mobility market. The estimated market size will be $15.2 billion by 2030. All the emerging vehicles that operate in the US will need to go through a certification process with the FAA thereby defining the market for SAFE, which will be introduced as a tablet-based software system as well as a productized service to support its use.