Commercialization of Weather Sensor Data Monitoring Through a Comprehensive In-Time Aviation Safety Management System & Implementation in an Uncrewed Aircraft System Traffic Management Ops Center

Since our founding in 2019, ResilienX has been working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to educate the unmanned aircraft system (UAS) community about in-time system-wide safety assurance (ISSA) and the growing need for an in-time aviation safety management system (IASMS) for use in scaled UAS operations. Through the NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, IASMS workshops, educational videos, speaking and exhibiting at conferences, and industry networking events, this education has taken root and formed a large commercial opportunity. Through this Civilian Commercialization Readiness Pilot Program (CCRPP), ResilienX is poised to commercialize our IASMS product, the Fault Recovery And Isolation, Health Monitoring frameWORK (FRAIHMWORK). This commercialization opportunity is proven by the funding commitment from the United States Air Force (USAF) and partners that have committed to joining us for this effort. Our funding source, the USAF Agility Prime program, is focused on eVTOL integration into DoD applications and use cases, such as logistics support. The Head of Airspace Innovations brought ResilienX and our partners to the table to discuss the deployment of a mature UTM Ops Center for the USAF which focused on situational awareness, safety, and security. ResilienX was identified to lead this effort because, of those three priorities, safety is always at the forefront. To maximize our commercial traction, we have brought many of our current and potential customers to this program as partners and subcontractors. This reduces the risk and raises the priority for them to integrate IASMS capabilities into their Ops Centers, which are largely under development (both physical and technical) at the time of this writing. Our intention is to sell FRAIHMWORK to these organizations (or renew subscriptions with increased capabilities for existing customers) once we can demonstrate its viability through this program. The significance of this innovation is to bring together a holistic IASMS solution to government and commercial customers. This involves bringing in both technology partners to expand the utility of the IASMS and regulatory compliance partners to develop the safety case around the use of an IASMS. To date, pieces of IASMS have largely existed as ISSA SFCs. By providing an IASMS architecture backbone in the form of a plugin architecture, ResilienX can provide a more holistic IASMS solution that has a path towards continued expansion and growth. IASMS capabilities are particularly significant given recent FAA and EASA guidance around the need for monitoring, assessment, and mitigation within complex UAS operations. Additionally, drone delivery companies are required to obtain a Part 135 certification in the US, which requires an approved Safety Management System (SMS). Through this effort, ResilienX is positioning ourselves and our partners to help drone delivery companies achieve an approved SMS using real-time data and risk assessment to maximize the safety of their operations. 1) Deployment of a mature, commercial UTM Ops Center at Eglin AFB. Our first tak will be to deploy and integrate the UTM Ops Center services. Deployment to Eglin AFB will require working through cybersecurity and IT plans with the USAF as well as identifying the physical and IT infrastructure we will use. Once deployed and integrated, they will need to be configured for the Eglin AFB environment. This will consist of integrating with Eglin AFB systems and infrastructure, collecting data, modeling the sensor environment, and configuring thresholds and mainteance information. A formal V&V process will be done with the USAF to identify any gaps in capability or areas which need to be improved in the next phase. Once operational, we will work with the USAF on specific feature enhancements. 2) Ehance current IASMS platform. We will develop additional IASMS features and capabilities based on customer requirements solicitation. We will also upgrade customer systems with new features through two "tech insertion" cycles. 3) Deploy IASMS to commercial partners. We will demonstrate the dual-use capabillty by deploying the IASMS with commercial customers and integrating into their operations. Deliverables involve the deployed capabilities to the USAF and commercial partners. We will provide quarterly status updates to both NASA and USAF.
Benefits: The need for safety assurance research and an IASMS within the UAS Traffic Management (UTM) and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) ecosystems has been well established in the “National Academies In-Time Aviation Safety Management Report”, which led to the creation and further exploration of these concepts in the NASA ISSA CONOPS. ResilienX has aligned itself with this research, including contributions to the NASA ISSA CONOPS and IASMS Research Roadmap. The NASA SWS group is developing IASMS SFCs that ResilienX will also look to commercialize. Our commercial customers, much like the USAF, have a need for an Ops Center which provides the high-level objectives of situational awareness, safety, and security. They believe that IASMS is central to these objectives, particularly as scale, complexity, and automation of UAS operations and ecosystems continue to increase. ResilienX is also applying safety assurance technology to Navy ships.