CALHOUN ANALYTICS, LLC — National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIR Phase I: A3

Description

As Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM)nbsp;ecosystems move from technology demonstrations to operationalization,nbsp;aggregate-levelnbsp;system robustnessnbsp;needs to be addressed.nbsp;Systemnbsp;robustnessnbsp;and resiliency to failurenbsp;arenbsp;essentialnbsp;elements of any safety-critical system,nbsp;whichnbsp;to date,nbsp;have not beennbsp;adequatelynbsp;explored or fleshed out within the context of UTM.nbsp;While it is anticipated that airworthiness standards will be developed fornbsp;UAsnbsp;themselves, it does not appear thatnbsp;enoughnbsp;research is beingnbsp;performednbsp;regarding the impact of individual componentnbsp;and servicenbsp;faults or failuresnbsp;on thenbsp;reliability of thenbsp;UTMnbsp;ecosystem.nbsp;nbsp;CAL Analytics has teamed withnbsp;Assured Information Security tonbsp;accomplish the followingnbsp;Phase 1nbsp;research:nbsp;nbsp;-Analyze current UTM system design for brittle areasnbsp;-Identify the impact to UTM system safety created by identified brittle areas to aid in prioritization of research areas for enablingnbsp;In-Time System-wide Safety Assurancenbsp;(ISSA)nbsp;nbsp;-Develop techniques for testing UTM system robustnessnbsp;-Propose newnbsp;Applicationnbsp;Programmingnbsp;Interfaces (APIs) for relaying State, Status, Mode, Version, and Fault informationnbsp;-Develop scalable health and integrity monitoring techniques for UTM ecosystemsnbsp;nbsp;-Develop cybersecurity monitoring techniques for distributed cyber-physical UTM systemsnbsp;nbsp;-Develop scalable fault tolerance techniques for UTM architecturesnbsp;and componentsnbsp;-Develop graceful degradation techniques for UTM ecosystemsnbsp;nbsp;The results of this research willnbsp;formnbsp;the basis for a UTM health and integrity monitoring system that will:nbsp;-Monitornbsp;and detectnbsp;UTM ecosystem faultsnbsp;-Automate contingency management to tolerate or recover from faultsnbsp;for higher system uptimenbsp;nbsp;-Automate a rootnbsp;cause analysis to pinpointnbsp;fault sourcesnbsp;for faster mean time between repairnbsp;These capabilitiesnbsp;will ultimately benbsp;integralnbsp;to address safety andnbsp;advancenbsp;thenbsp;UTM industry.nbsp;Anbsp;robust UTM systemnbsp;will form the building blocks for futurenbsp;Urban Air Mobility (UAM) research.nbsp;