R CUBED ENGINEERING LLC — National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIR Phase I: A3

Description

<p style="margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px">This proposal supports F20 A3.01 - Advanced Air Traffic Management Systems Concepts; Technology Area TA15 : Aeronautics - specifically, independent verification and validation of Aircraft ADS-B transmissions.</p><p style="margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px">Safely achieving full autonomy and higher density in the NAS requires that the position of every aircraft in a given airspace be known to all participants in that airspace with a very high level of integrity.&nbsp; GNSS&nbsp; (including GPS) and ADS-B can provide sufficient aircraft-to-aircraft accuracy, but the inherent vulnerabilities of GNSS and ADS-B&nbsp; to interference, jamming and spoofing require&nbsp; that GNSS and ADS-B systems be independently validated for accuracy. &nbsp;The ATCRBS (Air Traffic Control Radar Beacon System), based on ground-based radar interrogation of transponders, provides redundant position information in many situations.&nbsp; Where position information from both ADS-B and ATCRBS exists, it can be compared for purposes of verification and validation.)&nbsp; Valid position information needs to be available real time for an autonomous system to provide safe navigation, particularly for collision avoidance.&nbsp; .&nbsp; This proposal will develop a flexible, multi-lateration system that easily integrates the ATCRBS capability of position information into modern avionics designed for ADS-B as well as transponders. &nbsp;This allows redundant independent verification of the location all equipped aircraft in all airspace. &nbsp;&nbsp;The proposed approach can effectively provide high integrity aircraft location information that can be used for navigation and T-CAS safety functions based on aircraft-to-aircraft ADS-B data, significantly reducing usage of the transponder spectrum.</p><p style="margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px">&nbsp;</p>