In-Flight Contingency Management for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Abstract

Contingency analysis and reaction is a critical task that needs to be carried out by every aircraft to guarantee its safe operation. Managing emergencies in unmanned aircraft systems is a complex problem due to the automated nature of the vehicle and the potential lack of situational awareness that the pilot may face. It is well-known from the short history of unmanned aircraft systems accidents that many of them are directly attributable to pilot errors when trying to manage an unexpected contingency. Additionally, the lost-link contingency adds a new level of complexity unique to unmanned aircraft systems, which implies that some level of autonomous contingency operation will be required. In this work, we introduce a structured approach to support contingency reactions in unmanned aircraft systems. Our objective is to classify the contingency sources and, up to a certain point, abstract their impact on the unmanned aircraft systems operation. Depending on the level of severity, the contingency reaction may range from changing or canceling mission objectives to canceling the flight itself. In this way, the response to the contingency can be selected from a predefined catalog of reactions offered to the pilot or even executed autonomously, depending on the remaining flight capabilities of the unmanned aircraft systems.