Developing an Unmanned Aircraft System Pilot Kit (UASP-kit) for Wildland Fire UAS Operators
Publication Date
1-1-2022
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Title
AIAA AVIATION 2022 Forum
DOI
10.2514/6.2022-4003
Abstract
The use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to support disaster management is becoming more widespread. Uninhibited by many of the operational constraints imposed on crewed aircraft, UAS have the potential to augment the aerial response in a number of ways, including supporting situation awareness, thereby accelerating disaster management efforts. The intent of the Scalable Traffic management for Emergency Response Operations (STEReO) activity is to build an ecosystem that will allow small UAS (sUAS) operations to fly safely in the airspace during disaster management events. The first step toward this goal is to develop a small, single-user tool (the UASP-kit) that will enhance an sUAS pilot’s situation awareness of the airspace. User needs for the functions and features of this tool were collected during a walkthrough over multiple days with subject matter experts from the US Forest Service. A prototype of the UASP-kit was then taken on an extended demonstration to multiple users, who were able to interact with it. User feedback was largely positive, and users discussed the information they needed to support situation awareness in context. The demonstration also highlighted features that were unintuitive to use, and functions that need to be modified to make the kit more user-friendly and robust.
Funding Sponsor
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Department
Research Foundation
Recommended Citation
Lynne Martin, Yasmin Arbab, Lauren Roberts, Joey Mercer, Charles Walter, William McCarty, and Charles Sheehe. "Developing an Unmanned Aircraft System Pilot Kit (UASP-kit) for Wildland Fire UAS Operators" AIAA AVIATION 2022 Forum (2022). https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2022-4003
