Today at XPONENTIAL 2023, the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) announced the publication of a white paper encompassing all forms of autonomous flight, focused on the pathway from small uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS, or drones) to Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), encompassing urban and regional air mobility (UAM and RAM) operating in the national airspace system (NAS).
According to the association:
“The creation of the “Blueprint for Autonomy: From Small UAS Operations Today to Advanced Air Mobility Tomorrow” was led by Anna Dietrich, Policy Advisor at AUVSI, and produced in collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders within the autonomous aviation industry spanning both civil and military applications. The document is intended to guide the autonomous aviation industry toward a future that builds on current successes and enables new technologies by highlighting many critical tasks that must be accomplished to advance the shared future vision of autonomous aviation.
“The paper’s publication comes ahead of XPONENTIAL, the world’s largest trade show and conference in the uncrewed and autonomy industry, where the 2023 theme is focused around Building the Blueprint for Autonomy. The world-class event will bring together government leaders, industry changemakers, and end users to experience new technology that is solving real world problems.
The Blueprint covers five key foundational themes:
- Motivation to Pursue Autonomy in Aviation – including public and economic benefits, national competitiveness, and social and environmental equity.
- Technology – including sensors, communications, equipage, and digital air traffic control (ATC).
- Airworthiness – including safety, certification, means of compliance, and artificial intelligence (AI).
- Operations – including Code of Federal Regulations Title 14 Parts 135, 91, 61, and 108.
- Integration – including midair collision risk mitigations, an info-centric NAS, digital flight rules (DFR), and interaction with legacy aviation.
“To continue the normalization of uncrewed aircraft and the shift from direct human control to increasingly autonomous aircraft, stakeholders from across industry need to work together,” said Dietrich. “This Blueprint is a collaboratively generated, practical tool intended to help us efficiently build toward our vision of a future in which autonomous aircraft of all types are fully integrated into the airspace, thus unlocking significant economic and societal benefits.”
“This is an exciting and dynamic time in the history of aviation, and in the interest of collaboration, we hope that stakeholders will take note of the Blueprint’s actionable steps,” said Michael Robbins, Chief Advocacy Officer at AUVSI. “With safety as our lodestar, AUVSI is committed to fostering industry and regulator consensus that supports U.S. global leadership in aviation innovation.”
For more information
https://www.auvsi.org/auvsi-publishes-%E2%80%98blueprint-autonomy%E2%80%99-guide-advancement-uncrewed-aircraft-systems-and-advanced-air
