Automatic Geofence Avoidance for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Geofence capabilities become a key feature inside a reality where the presence of unmanned aerial vehicles has relevant and useful effects for society must imply better management of the airspace.
Flying a UAS requires big responsibilities related to guidance, navigation and control tasks and ensuring their correct use, preventing crossing into military air space or protecting and defending personnel, facilities, and assets. Protecting everyone in the air and on the ground is very important.
During flight planning, before each flight, UAS operators must analyze the surrounding zones where the aircraft will fly and identify hot spots the platform should avoid. These are what in aviation are called unauthorized fly zones or no-fly zones.
No-fly zones have traditionally been categorized into two levels: restricted operations and excluded areas. Restricted areas are limited to authorization by the competent agency where the operation is performed and is subordinate to fulfilling the conditions imposed in these zones (airports, heliports, national parks, military installations, hospitals, and nuclear power plants). On its part, excluded areas are zones where the flight is prohibited. These areas are normally associated with military installations, war zones, etc.
UAV Navigation-Grupo Oesía GCS Software Geofence Editor
Visionair, UAV Navigation-Grupo Oesía’s GCS software, includes a No-Fly Zones Editor to draw the No-Fly Zones on the mission planning map to improve operator situational awareness and prevent the aircraft from entering unauthorized areas.
The created geofenced areas, both circular and polygonal-shaped, are stored in the autopilot; hence, in case of loss of communication, the Flight Control System will still be able to know where the not-permitted zone is.
Once the no-fly zone is defined, Visionair allows the operator to configure the execution of different actions regarding those areas: an automatic parachute release, the self-activation of hover mode in the case of rotary wing platforms, and the new automatic mission replanning.
Advanced Algorithms for Intelligent and Automatic Mission Replanning
The new internal algorithms allow the flight control system to detect when the aircraft heads to a UAS No Flight Zone and reprogram the flight to keep the unmanned aircraft away from that area. This algorithm will create a new flight path without the operator’s intervention, guaranteeing flight safety and non-entry into the zone of exclusion. This automatic maneuver will reduce the workload of operators and increase flight safety.
With this new functionality, the UAS will be safe in the event of a wrong flight plan where one of the legs of the flight plan intercepts a no-fly zone. The autopilot will autonomously execute the required maneuvers to reach the following waypoint without entering the area, allowing it to continue the mission. In the same way, if the designated UAS operator commands an erroneous heading, the system will recalculate the route, avoiding the geofenced area.
UAV Navigation-Grupo Oesía continues to work with a focus on flight safety. Entry into a restricted or excluded airspace may endanger the operation or, on top of this, compromise manned aviation flight safety, populations, or infrastructures. Therefore, relying on an advanced and intelligent flight control system capable of preventing risks becomes essential.
Contact us to include this and many other advanced capabilities on your UAS and make it one step forward.
