Late Afternoon Concurrent Sessions: GSIS Symposium: UAS Collaboration & Research Opportunities: Presentation: Adaptation of Forward Military Airspace Management Systems for Civilian UAS Emergency Services Operations

Abstract

Verbatim from Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons. Not paraphrased, not summarized.

Potential use of unmanned aircraft system (UAS) to save lives, improve safety, and protect property has generated preliminary research in three major areas of the fire service, including aviation, structure and wildland scenarios. Roadblocks to the effective use of UAS technology will be discussed with a focus on command, control, and communication (C3) issues and governmental actions to limit the use of UAS due to aviation integration safety concerns. The results of this research will include presented adaptation of Joint Terminal Air Controller (JTAC) methodology, typically used for military command and control (Deptula & Dahl, 2003), for civilian emergency services operations as a possible solution to C3 issues involving UAS assets. As has been evidenced in recent wildland fires, integration of UAS into firefighting operations has the potential to save life and property by expediting disaster assessment and providing time-critical information for use in the decision-making processes (Davis, 2013). UAS could provide incident commanders enhanced situational awareness of emergency events, including feedback of action effectiveness, status of changing conditions, and availability of assets (Terwilliger et al., 2015). Implementation of JTAC strategies may provide oversight of UAS technology to shorten the decision cycle of on scene commanders; further supporting deployment and de-confliction of assets in the turbulent and dynamic conditions of a response effort. Keywords: Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), incident command systems, fire, emergency services, National Airspace System integration. References Davis, R., L., (2013). The practicality of utilizing unmanned aerial vehicles for damage assessments. National Fire Academy. Retrieved from http://www.usfa.fema.gov/pdf/efop/efo48084.pdf. Deptula, D., & Dahl, S., J. (2003). Transforming joint air-ground operations for 21st century battlespace. Air Power Journal, July-Aug, 21-25. Retrieved from http://www.ausairpower.net/PDF-A/Field-Arty-JAGO-D.A.Deptula-Jul-Aug-2003.pdf Terwilliger, B. Vincenzi, D. Ison, D., Witcher, K., Thirtyacre, D., & Khalid, A. (2015). Influencing factors for use of unmanned aerial systems in support of aviation accident and emergency response. Journal of Automation and Control Engineering, 3(3), 2015. Retrieved from http://commons.erau.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1011&context=ww-graduate-studies

Authors

• Griffith, John C., Dr. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
• Terwilliger, Brent A., Dr. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Keywords

• Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS)
• incident command systems
• fire
• emergency services
• National Airspace System integration
• Unmanned Aircraft Systems
• Airspace Management
• Aeronautical Vehicles
• Aviation
• Emergency and Disaster Management
• Multi-Vehicle Systems and Air Traffic Control
• Other Aerospace Engineering