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Marcus Johnson

Publications and source records attributed to Marcus Johnson.

At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2023

High Altitude Platform System (HAPS) Communication Support for Wildland Firefighting

High Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS) are emerging aircraft and balloon-type technology that can host payloads and provide services from the stratosphere. One potential HAPS use case is to provide wireless communication services for mobile devices, such as LTE, to wildland firefighters who often operate in locations without terrestrial wireless communications coverage. In this research we analyze historical wildland fire data to provide estimates of the annual number of HAPS required to support a fire season. We apply agglomerative clustering to group historical daily satellite-based fire observations where each cluster is analogous to a required HAPS vehicle. Our lower and upper bound estimates span a range of years, communication payload footprints, the minimum days of clusters prior to launch, and categories of fires. Additionally, we consider a case where HAPS vehicles can be transferred between fires after the initial fire has dissipated. In our specific case study from 2022 “Significant” fires (greater than 40,000 acres), we approximate that either 8 balloon HAPS vehicles without considering overprovisioning for station-keeping limitations or 23 fixed-wing aircraft would be required. Overprovisioning can scale the estimate for balloon vehicles based on reader preference, and for reference, Google Loon overprovisioned by 5-10x. Furthermore, in the case where budgets are constrained and not all of the estimated HAPS vehicles can be acquired, we provide operational insight on where to deploy HAPS vehicles. Generally, in the Spring months we see that HAPS vehicles are needed in the south and southeast of the US which transitions to the north and west as the fire season progresses.

Aaron J. Burns↗
NASA NTRS2020

UAS Traffic Management Conflict Management Model

Version 2 of the UAS Traffic Management (UTM) Conflict Management Model. This document is a concept overview paper that describes the conflict mitigation methodology that supports the use cases described in TCL 4 operating environments (urban BVLOS operations). The general conflict mitigation model values the use of redundant mitigation technologies that operate over different time horizons to reach a target level of safety for the operation. Separation provision contributes to the safety of the overall separation, and each participant (USS, UAS, other airspace users) is responsible for ensuring separation is maintained between aircraft. The intent of this document is to capture the minimum level of separation provisions that are necessary for safe operations in the airspace. Additional equipage and capability can be seen as a mechanism to enhance safety but may not be the minimum need for entry into the airspace.

UTM↗
NASA NTRS2018

UTM and D-NET: NASA and JAXA's Collaborative Research on Integrating Small UAS with Disaster Response Efforts

Natural disasters, such as flooding, wildfire, hurricane, tornadoes, earthquakes and tsunamis, pose challenges in preserving human life and minimizing the damages to a region. During catastrophic events, timely response of disaster relief personnel, an efficient deployment of resources in the recovery effort, and coordinated information sharing amongst different relief agencies can make a substantial difference in responding to those impacted by the disaster. Many relief activities currently utilize both ground personnel and manned airborne assets during different phases of the disaster response. Typically, multiple organizations support relief activities and this often creates logistics coordination challenges between agencies which can result in wasted time or resources. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has been developing an "Integrated aircraft operation system for disaster relief (D-NET)", which assists collection and sharing of disaster information through the integrated operation of aircraft such as helicopters, aircraft, and satellites, for efficient and safe rescue operations by disaster relief aircraft. Due to the advancement in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) technologies, public safety organizations have started incorporating small UAS (sUAS) as an asset in their disasters response activities. To address the airspace integration challenges of the influx of sUAS in the United States the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), under the UAS Traffic Management (UTM) project, has been engaged in research to enable large-scale commercial applications of sUAS operating in low altitude airspace. This paper presents the integration of D-NET, which incorporate sUAS in the planning, information sharing, and operation support of disasters response activities, and UTM, which provides airspace management to enable large scale high density operations. The integration of the DNET and UTM systems enables coordination, data sharing, and airspace management to improve the timeliness of the disaster response, enable relief organization to reduce cost and overhead by using UAS assets and still maintain airspace safety during the relief activities.

UTM↗
NASA NTRS2016

Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) Concept of Operations

Many applications of small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS) have been envisioned. These include surveillance of key assets such as pipelines, rail, or electric wires, deliveries, search and rescue, traffic monitoring, videography, and precision agriculture. These operations are likely to occur in the same airspace in presence of many static and dynamic constraints such as airports, and high wind areas. Therefore, small UAS, typically 55 pounds and below, operations need to be managed to ensure safety and efficiency of operations is maintained. This paper will describe the Concept of Operations (ConOps) for NASA's UAS Traffic Management (UTM) research initiative. The UTM ConOps is focused on safely enabling large-scale small UAS (sUAS) operations in low altitude airspace. The UTM construct supports large-scale visual line of sight and beyond visual line of sight operations. It is based on two primary mantras: (1) flexibility where possible and structure where necessary (2) a risk-based approach where geographical needs and use case indicate the airspace performance requirements. Preliminary stakeholder feedback and initial UTM tests conducted by NASA show promise of UTM to enable large-scale low altitude UAS operations safely.

autonomy↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Flight Demonstration of Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) at Technical Capability Level 4

The NASA Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) Project executed the fourth and final UTM Technical Capability Level demonstration between May and August 2019. Two Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-designated UAS test sites managed the range, partners, and operations to meet the requirements set forth by the UTM Project. All stakeholders supported the execution of the flight testing through close collaboration. Results of the demonstration indicate the viability of the UTM concept to manage large scale operations and contingencies in an urban environment. The demonstration also provided insight into key technological gaps that must be addressed before such operations are routine, safe, and efficient. Standardization efforts related to UTM and the industry participants of those efforts can leverage the results and experiences of this flight activity to accelerate and more firmly ground forthcoming standards. The FAA and other regulators will be able to leverage results to inform future rule-making and identify additional gaps that require further analysis.

Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

UTM Conflict Management

An overview of the UTM Conflict Management Model and testing under UTM that verified the concept.

UTM↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Management of Operations under Visual Flight Rules in UTM for Disaster Response Missions

The disaster response domain has experienced an increased focus in recent years due to the rise in number and scale of events, lessons learned from past experience, and emerging technologies that make possible a more coordinated and effective response. As part of this focus, JAXA and NASA have been collaborating on the integration of manned and unmanned aircraft in support of disaster response operations through integrated testing of their respective mission planning and optimization system (Disaster Relief Aircraft Information Sharing Network, or D-NET) and an automated UAS traffic management system (e.g., UTM). In 2018, JAXA and NASA jointly participated in a large-scale disaster drill in Japan where the integration of systems was successfully demonstrated through real-time data exchanges, visualization, and decision making as part of the coordinated airspace management of a manned helicopter in VFR conditions and unmanned small UAS operating in common areas. This work details a flight test consisting of two flights that were conducted December 2019 near the Chofu Aerodrome in Tokyo, which focused on the evaluation of pilots operating under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) communicating through D-NET and sharing intent and position information within UTM. This work contributes to defining the necessary requirements for digital coordination between manned and unmanned operations. UTM requires the use of operation volumes, which are spatial and temporal volumes that encompass UAS flight trajectories and account for technical performance errors and deviations due to disturbances (e.g., wind). A series of flights, representing different missions, used landmark-based operation volumes and conformance of the aircraft to those operation volumes were tracked within UTM. Experienced disaster response helicopter pilots provided insight on the development of the operation plans and their usability during disaster response operations. Results from the flight test supported the suggested benefits of using landmarks for planning and positional awareness and highlighted the need for future research in advanced visualization capabilities to support operations that consider both system constraints and flight deck/airspace management interaction.

disaster response↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Overview of JAXA and NASA Collaboration on Manned and Unmanned Aircraft Operations Integration in Disaster Response

Natural disasters have increased in frequency and intensity. With that increase has come an increased focus on improving disaster response efforts. As part of this focus, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have been in collaboration since 2016 to explore improved airspace management for disaster response through the integration of manned aircraft and small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). The approach to this integration has been through leveraging JAXA’s Disaster Relief Aircraft Information Sharing Network (D-NET) system for the coordinated management of manned aircraft assets combined with NASA’S UAS Traffic Management (UTM) system for the management of UAS assets. To drive the innovation in improved response, JAXA and NASA have successfully connected respective systems and conducted a series of live flight tests first as part of a large-scale disaster drill and later in dedicated research flights. In each case, the D-NET and UTM systems were connected and exchanged data in real-time, which supported the planning and tracking of manned and unmanned operations. Through these test events, a number of key findings were derived through data analysis and stakeholder interviews with respect to the improvements offered by the integrated systems as well as key considerations for situation awareness of pilots regarding other operations in the airspace and flight path management.

disaster response↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Non-Repudiation for Drone-Related Data

Concepts for the management of Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) at scale rely on the exchange of data amongst multiple stakeholders. Even as these concepts vary from State to State and company to company as of today, the movement of data between different entities is a common theme. While there is universal agreement on the necessity of appropriate cybersecurity applied to the various systems involved in communicating these data, there has been little focus on a feasible implementation of non-repudiation in these systems. This paper highlights the current and future need for non-repudiation, supported by references to multiple international organizations, and an approach to implementing non-repudiation leveraging open standards.

Unmanned Aviation Systems Traffic Management↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

An Overview of Advanced Air Mobility Research at NASA

Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) will enable new types of aircraft to operate more cleanly, efficiently, and quietly, complemented by higher levels of autonomy and automation, and supported by air traffic management systems and infrastructure. The operations that these aircraft and systems are intended to conduct are designed to support missions that cover a varied set of use cases. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been helping to lead the way in its AAM research through a broad portfolio of efforts that leverages multiple internal activities and external collaborations with industry and government. As the AAM concept has continued to advance, it has also become clear that there are very likely great benefits in its application to disaster response and the challenges posed by such complex events. In this application, NASA is leveraging its foundational work performed in partnership with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on integrated unmanned and manned aircraft operations in disaster response situations. The joint NASA and JAXA work, along with the ongoing AAM efforts, have contributed to the formulation of a new project that will expand the scope of technology integration with an initial focus on wildland firefighting.

advanced air mobility↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Considerations for the Integration of AAM Technologies in Emergency Response Operations

Since 2016, JAXA and NASA have partnered to investigate the safe and efficient integration of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in disaster response operations. Through the collaboration, supporting systems from the respective agencies have been successfully integrated and demonstrated in multiple activities ranging from localized simulations and flight tests to large-scale national disaster drills. As the collaboration has matured and a new NASA project formulated, the next steps in progressing the goals of the partnership activity are the alignment and potential informing of standards related to disaster response operations. This presentation is the first public outreach to the ASTM standards organization to promote awareness of the ongoing work and to identify areas of potential engagement to develop necessary standards.

disaster response↗