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NASA NTRS2000

Financing the Airport of the Future: The Small Aircraft Transportation System

The objective of SATS is to reduce gridlock at hubs, reduce travel times, allow for personal control over travel, and anticipate demand shifts resulting from a migration from suburbs to rural places. The technology is presently available and economical to produce SATS aircraft. The public issue centers on the airports. SATS is a federal program, and many airports in the U.S. are under the control of local governments. The scope of the objective will require thousands of airports in rural and suburban areas to modify their infrastructure and increase their investment. Researchers at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), and others at other institutions, have prepared reports surveying the relevant issues of implementing SATS. Our UNO team focused on the issues of policy implementation, economic development, management, and finance specific to Nebraska. We are finding that these issues are similar to those in other states in our region and other rural states. This paper discusses how this investment might be financed.

Bartle, John R.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Standards and Specifications for Ground Processing of Space Vehicles: From an Aviation-Based Shuttle Project to Global Application

Proprietary or unique designs and operations are expected early in any industry's development, and often provide a competitive early market advantage. However, there comes a time when a product or industry requires standardization for the whole industry to advance...or survive. For the space industry, that time has come. Here, we will focus on standardization of ground processing for space vehicles and their ground systems. With the retirement of the Space Shuttle, and emergence of a new global space race, affordability and sustainability are more important now than ever. The growing commercialization of the space industry and current global economic environment are driving greater need for efficiencies to save time and money. More RLV's (Reusable Launch Vehicles) are being developed for the gains of reusability not achievable with traditional ELV's (Expendable Launch Vehicles). More crew/passenger vehicles are also being developed. All of this calls for more attention needed for ground processing-repeatedly before launch and after landing/recovery. RLV's should provide more efficiencies than ELV's, as long as MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul) is well-planned-even for the unplanned problems. NASA's Space Shuttle is a primary example of an RLV which was supposed to thrive on reusability savings with efficient ground operations, but lessons learned show that costs were (and still are) much greater than expected. International standards and specifications can provide the commonality needed to simplify design and manufacturing as well as to improve safety, quality, maintenance, and operability. There are standards organizations engaged in the space industry, but ground processing is one of the areas least addressed. Challenges are encountered due to various factors often not considered during development. Multiple vehicle elements, sites, customers, and contractors pose various functional and integration difficulties. Resulting technical publication structures and methods are incongruent. Some processing products are still done on paper, some electronic, and many being converted in between. Business systems then are not fully compatible, and paper as well as electronic conversions are time-consuming and costly. NASA and its Shuttle contractors setup rules and systems to handle what has produced over 130 RLV launches, but they have had many challenges. Attempts have been made to apply aviation industry specifications to make the Shuttle more efficient with its ground processing. One efficiency project example was to make a Shuttle Maintenance Manual (SMM) based on the commercial ATA (Air Transport Association of America) Spec 100 for technical publications. This industry standard, along with others, has been a foundation for efficient global MRO of commercial airlines for years. A modified version was also made for some military aircraft. The SMM project found many similarities in Spec 100 which apply to the Shuttle, and room for expansion for space systems/structures not in aircraft. The SMM project team met with the ATA and representatives from NASA's X-33 and X-34 programs to discuss collaboration on a national space standard based on Spec 100. A pilot project was enabled for a subset of Shuttle systems. Full implementation was not yet achieved, X-33 and X-34 were cancelled, and the Shuttles were then designated for retirement. Nonetheless, we can learn from this project how to expand this concept to all space vehicle products. Since then, ATA has joined with ASD (AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe) and AIA (Aerospace Industries Association) to form a much-enhanced and expanded international specification: Sl000D, International Specification for Technical Publications. It includes air, land, and sea vehicles, missiles, support equipment, ordnance, and communications. It is used by a growing number of countries for commercial and government products. Its modular design is supported by a Common Source Dabase (CSDB), and COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) software is available for production of IETP's (Interactive Electronic Technical Publications). A few space industry products in Europe have begun to apply Sl000D already. Also, there are other related standards/specifications which have global implications. We have an opportunity to adapt Sl000D and possibly other standards for use with space vehicles and ground systems. Sl000D has plenty of flexibility to apply to any product needed. To successfully grow the viability of the space industry, all members, commercial and government, will need to engage cooperatively in developing and applying standards to move toward interoperability. If we leverage and combine the best existing space standards and specifications, develop new ones to address known gaps, and adapt the best applicable features from other industries, we can establish an infrastructure to not only accelerate current development, but also build longevity for a more cohesive international space community.

Ingalls, John↗

DOE OSTI2023

Fort Erie On-Demand Transit Case Study

Rural and smaller-sized communities in North America face unique mobility challenges due to their low population density, lower public transit spending per capita compared to major cities, and a high reliance on private vehicles. In recent years, communities such as Fort Erie, Ontario have restructured or advanced their public transit systems using on-demand services. Fort Erie is a relatively sparsely populated region of 32,901 residents, spread across a land area of 166 square kilometers (64 square miles), for an average population density of 193 residents per square kilometer (500 per square mile). In October 2021, the town implemented a mobility-on-demand system integrated with smartphone software to replace its fixed-route community bus system, which consisted of four buses with three routes, each with a roughly one-hour, one way loop. The new service utilizes a fleet of six minivans, two of which are retrofitted with wheelchair-accessible ramps. The system may require that a passenger requesting a standard van walk up to 400 meters (a quarter mile) to their pickup location to optimize vehicle routing while providing origin-to-destination service. The on-demand system proved effective in providing service, eclipsing pre-pandemic ridership by 40%, decreasing greenhouse gas emissions per ride by 63%, and decreasing the cost per ride to the town by 29%. This report documents both the previous system and the new system in terms of routes, ridership, costs, fuel, and other notable system parameters. This work is part of an ongoing series of case studies on providing small communities with on-demand, right-sized vehicle service coupled with a smartphone application.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

NASA NTRS1971

Summary and recommendations for the NASA/MIT workshop on short haul air transport

The material is summarized that was covered by the MIT/NASA Waterville Valley workshop which dealt with the institutional, socio-economic, operational and technological problems associated with introducing new forms of short haul domestic air transportation. It was found that future air systems hold great potential in satisfying society's needs for a low noise, low landspace, high access, high speed, large network system for public travel over distances between 5 and 500 miles. It is concluded that quiet air systems are necessary for obtaining community approval, and is recommended that extremely high priority be assigned to the development of quiet aircraft for future short haul air systems.

Simpson, R. W.↗

NASA NTRS2015

Atmospheric Research 2014 Technical Highlights

Atmospheric research in the Earth Sciences Division (610) consists of research and technology development programs dedicated to advancing knowledge and understanding of the atmosphere and its interaction with the climate of Earth. The Division's goals are to improve understanding of the dynamics and physical properties of precipitation, clouds, and aerosols; atmospheric chemistry, including the role of natural and anthropogenic trace species on the ozone balance in the stratosphere and the troposphere; and radiative properties of Earth's atmosphere and the influence of solar variability on the Earth's climate. Major research activities are carried out in the Mesoscale Atmospheric Processes Laboratory, the Climate and Radiation Laboratory, the Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Laboratory, and the Wallops Field Support Office. The overall scope of the research covers an end-to-end process, starting with the identification of scientific problems, leading to observation requirements for remote-sensing platforms, technology and retrieval algorithm development; followed by flight projects and satellite missions; and eventually, resulting in data processing, analyses of measurements, and dissemination from flight projects and missions. Instrument scientists conceive, design, develop, and implement ultraviolet, infrared, optical, radar, laser, and lidar technology to remotely sense the atmosphere. Members of the various Laboratories conduct field measurements for satellite sensor calibration and data validation, and carry out numerous modeling activities. These modeling activities include climate model simulations, modeling the chemistry and transport of trace species on regional-to-global scales, cloud resolving models, and developing the next-generation Earth system models. Satellite missions, field campaigns, peer-reviewed publications, and successful proposals are essential at every stage of the research process to meeting our goals and maintaining leadership of the Earth Sciences Division in atmospheric science research. Figure 1.1 shows the 20-year record of peer-reviewed publications and proposals among the various Laboratories. This data shows that the scientific work being conducted in the Laboratories is competitive with the work being done elsewhere in universities and other government agencies. The office of Deputy Director for Atmospheric Research will strive to maintain this record by rigorously monitoring and promoting quality while emphasizing coordination and integration among atmospheric disciplines. Also, an appropriate balance will be maintained between the scientists' responsibility for large collaborative projects and missions and their need to carry out active science research as a principal investigator. This balance allows members of the Laboratories to improve their scientific credentials, and develop leadership potentials. Interdisciplinary research is carried out in collaboration with other laboratories and research groups within the Earth Sciences Division, across the Sciences and Exploration Directorate, and with partners in universities and other government agencies. Members of the Laboratories interact with the general public to support a wide range of interests in the atmospheric sciences. Among other activities, the Laboratories raise the public's awareness of atmospheric science by presenting public lectures and demonstrations, by making scientific data available to wide audiences, by teaching, and by mentoring students and teachers. The Atmosphere Laboratories make substantial efforts to attract and recruit new scientists to the various areas of atmospheric research. We strongly encourage the establishment of partnerships with Federal and state agencies that have operational responsibilities to promote the societal application of our science products. This report describes our role in NASA's mission, provides highlights of our research scope and activities, and summarizes our scientists' major accomplishments during calendar year 2014. The composition of the organization is shown in Figure 1.2 for each code. This report is published in a printed version with an electronic version on our atmospheres Web site, http://atmospheres.gsfc.nasa.gov/.

Technical↗

NASA NTRS2017

Atmospheric Research 2016 Technical Highlights

Atmospheric↗

DOE OSTI2020

Scalable and Actionable Performance Measures for Traffic Signal Systems using Probe Vehicle Trajectory Data

Scalable and actionable performance measures for traffic signal systems provide opportunities for practitioners to measure and improve the transportation network. Historically, traffic signal improvements have relied on scheduled signal retiming based on limited data collection, or on the public to call and alert engineers of an issue. This inefficient method of improving signal timing led to the creation of automated traffic signal performance measures (ATSPMs). These metrics rely on expensive infrastructure, including detection and communications, which has produced barriers for numerous agencies to fully adopt. Recently, third-party data providers have begun to release vehicle trajectory data, which allows for enhanced signal metrics with no investment in physical equipment. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the use of these data and summarize the scalability of the created metrics. This work builds on previous efforts to quantify signal performance on nine intersections in Michigan, U.S. Ten signalized corridors in Columbus, Ohio, were chosen to scale a performance assessment using crowdsourced trajectory data. A total of 136 intersections were assessed in 2-h intervals using data from all weekdays in 2017. High-level corridor summary metrics including average percent of vehicles stopping (18%–32%), average delay (9.4–20.5 s), and level of travel time reliability (1.23–2.73) were calculated for each corridor direction. Intersection-level metrics were also introduced, which can be used by practitioners to identify problems, improve signal timings, and prioritize future infrastructure investments.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2026

Downloadable Dynamometer Database (D3): Public Test Data on Advanced-Technology Vehicles

Access to high-quality, independent vehicle test data is critical to advancing energy-efficient transportation research. The Downloadable Dynamometer Database (D3) is a public repository of dynamometer test data on advanced-technology vehicles, generated at the Advanced Mobility Technology Laboratory (AMTL) at Argonne National Laboratory and hosted by the Transportation and Power Systems Division. The database has been made available to support researchers, students, and professionals engaged in energy-efficient vehicle research, development, and education. A wide range of vehicle categories has been tested (i.e., alternative fuel vehicles, conventional gasoline and diesel vehicles, all-electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles), as well as various drive cycles and test conditions documented in the accompanying D3 user presentation. Stakeholders can select a vehicle type, identify a vehicle of interest, and download the associated test data for use in their own analyses. Data downloaded from D3 must be accompanied by the required attribution: "This data is from the Downloadable Dynamometer Database and was generated at the Advanced Mobility Technology Laboratory (AMTL) at Argonne National Laboratory." These data are critical to vehicle modeling, validation, technology assessment, and educational use.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

NASA NTRS1974

Urban transportation: Perspectives on mobility and choice

A study of urban transportation systems are presented characterized by intensive scrutiny of many ideas, philosophies, and academic perspectives. This report is intended to communicate some dimensions of the urban transportation problem to the general public.

Sincoff, M. Z.↗

DOE OSTI2023

Scenarios for Future Energy Systems

Energy systems in the U.S. and globally have continuously changed and expanded over the past 200 years, from animal and biomass based energy to electricity and petroleum for heat, light, transportation, and industries of all kinds. The most recent two decades have experienced a significant increase in the use of natural gas, solar, and wind energy, as well as energy efficiency, due to both technology breakthroughs and public policy. With history as a guide, we can expect on-going transformation of our energy system in future decades, including increased electrification and advanced energy technologies, ideally helping meet societal goals of reducing pollution, improving quality of human life, and preserving ecosystems. Scenario modeling is an important tool for planning energy system transformations toward specific goals - such as net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, 100% renewable energy, or energy security - particularly when there are multiple options, conflicting objectives, and significant unknowns about a path forward. This presentation will review the history of energy transitions and the future policy and societal objectives on energy. Then it will summarize multiple scenario studies of future energy systems, with a focus on "100% studies" and the challenges to meeting those objectives. It will also outline of a few of the technologies being researched now that could advance the ongoing energy transition.

ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY,SOLAR ENERGY,↗

DOE OSTI2020

Distribution of Infiltration in the 216-U-10 and 216-B-3 Pond Systems 1944-1997

A modeling system to simulate fate and transport of contaminant plumes in groundwater beneath the Central Plateau to support the Cumulative Impact Evaluation (CIE) and Composite Analysis (CA) is being developed. The CIE will evaluate the cumulative effect of multiple Central Plateau radiological and chemical sources on groundwater quality (DOE/RL-2018-69, Cumulative Impact Evaluation Technical Approach Document ). This will enable cleanup decisions to be evaluated in the context of all Central Plateau waste sites and existing groundwater conditions. The CA evaluates the cumulative effect of all sources of radioactive materials on radiological dose to future members of the public (DOE/RL-2018-60, Annual Status Report (FY 2018): Composite Analysis of Low Level Waste Disposal in the Central Plateau of the Hanford Site ). Fate and transport modeling will be used to forecast future groundwater concentrations for both the CIE and CA. The CIE/CA subsurface modeling system is divided into source (inventory), vadose zone, and saturated zone facets. Source inventory is a necessary input to the vadose zone facet, and releases from the vadose zone to groundwater are inputs to the saturated zone facet. The vadose zone facet simulates historical and future releases from the vadose zone to groundwater for both liquid waste and solid waste disposal sites. Effluent release volumes and radionuclide inventory estimates for liquid waste sites are contained in ECFHANFORD- 17-0079, Hanford Soil Inventory Model (SIM-v2) Calculated Radionuclide Inventory of Direct Liquid Discharges to Soil in the Hanford Site’s 200 Areas , herein referred to as SIM-v2. The liquid waste sites in SIM-v2 include the 216-B-3 Pond near 200 East Area and the 216-U-10 Pond in 200 West Area. The 216-B-3 Pond system consisted of a main pond and 3 expansion lobes that were operational during overlapping time periods. It also included influent ditches, but these are not listed as liquid waste sources in SIM-v2 and are not included in the CIE/CA modeling. The total effluent volume released to the pond system was measured, but the partitioning of this volume to the various expansion lobes was not determined and is not accounted for in SIM-v2. Regarding the 216-U-10 Pond, it received water from several influent ditches. The pond and the influent ditches are listed as liquid waste sites in SIM-v2 and are included as sources in the CIE/CA modeling. Because water in the ditches flowed into the pond, only a portion of the effluent volumes and contaminant inventories assigned to the ditches in SIM-v2 infiltrated from the ditches. Thus, partitioning of infiltration and contaminant inventories between the ditches and the pond is not fully accounted for in SIM-v2. Further, some of the water in the 216-U-10 Pond entered overflow ditches and the amount of this overflow was not recorded and is not accounted for in SIM-v2. Thus, the purpose of this Environmental Calculation File (ECF) is to partition the infiltration of wastewater and contaminant inventory between the main pond and each expansion lobe of the 216-B-3 Pond system, and to partition the infiltration of wastewater and contaminant inventory between the ditches and pond of the 216-U-10 Pond system.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

DOE OSTI2026

Transportation Secure Data Center: Frequently Asked Questions for Data Owners/Contributors

The Transportation Secure Data Center is a centralized repository for detailed transportation data from travel and transit surveys and studies conducted across the nation. It makes vital transportation data broadly available to users while preserving the privacy of survey participants. Hundreds of datasets from surveys and studies of household travel and transit passenger travel are archived in the TSDC, including surveys and studies conducted by state departments of transportation, metropolitan planning organizations, transit agencies, cities, and other public agencies. Detailed data from travel surveys and studies are extremely valuable for research purposes. However, the fine-grained information they contain could potentially be misused to identify individual travelers, so access to these data should only be granted with safeguards in place to protect participant privacy. The TSDC was created to address this challenge and to relieve public agencies from the burden of archiving their data and responding to data requests.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

NASA NTRS2004

Harnessing Systems Engineering Methodology in Using Earth Science Research Data for Real Applications

For the last three decades, Earth science remote sensing technologies have been providing an enormous amount of useful data and information serving to broaden our understanding of the home planet as a system. NASA's Earth science program has deployed about 18 complex satellites and is in the process of defining and launching multiple observing systems in this decade. At the same time, the European Community and many other countries such as Russia, France, India, Japan, and China have also significantly contributed to Earth science research. To date, the majority of such efforts have concentrated on expanding our scientific understanding of the multiple nonlinear and chaotic processes of Earth's behavior. In recent years, legislators and stakeholders have put serious pressure on the science community to devote more attention to making use of scientific results for societal benefit. For instance, there are a number of areas such as energy forecasting, aviation safety, agricultural efficiency, disaster management, air quality and public health that can directly take advantage of Earth science results to analyze and predict large scale problems and conditions. This is becoming even more important now that we live in a global economy interconnected via the internet and transportation systems; regional environmental conditions can have far reaching impact across continental boundaries. These factors dictate requirements for global data that can help us assess and control the devastating problems of famine, water resources, wildfires, human health and more. To do this requires a serious, organized, and systematic approach that transfers fundamental research products to the applied sciences domain. This paper presents a systems engineering and management process that can effectively make such transfer of data to the user community. Examples are presented on how the above decision making framework can help in solving critical problems such as the spread of vector borne diseases, forecasts of harmful algal blooms as well as forest fires and wildfires, and the intercontinental transport of dust storms and pollution.

Habib, Shahid↗

DOE OSTI2023

Addressing APC Data Sparsity in Predicting Occupancy and Delay of Transit Buses: A Multitask Learning Approach

Public transit is a vital mode of transportation in urban areas, and its efficiency is crucial for the daily commute of millions of people. To improve the reliability and predictability of transit systems, researchers have developed separate single-task learning models to predict the occupancy and delay of buses at the stop or route level. However, these models provide a narrow view of delay and occupancy at each stop and do not account for the correlation between the two. We propose a novel approach that leverages broader generalizable patterns governing delay and occupancy for improved prediction. We introduce a multitask learning toolchain that takes into account General Transit Feed Specification feeds, Automatic Passenger Counter data, and contextual temporal and spatial information. The toolchain predicts transit delay and occupancy at the stop level, improving the accuracy of the predictions of these two features of a trip given sparse and noisy data. We also show that our toolchain can adapt to fewer samples of new transit data once it has been trained on previous routes/trips as compared to state-of-the-art methods. Finally, we use actual data from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to validate our approach. We compare our approach against the state-of-the-art methods and we show that treating occupancy and delay as related problems improves the accuracy of the predictions. We show that our approach improves delay prediction significantly by as much as 4% in F1 scores while producing equivalent or better results for occupancy.

Zulqarnain, Ammar Bin↗

NASA NTRS1994

COSMIC monthly progress report

Activities of the Computer Software Management and Information Center (COSMIC) are summarized for the month of May 1994. Tables showing the current inventory of programs available from COSMIC are presented and program processing and evaluation activities are summarized. Nine articles were prepared for publication in the NASA Tech Brief Journal. These articles (included in this report) describe the following software items: (1) WFI - Windowing System for Test and Simulation; (2) HZETRN - A Free Space Radiation Transport and Shielding Program; (3) COMGEN-BEM - Composite Model Generation-Boundary Element Method; (4) IDDS - Interactive Data Display System; (5) CET93/PC - Chemical Equilibrium with Transport Properties, 1993; (6) SDVIC - Sub-pixel Digital Video Image Correlation; (7) TRASYS - Thermal Radiation Analyzer System (HP9000 Series 700/800 Version without NASADIG); (8) NASADIG - NASA Device Independent Graphics Library, Version 6.0 (VAX VMS Version); and (9) NASADIG - NASA Device Independent Graphics Library, Version 6.0 (UNIX Version). Activities in the areas of marketing, customer service, benefits identification, maintenance and support, and dissemination are also described along with a budget summary.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2003

Novel Propulsion and Power Concepts for 21st Century Aviation

The air transportation for the new millennium will require revolutionary solutions to meeting public demand for improving safety, reliability, environmental compatibility, and affordability. NASA s vision for 21st Century Aircraft is to develop propulsion systems that are intelligent, virtually inaudible (outside the airport boundaries), and have near zero harmful emissions (CO2 and NO(x)). This vision includes intelligent engines that will be capable of adapting to changing internal and external conditions to optimally accomplish the mission with minimal human intervention. The distributed vectored propulsion will replace two to four wing mounted or fuselage mounted engines by a large number of small, mini, or micro engines. And the electric drive propulsion based on fuel cell power will generate electric power, which in turn will drive propulsors to produce the desired thrust. Such a system will completely eliminate the harmful emissions.

Sehra, Arun K.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Education and Public Outreach and Engagement at NASA's Analog Missions in 2012

Analog missions are integrated, multi-disciplinary activities that test key features of future human space exploration missions in an integrated fashion to gain a deeper understanding of system-level interactions and operations early in conceptual development. These tests often are conducted in remote and extreme environments that are representative in one or more ways to that of future spaceflight destinations. They may also be conducted at NASA facilities, using advanced modeling and human-in-the-loop scenarios. As NASA develops a capability driven framework to transport crew to a variety of space environments, it will use analog missions to gather requirements and develop the technologies necessary to ensure successful exploration beyond low Earth orbit. NASA s Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Division conducts these high-fidelity integrated tests, including the coordination and execution of a robust education and public outreach (EPO) and engagement program for each mission. Conducting these mission scenarios in unique environments not only provides an opportunity to test the EPO concepts for the particular future-mission scenario, such as the best methods for conducting events with a communication time delay, but it also provides an avenue to deliver NASA s human space exploration key messages. These analogs are extremely exciting to students and the public, and they are performed in such a way that the public can feel like part of the mission. They also provide an opportunity for crew members to obtain training in education and public outreach activities similar to what they would perform in space. The analog EPO team is responsible for the coordination and execution of the events, the overall social media component for each mission, and public affairs events such as media visits and interviews. They also create new and exciting ways to engage the public, manage and create website content, coordinate video footage for missions, and coordinate and integrate each activity into the mission timeline. In 2012, the AES Analog Missions Project performed three distinct missions - NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO), which simulated a mission to an asteroid using an undersea laboratory; In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Field Test, which simulated a robotic mission to the moon searching and drilling for water; and Research and Technology Studies (RATS) integrated tests, which also simulated a mission to an asteroid. This paper will discuss the education and public engagement that occurred during these missions.

Watkins, Wendy L.↗

DOE OSTI2024

UAS IMPLEMENTATION CONSIDERATIONS FOR NUCLEAR SECURITY

Uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) have been an area of focus for the Office of International Nuclear Security within the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration and other foreign and domestic organizations for several years. This emerging technology provides significant capabilities to the nuclear security realm, but there are many things to consider when implementing them into an established security design or network. The goal of this paper is to discuss some of the benefits, challenges, and lessons learned with using UAS at nuclear facilities and during transport of material. Generic examples of UAS implementation will be used to facilitate a publicly releasable paper and presentation. The paper will start with a summary of the types and capabilities of UAS to provide a better understanding for people unfamiliar with current and new capabilities of these systems. Since there are many different types and sizes of UAS, this paper will focus on drones 55 lb and smaller. Then some of the use cases of UAS for security and challenges of employing them will be covered. Finally, lessons learned and some best practices that Oak Ridge National Laboratory has discovered from research, development, testing, and evaluation will be summarized.

Stockwell, Brandon↗