July 31, 2024
K-State Salina's AARC publishes work on UAS Visual Observers
Tom Haritos and Katherine Silas with K-State Salina's Applied Aviation Research Center, or AARC, published "Estimating Visual Observers Performance for Detecting Intruder Aircraft During Small UAS Flight Operations" in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Aviation Forum and Ascend 2024.
Haritos, along with the AARC team, led the multiuniversity project focusing on evaluating ground-based visual observers' ability to effectively maintain safe separation from crewed aircraft during a set of UAS flight operations. This research investigated two aspects of visual observers' performance: visual detection of a crewed aircraft and the avoidance of a crewed aircraft. Findings from this research indicate that visual observers may not be the most reliable and effective source for collision avoidance between a crewed aircraft and a UAS.