Auburn researchers will spend the next year conducting a project that will analyze the risk associated with Unmanned Aerial Systems for the Federal Aviation Administration.
"This project is part of an overall effort to determine how to incorporate unmanned aerial vehicles into the nation's civil airspace," said Larry Benefield, dean of the College of Engineering. "It is expected to provide valuable information in planning regulations that will apply to UAVs, in applications such as the observation of hurricane damage, oil spills and remote sensing."
The FAA awarded a $300,000 grant for the project, an interdisciplinary collaboration among the College of Science and Mathematics, the College of Engineering and the College of Business.
"Like most grants, this proposal was submitted in response to a Request for Proposal put out for the FAA," said Cheryl Cobb, assistant director of Communications and Marketing for the Engineering Administration. "The FAA evaluates incoming proposals and makes the award to the one that best meets the requirements outlined in the RFP."
Cobb said the funding is for one year.
Lead participants in the project are Wesley Randall of the College of Business, Mark Carpenter of the College of Science and Mathematics and Roy Hartfield of the College of Engineering.
The combined effort of the three colleges is necessary for the depth of research the project requires.
In a letter to The Auburn Plainsman, Randall, Carpenter and Hartfield said, "This effort will help to amalgamate FAA's expertise in operational safety, in the area of identification and quantification of UAS risk. Armed with a risk typology, and predictive modeling capability, the FAA Technical Center will be able to evaluate risks and propose risk mitigation strategies."
According to the letter, UASs are used by the U.S. military, as well as by government and commercial agencies.
These UASs may be widely used in the future.
"The key advantages of a UAS are relatively smaller size and weight over manned aircraft due to the fact that a UAS does not require onboard human control interfaces, and that environmental systems to support human life are not required," the letter said. "This reduction in size allows UASs to operate more efficiently and with a lower environmental footprint."
UASs also minimize risk to human life by eliminating the need for a pilot in hostile environments.
After the aircraft have proven themselves under research that will be conducted at Auburn, the possibilities for their uses are many.
"As far as application, once UAS have proven their safety, it is easy to consider a fleet of unmanned cargo aircraft flying long hauls over the Pacific Ocean, bringing goods to and from global markets," the letter said.
This project is not the first that has been conducted in cooperation with the FAA.
"Auburn has worked with the FAA in a number of ways over the years," Benefield said.
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