UAS Demand Generation and Airspace Performance Impact Prediction

IAI and its academic partner propose to develop technology that will generate credible future demand for UAS vehicles given proposed UAS missions. The technology will consist of three parts. The first part is an activity-based modeling system that translates inchoate mission profile information into overall demand between city pairs and counties for UAS aircraft. The second part translates the overall demand into specific flight data sets, specifying the origin, destination, scheduled departure and arrival times, as well as the type of aircraft flown along the route. The final part consists of a data warehouse system that will store the flight data sets and allow analysts to retrieve them to support custom UAS studies.

This effort will lead to the development of a data warehouse containing potentially thousands of UAS flights. NASA personnel can access this warehouse to develop custom UAS traffic scenarios to drive both fast-time and human-in-the-loop studies. For example, a UAS study in the Southern California area might want to access UAS border control flights in California and Arizona, as well as UAS flights performing aqueduct inspection and other activities.

The technology developed in this project makes it possible for aviation analysts worldwide to quickly develop scenarios for UAS studies. Airport planners, airspace designers, aviation consultants, airlines, and other stakeholders will have access to a valuable repository of credible UAS flight demand.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 2) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.