The United States Air Force and the Swedish government worked together to develop and demonstrate an Automatic Air Collision Avoidance System (Auto ACAS). The eventual implementation of this system on operational aircraft will accomplish two major goals. First, it will reduce the incidence of midair collisions that occur all too often due to the nature of military training and operations. Second, it will enable the operation of unpiloted vehicles in formations and allow for their eventual flight in the national airspace system. A computer algorithm was developed in which networked aircraft communicate flight path data, look for potential collisions, and constantly compute potential escape maneuvers. The autopilot then takes control just long enough to execute the escape maneuver. Testing the Auto ACAS posed unique challenges because the system was designed to activate only at the last possible instant before a collision. This CD-ROM and technical paper will provide an overview of the Auto ACAS operation and design philosophy as well as discuss the unique flight test tools and methods used to safely evaluate its effectiveness. Finally, it will present the preliminary flight test results for this first-of-its-kind program.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite




    An Automatic Air Collision Avoidance System (Auto ACAS)

    Swihart, D. E. / Saunders, D. / Brannstrom, B. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2001



    Evaluating Collision Avoidance for Small UAS using ACAS X

    Deaton, John / Owen, Michael P. | AIAA | 2020


    EVALUATING COLLISION AVOIDANCE FOR SMALL UAS USING ACAS X

    Deaton, John / Owen, Michael P. | TIBKAT | 2020