Will Address Some Of The Safety Critical Risks Associated With Flying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles In The NAS

Registration for NASA Langley's Safeguard with Autonomous Navigation Demonstration (SAND) Challenge is now open.

The SAND Challenge will be an opportunity for small businesses to compete in an autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle competition. The challenge will address some of the safety critical risks associated with flying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in the national airspace system such as flight outside of approved airspace, unsafe proximity to people or property, and critical system failure.

NASA Langley's patented Safeguard technology will be used to help small business competitors mitigate such risks while they complete a set of complex mission profiles. Safeguard is a verified and validated independent system originally designed to monitor off-the-shelf UAV systems and if/when necessary physically prevent the vehicles from entering no-fly zones or leaving approved airspace.

For this competition, it will be configured to warn competitors (and auto-pilots) of impending excursions (or violations) while also objectively measuring performance with respect to the rules of the competition. For example, how well they comply with regulatory property protection and other operational requirements during flights.

The challenge will follow the FAA Part 107 Regulation Small Unmanned Aircraft Regulations.

The SAND Challenge will be held in May 2020 in Hampton, VA.

(Source: NASA news release)

FMI: sand2020.nianet.org