The
Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations (ACERO) project successfully completed its first Technical Capability Level (TCL-1) milestone with a two-week field demonstration in the foothills of the Sierra de Salinas mountains in Salinas, CA, March 17–28, 2025.
ACERO is investigating how technology can be used to provide additional aerial support in fighting wildland fires. To help fill the gaps created when crewed aircraft cannot operate, ACERO's Second Shift concept aims to extend the use of UAS into low-visibility conditions.
During the field evaluation, the prototype
Portable Airspace Management System (PAMS) was tested with multiple, live UAS operations. PAMS consists of the Wildland Fire Service Supplier (WFSS) airspace management system for deconflicting and monitoring UAS operations, an air-to-ground digital communications network for information exchange, decision support tools, and a graphical user interface (GUI) for supporting the UAS operator’s situation awareness. Ruggedized PAMS cases were developed by members of the
Airspace Operations Laboratory (AOL) to transport the Surface Pro computer, a digital radio, ADS-B receiver, and other supporting equipment to each UAS launch site.
A team of more than 60 people, consisting of members from Ames (including eight members of the AOL), Langley, Glenn, and multiple partner organizations, were onsite to support the demonstration. Subject Matter Experts from the wildland firefighting community joined researchers onsite to participate and provide feedback about the GUI. As part of a joint venture with Foreflight, live UAS operations data were bundled, formatted, and displayed live in the Foreflight app. Another partner, Joby Aviation, joined the field evaluation for one day by submitting and sharing their operational intent to the WFSS while remotely flying their autonomous / optionally piloted Cessna 208B Grand Caravan above the participating UAS.
Since March, members of the AOL have prepared two conference papers to document the process of designing the TCL-1 GUI and to summarize the human factors data collected during the field evaluation.
