Unmanned Aircraft System Response to Air Traffic Control Clearances: Measured Response  (2013)

In the National Airspace System (NAS), Air Traffic Control (ATC) expects aircraft to complete ATC clearances in a timely manner in order to maintain minimum separation between aircraft. The end-to-end response time for an aircraft to complete a clearance, as measured from the end of ATC instructing the pilot of the clearance to the just noticeable difference (JND) on the ATC display of the aircraft satisfying the clearance (i.e., initiation/completion of an altitude climb), can be referred to as measured response (MR). This MR is not quantified in Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) standards, regulations, or policy; however, as manned aircraft have developed along with the Air Traffic Management System, a shared un- derstanding of reasonable and timely response has evolved. By contrast, the introduction of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into the NAS has highlighted this issue. This paper seeks to define MR and its components, and describe a methodology, with an example, that can be used to investigate it.

+ Johnson, Walter

+ Battiste, Vernol

+ Shively, Robert

+ Vu, Kim-Phuong

+ Buker, T

Air, Aircraft, Clearances, Control, Measured, Response, Response, System, Traffic, Unmanned

2013 International Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

  Shively_et_al_2013.pdf (Download Acrobat Reader )
  (230KB) (application/pdf)