A Certification Means of Compliance Process for Advanced Air Mobility with Increasing Autonomy

In recent years there has been a proliferation of new vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicle concepts, many featuring electric propulsion systems and advanced autonomous capabilities, designed for the urban air mobility marketplace as air taxis and personal air vehicles. The Vertical Flight Society is tracking the progress of these vehicle concepts via a web portal that currently identifies 189 vectored thrust, 90 lift plus cruise configurations, and over 150 wingless multicopters. Many of these vehicles have flown as scaled proof of concepts, while several others are now flying as full-scale prototypes. These vehicles almost exclusively feature fly-by-wire flight control systems including advanced control modes (i.e., response augmentation), increased automation, and autonomous systems of varying levels. Following the Simplified Vehicle Operations (SVO) and progression of the UAM Maturity Levels (UML), technological, infrastructure, and certification advancements are required to ultimately lead to fully autonomous operations. Because of the complexities involved in control system design, autonomous systems, and operating environments, new certification means of compliance methods are needed to ensure safe operations within the national airspace, especially dense urban environments. To address this critical need, a team led by Systems Technology, Inc. (STI) that includes Penn State University (a Rotorcraft Center of Excellence), Barron Associates, and Tiltrotor Flight Test Consulting proposes to develop in Phase II a prototype of the Simulation-based Automation and Failure Evaluations (SAFE) system, easily exercised via a tablet-based computer, that will provide a means of compliance certification method for autonomous and degraded modes that is safe, repeatable, and discriminating.