Taxonomy of Conflict Detection and Resolution Approaches for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle in an Integrated Airspace

Abstract

This paper proposes a taxonomy of Conflict Detection and Resolution (CD&R) approaches for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) operation in an integrated airspace. Possible approaches for UAVs are surveyed and broken down based on their types of surveillance, coordination, maneuver, and autonomy. The factors are combined back selectively, with regard to their feasibility for operation in an integrated airspace, into several ’generic approaches’ that form the CD&R taxonomy. These generic approaches are then attributed to a number of available method in the literature to determined their position in the overall CD&R scheme. The attribution shows that many proposed methods are actually unsuitable for operation in an integrated airspace. Furthermore, some part of the taxonomy does not have an adequate representative in the literature, suggesting the need to concentrate UAV CD&R research more in those particular parts. Finally, a multi-layered CD&R architecture is built from the taxonomy, implementing the concept of defense-in-depth to ensure UAVs safe operation in an integrated civil airspace.