Rockwell Collins playing key role in drone rules, regulations

Rockwell Collins is playing a key role in developing rules and regulations for the future use of drones in the nation's commercial airspace.

Back in November 2011, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration awarded the Cedar Rapids avionics and communications company a contract to develop a communications data link for unmanned aerial systems, commonly known as drones.

The communications data link is one of five focus areas of a $150 million project that NASA is tasked with developing for the Federal Aviation Administration over a five-year period to assure that drones can operate safely with other full-sized aircraft.

Rockwell Collins engineers and NASA personnel recently tested the communications system in Cedar Rapids with a NASA research aircraft as a surrogate for a drone. The system uses a new radio frequency set aside by the World Radio Conference, an international organization that regulates what frequencies are used for specific purposes.

"We're building a prototype system to verify that the math models of what it should look like is what we really see," said John R. Moore, Rockwell Collins principal investigator for the communications sub-project under NASA's integration of the national airspace system.

"We're doing some maximum range testing to determine if our predictions of how far it talked really work," Moore said. "Much of this project is really a science experiment to determine real-world performance of a prototype system, so that we can help the FAA write standards to build certified products for the civil aviation market in a few years."

Jim Greiner, NASA project engineer and Moore's counterpart, said the communications data link will allow a pilot on the ground to operate a drone with the data needed to fly it safely with other aircraft in the nation's airspace.

"This work is not just for NASA," Greiner said. "It will help the industry and other government agencies to move forward in the safe operation of unmanned aircraft in the nation's commercial airspace."

Under the terms of the contract between NASA and Rockwell Collins, the software and other details of the control and communications data link is non-proprietary, meaning it eventually will be available as a public resource.

Greiner said the recent tests in Cedar Rapids were designed to determine how much power is needed to effectively transmit control data a specific distance.

"The design number is a 60- to 70-nautical-mile radius for the communications," Greiner said. "In terms of altitude, we're looking at about 70,000 feet."

Moore said the curvature of the Earth also plays a role in how far the signal travels. He said the FAA will take all the factors into account as it writes the rules.

The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 requires the FAA to develop a set of rules and requirements for unmanned aircraft operations in the national airspace by 2015. Greiner said work is being conducted simultaneously on the four additional focus areas of the integration project.

They include separation assurance, human systems integration, certification, and integrated tests and evaluation. Greiner said an integrated simulation is planned for next spring, a first step toward integrated flight testing in 2015 and 2016.

"We will have a surrogate unmanned aircraft controlled by a pilot on the ground, although there also will be a pilot onboard the aircraft," Greiner said.

"The pilot on the ground will control the aircraft over the communications data link that we're developing with Rockwell Collins. We will determine how it operates with real world conditions and variables."

Moore said Rockwell Collins is funding 50 percent of the communications link project and NASA is funding the other 50 percent. The dollar value of the contract has not been disclosed.

The use of drones has become somewhat controversial in terms of privacy concerns. Moore said the communications link being developed by Rockwell Collins and NASA is not designed for any particular use of drones.