In the emerging field of civil unmanned aerial vehicles, the competition between China and the United States is not only reflected in technology research and development, but also regulatory policies and industrial policies are equally important. When the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) insists on airworthiness supervision in this field with the existing framework, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (hereinafter referred to as "CAA") seems to be "one step ahead" in the innovation of regulatory matching.
On April 7, the Civil Aviation Administration solicited opinions on the grading of distributed operation of civil unmanned aerial vehicles (Draft for comments) (hereinafter referred to as "draft for comments"). According to the degree of automation, this document divides the unmanned aerial vehicle system into six levels: al-0 ~ Al-5, and corresponds to different technical requirements. At the same time, the safety level standard of distributed operation of unmanned aerial vehicle system is also defined.
The so-called distributed operation generally refers to the operation mode that the calculation and storage are not on the same processor, but distributed on multiple processors. It is used in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles, that is, commanding the flight of unmanned aerial vehicles through the background computing system, ranging from UAVs to small aircraft used in logistics distribution. The application of distributed operation is becoming more and more extensive.
Four civil unmanned aerial vehicle enterprises participated in the preparation of the exposure draft, including Yihang intelligence, Fengniao aviation, langxing unmanned aerial vehicle and Hangzhou Xunyi. In addition, China civil aviation management cadre academy, China aircraft owners and Pilots Association, China Civil Aviation Research Institute of science and technology and Beihang Unmanned System Research Institute also participated in the drafting of the draft for comments.
The reporter learned that at present, there is no standard release for the safe operation of distributed unmanned aerial vehicle system outside China. Based on this, CAAC believes that it is necessary to form a unified and effective industry guidance standard on the basis of practice. This is also one of the important reasons why Yihang intelligence and other four enterprises participated in the drafting of the exposure draft.
Security is the "overriding" factor. A senior insider told China Business Daily that in the distributed operation of unmanned aerial vehicle system, the correlation between system safety and "pilot" ability level becomes weaker. Therefore, the traditional way of issuing a license to a single pilot can no longer ensure the safety of unmanned aerial vehicle system operation.
Grading and determining the corresponding standards is a common practice in the field of automatic driving. Automobile automatic driving is to form standards on the basis of grading and standardize R & D and operation. Civil unmanned aerial vehicles also adopt a similar method. Among the six levels al-0 ~ Al-5, the larger the number, the higher the degree of automation of the driving system.
People familiar with the situation told reporters that the above level division mainly considers four factors: whether the automatic flight system can complete the flight mission; Whether the detection and response of operational risk factors can be completed; Whether the flight mission takeover can be completed; Whether there are restrictions on the scope of design operation. The division of al-0 ~ Al-5 is to identify and evaluate the automation level of unmanned aerial vehicles based on these four factors.
In al-0 level, the crew is responsible for the detection and response of flight mission execution and operational risk factors, and the unmanned aerial vehicle operates under the designed operating conditions. A technical director of a start-up company in this field said that this is that the driver drives the UAV through system operation in the background. However, he explained that in the al-0 class, unmanned aerial vehicles are not "without automation", but include some automation functions, such as hovering.
Al-1 level means that the flight crew and the automatic flight system jointly control the flight process and jointly undertake the detection and response of operational risk factors. When the automatic system cannot continue to fly, the crew will take over the control. "At this level, the crew can take over control of the unmanned aerial vehicle at any time." The technical director explained to reporters.
When the automation level reaches Al-2, the automatic flight control system can control the flight process without joint control with the crew. The detection and response of operation risk factors are still completed by the crew and the automatic flight control system. The same as Al-1, when the automatic flight system cannot continue to fly, the crew can take over the control; During the whole flight process, the crew can take over and execute the flight at any time.
With the increase of the level, the scope of automatic flight control system is expanding. At the Al-3 level, operational risk factors are divided into "internal" and "external". The automatic flight control system is responsible for the detection and response of internal risk factors; The crew is responsible for the detection and response of external risk factors. In addition, when the UAV system cannot continue to perform the flight mission, it can request the crew to take over control. When there is no response from the unit, the system can automatically enter the minimum risk state. Al-0 ~ Al-3 are the same, and the crew can take over control at any time during flight.
At Al-4 level, the automatic flight control system will be independently responsible for the detection and response of operational risk factors. When the UAV system cannot continue to fly, the system can re plan the flight mission or automatically enter the minimum risk state without additional operation risk; The crew can apply for taking over control during flight. When the system judges that taking over will increase safety risks, it can suspend the transfer of control.
Al-5 is the highest level of automation. In this level, the risk factor detection and response, the emergency disposal method when the unmanned aircraft system cannot continue to fly, and the method of the crew applying for flight control are the same as those in Al-4 level. The biggest difference of this level is that it has no design operation range limit and can operate under any flying conditions.
The aforementioned insiders explained to reporters that al-0 is "operating under design operating conditions", while Al-1 ~ Al-4 are operating within the "design operating range". The difference between "condition" and "scope" is that the former is a specific "point", and the operation of unmanned aerial vehicle can only operate when these "points" are reached; "Range" is an "interval", that is, within this interval, unmanned aerial vehicles can operate.
"In the Al-5 level, there is no restriction on the design operation range, indicating that the degree of automation is the highest. Of course, this is only a technical ability. In practice, there will be commercial and regulatory factors to restrict unmanned flight." He told reporters.
In the opinion of the above-mentioned technical director, the degree of automation from al-0 to Al-1 is low, the degree of automation from Al-2 to Al-3 is medium, and the degree of automation from Al-4 to Al-5 is high.
At present, UAVs are widely used in China, and they are replicated on a large scale in branch / terminal logistics, patrol inspection, urban management and so on. CAAC believes that the establishment of distributed operation standards will lay a solid foundation for the sustainable development of the 100 billion UAV industry application market. On the premise of ensuring public safety, it will greatly promote the establishment and improvement of the industry supervision system for the safe operation of distributed unmanned aerial vehicle system, so as to better meet the challenges brought by the current new UAV operation mode to the industry management.
The reporter learned that after the implementation of this standard, the civil aviation administration suggested that UAV manufacturers, UAV operators and UAV service providers should establish their own safe operation system in distributed operation according to the contents specified in the standard, and constantly improve and improve the automation technology level of UAV system.
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