Flying Blind: Keeping aircraft safe without a pilot on board.

The unmanned aircraft market is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world today, poised to become a billion dollar industry in the next several years. This explosive growth in unmanned aircraft, both small and large, brings an increased risk of these vehicles interfering with current aircraft, or harming unsuspecting bystanders. This talk will discuss some of the research NASA is doing to keep the airspace safe, while allowing drone pilots the freedom to fly. The discussion will center on two NASA-developed systems: Safeguard, a platform-independent geofence; and DAIDALUS, a software suite for detect and avoid. In addition to describing what the systems are supposed to do, we'll also discuss how NASA uses formal methods to provide assurance that they actually do as intended.