Ground-Based RFI Mitigation Approaches for UAS Flight Operations in Urban Environment

As civilian drone use matures and urban air taxi vehicle development nears approval, the ability to operate these two classes of vehicles allows operators to offer an array of marketable use cases in many urban economies. However, it is known from prior research that radio frequency interference (RFI) can present real safety threats to these operations, and hence, needs to be addressed to facilitate safe drone operations in urban environments. NASA'S System-Wide Safety Project, Technical Challenge 2 has created an interactive RF Service to help UAS operators mitigate RF hazards by avoiding flight areas where RFI would be encountered. Five concepts are presented, utilizing ground-based real-time and historical measurements, FCC data, and electromagnetic modeling based on ray tracing. Based on real-time detected or previously known radiating sources, radiated power levels are calculated for altitudes or trajectories where flights are planned. Expected signal power levels, signal-to-interference ratios (SIR), and spectrum occupancy (SO) are displayed as 2-D graphics. Areas of expected RFI hazard are displayed based on user input of hazard-related thresholds.