Reconnaissance Mission Flight Modeling for Strategic Planning of Manned and Unmanned Vehicle Integrated Disaster Response

Disaster response activities include various aircraft, many of which operate under visual flight rules (VFR) when performing reconnaissance, search and rescue missions. When flying in visual conditions, the pilot keeps their eyes out of the cockpit and looks for other traffic to operate the aircraft and avoid collisions. The trajectory of the aircraft is mostly determined by the pilot’s manual control as well, and since the flight plan submitted before departure contains only very limited information, strategic trajectory planning is not possible. Recent technology developments, however, have shown the potential of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) in reconnaissance. For both manned and unmanned aircraft to perform their missions safely and efficiently, a more efficient airspace allocation and potential segregation is necessary. This in turn requires strategic VFR trajectory modeling. In this research we consider potential parameters which define the VFR flight reconnaissance mission trajectory by analyzing helicopter flight data. As an initial step of the VFR flight model development, here we consider time, lateral and vertical trajectory modeling and identify necessary parameters to be distance from the target landmark, altitude, and view angle. The trajectory model assumptions are verified through flight data obtained from JAXA’s helicopter flight tests conducted in November 2020, which modeled real reconnaissance missions. Results confirm the feasibility of the model assumptions and set directions for future research.