UAS Reliability and Maintenance Research Paper

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Maintaining Reliability and Maintenance of UASSummaryThis paper examines maintaining the reliability and maintenance of UAS since this system is increasingly adopted in the National Airspace System (NAS). The issue is examined on the backdrop of increased adoption of UAS in commercial and civilian domains though they were initially designed for military application. The discussion seeks to promote an in-depth understanding of UAS operations, understand UAS capabilities and limitations, and develop suitable procedures for maintenance and enhanced reliability of UAS.UAS refers to a system whose components do not carry a human operator and are piloted remotely or fly independently. It was initially designed and adopted for military applications but has since grown to be used in civilian and commercial domains. However, the increased use of UAS in these settings has generated concerns regarding safety and reliability. Maintaining the reliability of UAS requires conducting reliability assessments using either deductive or inductive approaches. Deductive reliability assessment like FTA focuses on detecting high-level system failure events and all lower-level incidents that could directly contribute to a failure incident. Inductive assessments like FMEA focuses on identifying the failure modes of system components at the lowest level possible.UAS maintenance is defined as any activity carried out on the ground prior to or after the flight to promote and ensure the successful operation of the system as well as its safety. Scheduled and unscheduled maintenance are the two broad categories of UAS maintenance activities. UAS maintenance can be achieved through various recommendations including the establishment of tailored maintenance training, redesigning the roles of the UAS operator and UAS maintenance personnel, and adopting preventive maintenance approaches. On the other hand, deductive reliability analysis like FTA is the recommended approach for reliability.Maintaining Reliability and Maintenance of UASThe idea of conventional aircraft design has changed dramatically over the past few decades. In essence, the introduction of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) is a reflection of the evolution of the overall architecture of aircraft design. However, many modern aircraft have some components and systems that are similar to the conventional models. Since their introduction, unmanned aircraft systems have attracted growing consumer attraction in terms of ownership and operation. Wicker et al. (2019) note that the emergence of UAS has the potential of generating significant economic and social benefits to the United States. Despite the potential social and economic benefits, UAS has attracted concerns regarding safety and reliability. These concerns are partly attributable to the fact that their manufacture does not conform to a type design (Ley, 2016). This paper examines the issue of maintenance and reliability of UAS in relation to safety concerns.Overview of Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS)Lu et al. (2019) state that UAS is an application that represents independent technologies in the aviation industry. This system is developed by the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), data links, ground control station, and recovery and launch system. UAS, which is also known as unmanned aerial system, refers to a system whose components do not carry a human operator (Gupta, Ghonge & Jawandhiya (2013).

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UAS are either remotely piloted or fly independently. This implies that UAS have an associated ground control station as well as a data link between the board and the ground. Therefore, UAS has a system that is characterized by command, communications, and control. While UAS air vehicles and their associated equipment do not carry a human operator, it’s operations require necessary personnel for remote piloting or to fly autonomously.UAS comprises three major features or components i.e. unmanned aircraft, the data link or command and control link, and ground control station (Hobbs & Herwitz, 2006). Unmanned aircraft is essentially a powered vehicle…

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…FTA differs from inductive approaches that are limited in scope as they focus on system hardware failures and their effects. FTA is not limited in scope as it helps identify failure events at the top and lowest levels. Therefore, the use of this approach enables UAS maintenance professionals to identify reliability issues at all levels of operations. This approach is recommended for maintaining UAS reliability because of its broad and repetitive application at all levels. Since the process is carried out repeatedly until all issues are identified, FTA provides a suitable way for detecting and dealing with issues that could affect reliability. Additionally, FTA is a suitable approach as it is used to examine the overall system unavailability for basic component failures (Tabassum, Sabatini & Gardi, 2019). When using this approach, the system risk linked to common failures is calculated using the common cause failure (CCF)-beta model. As a result, FTA provides a measure for examining failure modes in the inter-dependencies between navigation and surveillance systems.In conclusion, UAS refers to a system whose components do not carry a human operator and are piloted remotely or fly independently. The system was initially developed for military applications but has grown to become part of civilian and commercial domains. The increased adoption of UAS has generated numerous concerns on the airworthiness, reliability, safety, and maintenance of the system. These concerns are attributable to the fact that UAS differs from conventional manned aircraft. The reliability and safety of UAS are threatened by various risk factors such as human error, environmental factors, and system failure. UAS maintenance is also characterized by challenges like lack of specific regulatory requirements and lack of qualified maintenance personnel. As a result, a robust strategy for enhancing UAS reliability and maintenance is required to help improve airworthiness and safety. The recommended….....

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