FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute

Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-21/17

Title and Subtitle: Evaluating the Preventive Alert Function for UAS Detect and Avoid Systems

Report Date: June 2021

Authors: Williams KW, Mofle TC, Choi I

Abstract: The research effort was an examination of the alerting level for the Detect and Avoid (DAA) Preventive Alert function as defined by the RTCA Special Committee 228 Detect and Avoid Working Group in the DAA Phase I Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) (RTCA DO-365B). The term "alert" is used in this report generically to include Warnings, Cautions, and Advisories. RTCA DO-365B specifies that the DAA Preventive Alert is a Caution-level alert, but the DAA Preventive Alert does not require an action, so it matches the definition of an Advisory-level alert as defined in § 25.1322. Consequently, we were interested in understanding whether showing the DAA Preventive Alert as an Advisory (rather than a Caution) would influence the pilot's behavior and potentially compromise safety of flight.

Key Words: Detect and Avoid, Unmanned Aircraft, Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Crew Alerting, Preventive Alert

No. of Pages: 68