Automated On-Entry Decision-Making for UTM Zones Based on Reputations and Certifications

This work presents our progress for automating on-entry decisions for small uncrewed aerial systems (sUAS) that request access to UTM-managed flight zones. These decisions consider current environmental conditions, and sUAS and operator reputations and credentials. Reputations are established dynamically over time from flight histories of successful or problematic flights within UTM zones, while credentials certify capabilities for operating in current environmental conditions including airworthiness of the drone, sensing and maneuvering capabilities, and alignment with the current environmental conditions and flight plans. In this paper, we describe these factors, present a cloud-based architecture for supporting this approach across diverse sUAS, and report on preliminary proof-of-concept experiments conducted in simulation.