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Meeting	ACGS Committee Meeting 111 - Reno, Nevada - March 2013
Agenda Location	5 SUBCOMMITTEE C – AVIONICS AND SYSTEM INTEGRATION 5.1 MIDCAS: European Midair Collision Avoidance project for RPAS
Title	MIDCAS: European Midair Collision Avoidance project for RPAS
Presenter	Bengt-Göran Sundqvist
Affiliation	Saab Aircraft
Available Downloads*	presentation
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Abstract	MIDCAS is a 5 year long European project funded by Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, managed under the umbrella of the European Defense Agency and achieved by a consortium of 13 companies from the 5 above nations. Started in September 2009, its goal is to demonstrate the baseline of acceptable solutions for the critical RPAS self separation and midair collision avoidance functions which are considered as the most challenging issues towards seamless integration of RPAS in non segregated airspace. Sense & Avoid (S&A) is the process of determining the presence of potential mid-air collision threats and maneuvering clear of them. For all air traffic as of today several layers of protection against mid-air collisions exists. Typically, these layers are categorized in three; Strategic conflict management, Separation provision and Collision avoidance. The first layer, Strategic conflict management, is made up of procedures, regulations, flight plans etc. to separate traffic. Separation provision is performed either by ATC or by the pilot depending on airspace class and flight rules and may be categorized as “Do not scare other airspace users”. The inner most safety layer is the Collision avoidance function, which may be categorized as “Do not scrape paint”. This ultimate responsibility for avoiding collisions lies always with the pilot in all classes of airspace. In “manned” aviation, this is mainly performed by the pilots ability to “See & Avoid”, i.e. the pilots eyes and his/hers ability to perform the correct decision and correct action. The pilot's responsibility to "see and avoid" needs an equivalent mechanism in unmanned systems; i.e. a sense & avoid system to determine the presence of potential collision threats and maneuvering clear of them. The global interest in flying unmanned vehicles in non segregated air space has thus led to an urgent need for new technologies altogether with a standardized set of requirements in order to get acceptance for operation with all kinds of air traffic, civilian and military, in all different classes of air space. The purpose of MIDCAS (Mid-air Collision Avoidance System) is to identify adequate technology, contribute to standardization and demonstrate a “Sense and Avoid” system for RPAS able to fulfill the requirements for traffic separation and mid air collision avoidance in non segregated airspace. The intention is to demonstrate by actually flying an RPAS in non segregated airspace at the end of the project, where the process of approval together with national Civil Aviation Authority for such a flight will be one of the main contributions to the standardization work.