Ground Control Station Embedded Mission Planning for UAS

As the Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Level Of Automation increases, Mission Planning relevance raises. A mission plan can be defined as all the information needed to reach the assigned goals, and it is composed by several sub-plans. In particular, the mission plan core is represented by the routes. Since the route creation process is very complex, the introduction of route creation and verification algorithms is required. These algorithms enhance the crew replan performances during the mission execution, and permit to implement autonomous on-board replanning. Furthermore, Planning/replanning processes could also have a key role in the integration of UAS in the civil airspace. According to these considerations, a Mission Planner embedded in the Alenia Aermacchi UAS Ground Control Station (GCS) has been developed, comprised of advanced planning algorithms.