Reece Clothier, project leader of the SmartSkies programme explained that the project involves his team members undertaking research and flight tests for the development of an automated separation management system (ASMS), an autonomous systems onboard the UAS capable of avoiding collisions and a mobile aircraft tracking system. Entering its final phase now, the SmartSkies project is currently involved in flight test of ASMS. Clothier explained that at the heart of ASMS is to demonstrate use of limited air-space by a large number of manned and unmanned systems, some of them simulated, in a limited air-space. Flight tests are integral to achieving each of the objectives set by the SmartSkies team. The aim of a flight test is to characterise the potential of how the systems performs in different combinations of a range of parameters like the conflict geometry, communication links, types of aircraft within the environment, time of collision, inputs from radars, aircraft-based sensors and information regarding other aircraft degree of cooperativeness.

Clothier explained how a typical flight test is executed with the involvement of a host of systems coming up at different stations across the globe. As a component of the flight trial, the Automated Dynamic Aerospace Controller (ADAC) is provided by BR&T, Palmdale CA. This system is capable of providing a separation assurance function for aircraft operating in complex airspace environments. The ADAC implements the novel separation management algorithms to automatically track aircraft and resolve potential conflict scenarios. It is still under development by BR&T, once fully function, it will be capable of providing a 4D (vertical, lateral and time-based) separation assurance service to large numbers of aircraft flying all over the world.