Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee 

Peter Sachs, AUS-440 

UTM Roadmap and Deep Dive 

March 16, 2021 
UAS Traffic Management Deep Dive 

• Future vision vs. present reality 

• Implementation Roadmap 

• Industry Priorities 

• FAA Priorities 

• Present Research Efforts 

• Forthcoming Needs 

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What are we enabling? 

• UTM provides distributed services that enable UAS operations 

below 400 feet AGL 

• Controlled or uncontrolled airspace 

• Concepts and service models may also apply to UAS operations at 

higher altitudes (e.g. drone cargo) 

• This will also be the basis for cooperative management of 

AAM/UAM passenger-carrying flights. 

Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee 3 
Diverging Priorities 

• Industry wants to be able to deploy and scale quickly 

• Industry has short timelines 

• FAA needs the regulatory framework first – be able to approve 

services independent of airframe and operator 

• FAA inaction is already influencing negative outcomes 

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Who provides the services? 

• Mostly industry! 

• The FAA has some important roles: 

• Single source of truth for aeronautical information 

• System-wide safety assurance Easier said 

than done? • Ensuring fair and equitable access 

• Defining and enabling integration with ATO functions 

• Approving new services Requires 

rulemaking • Ensuring ongoing compliance with regulations 

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Two Rules of Air Traffic Control 

•Don’t keep secrets.

•Work smarter, not harder. 

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Line Up and 

Wait 

3-9-4 

Runway exit 

3-10-3 

Cleared for 

takeoff 

3-9-9 

6000 ft and 

airborne 

3-10-3 

Cleared to 

Land 3-10-5 

Cross runway 

Threshold 

3-10-5 

Missed approach 

4-8-9 

Radar 

identification 

5-3-2 

Speed 

adjustment 

5-7-2 Successive 

departure 

separation 

5-8-3 

Approach 

separation 

5-9-5 

Radar separation 

5-5-2 

Cycle of same 

runway use and 

occupancy time 

ATCO Continuous decision loop 

Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee 7 
 

 

 

Future Vision for UTM 

This is the end state of fully deployed 

services with high levels of autonomy 

Enables high-tempo, complex 

operations coordinated and managed by 

UTM services 

Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee 8 
LAANC

What Exists Today? 

Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee 

Registration (DroneZone) 

LAANC 

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10 

Notional Implementation Timeline 

Initial SDSPs via 

Operator Waiver 

Standalone SDSP 

Approvals 

Streamlined 

Operator 

Approvals using 

SDSPs 

System-wide safety assurance 

Data collection informs subsequent phases 

Initial USSs via 

Operator Waiver 

Standalone USS 

Approvals 

Streamlined 

Operator 

Approvals using 

USSs 

Development of interoperability requirements (including continuous test framework) 

Performance Authorization requirements, implementation 

Rulemaking for UTM Service Approvals 

SDSP ODA USS ODA 

USS-Operator Handshake (decreasing 

oversight) 

Limited number of UTM- Increasing numbers of UTM- UTM deployment and 

Growing number of enabled ops, with faster iteration at scale 

approved UTM services approvals 

Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee 

enabled operations 
Why Interoperability Matters 

• Common data requirements ensure quality of information 

exchange 

• Successful strategic deconfliction requires that multiple actors 

have shared understanding 

• Other operations 

• Capabilities of other operators 

• Impact of constraints 

• With time: Increasing need for fast and efficient solutions 

Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee 11 
Future Research Needs 

• Driven by gaps in service approvals 

• How does the FAA know that a service interoperates correctly? 

• How can service providers push updates without re-certifying? 

• How does a service handle unknown edge and corner cases? 

• What are the impacts on other services when one stops working? 

Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee 12 
Speaking of Deconfliction...

• Optimizing for operators vs optimizing for airspace 

• DSS (Discovery and Synchronization Service) model 

• How is quality of strategic deconfliction evaluated? 

• How do all participants (including FAA) evaluate equity and 

fairness of solutions? 

• Are some operators being unwittingly locked out, or charged excessively? 

Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee 13 
 

1 

2 

DSS 

5 

3 

4 

6 

7 

8 

•

increases 

Strategic Deconfliction Flow 

Compute requirements and 

multi-combinatory solutions as 

number of operators and USSs 

Source: ASTM UTM Draft Standard v0.3 

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DSS and USS-USS Interactions 

• What is required to test 

interoperability of each 

connection? 

• Are industry-defined message 

formats and contents sufficient? 

• Should there be rules for direct 

negotiations? Side deals? 

• How does the FAA monitor and 

enforce these interactions? 

Source: ASTM UTM Draft Standard v0.3 

Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee 15 
The Battleship Model 

• Your operations are on the blue side of 

the board 

• You (or your USS) must use the green 

side to “ping” the rest of the airspace

and determine where you can fly. 

• This is not the most efficient way to 

find a route! 

• But we also don’t know its limitations

Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee 16 
 

 

 

The Battleship Model 

• Remember, this is a fivedimensional problem! 

• Adjust left/right (X-Y)

• Adjust cruise height or 

climb/descent profile (Z)

• Adjust departure time (t)

• Adjust speed (v)

Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee 

• Compute resources to find a 

solution for one operator at a time 

• How well do different algorithms 

perform at solving these 

problems? 

• Which variables should be probed 

to find a solution? 

• What about high-priority 

operations that come after? 

• What about multiple operators 

probing at the same time? 

• Is it possible to find a solution that 

optimizes for multiple operators? 

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Volume Size and Strategic Deconfliction 

Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee 

DSS Region • When should Operator A be 

required to change their 

allocation? 

• How does Operator B know 

that Operator A is negotiating 

in good faith? 

Source: Terry Martin, Revolution Aerospace 

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Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee 19 

The demand for these 

segments may be low...

But securing this at low price...

...is useless 

without this 

Fairness Implications 
System-Wide Safety 

• What metrics? 

• What dependencies? 

• Safety event chain traceability 

• Service-level contribution to 

system-level safety outcomes 

• What data? Where does it live 

and how is it processed? 

• What tools do FAA, industry 

and partners need? 

Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee 20