Autonomous operation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) requires development of technologies that allow for safer flight control and response to various flight anomalies. Software for autonomous control should allow the UAV to detect and avoid potential hazards, as well as respond to critical failures midflight without input from a human operator. This paper develops a ground impact and hazard mitigation (GIHM) module that integrates the following: 1) consideration of engine and control surface failure flight modes, 2) generation of feasible ground impact footprints based on glide equations, 3) selection of safest response ground impact sites based on a high-resolution LandScan USA population dataset, and 4) controlled descent to a selected site. For a sample population distribution, integration of GIHM with standard UAV flight software shows a maximum casualty expectation reduction of 97% compared to the flight software without GIHM near highly populated areas. Incorporation of this hazard mitigation module is successful in reducing fatalities per flight hour, bringing UAVs closer to being safe enough for integration into the National Airspace System.

无人机的自主运行要求开发技术，以实现更安全的飞行控制和对各种飞行异常的响应。自主控制软件应允许无人机检测并避免潜在危险，并在飞行过程中对关键故障做出响应，而无需人工操作。本文开发了一种地面撞击和减灾（GIHM）模块，该模块集成了以下内容：1）考虑发动机和控制面故障飞行模式，2）根据滑移方程生成可行的地面撞击足迹，3）选择最安全的响应地面基于高分辨率LandScan USA人口数据集的影响地点，以及4）控制下降到选定地点的地点。对于样本人口分布，与在人口稠密地区附近没有GIHM的飞行软件相比，将GIHM与标准无人机飞行软件的集成显示出最大的伤亡预期降低了97％。结合使用此危害减轻模块可以成功减少每飞行小时的死亡人数，使无人机更加安全，足以集成到国家空域系统中。