Projects and Grants
By working in collaboration with universities across the nation, the KU FRL has received multiple grants to further the research conducted here. Below is a list of current grants that are actively being worked on.
DOD LEAPES
Project LEAPES is a collaborative project made possible by a three-year U.S. Department of Defense grant for nearly $2.7 million to help mentor and promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics degrees and careers to 7th - 12th-grade students throughout the state of Kansas.
Grant Award Amount:
$950,000
DOD ARISE
ERIP is part of project ARISE (Applied Research and Innovation Scholarship for Engineering Student), which intends to create a pipeline of young people pursuing careers in Aerospace, Computer and Electrical Engineering by engaging rural, military-connected, and community college transfer students from Kansas in exploration, inquiry, and research opportunities.
ARISE (Applied Research and Innovation Scholarship for Engineering Student)
Grant Award Amount:
$3,090,000
NSF AirScope
This project is aimed at designing and building several versatile and programmable UAV-based measurement platforms (dubbed AirScope) with integrated cellular modems and automatic flight controller for beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) scenarios. Through an integrated hardware and software design, command and control (C2), telemetry, and payload data are communicated through the commercial cellular network, thereby enabling both radio access and end-to-end cellular network measurements in rural areas. Furthermore, to enhance the efficiency of the data collection tool, a novel concept of measurement-aware trajectory design will be developed and implemented. Extensive evaluation campaign and data curation effort will result in an unprecedented dataset of cellular measurement data that can be used for a wide range of data-driven research projects. The project will introduce a unique symbiosis between the wireless communication and the aerospace engineering communities by creating a set of hardware and software tools that unify the knowledge and practical expertise of these two fields.
Grant Award Amount:
$600,000.00
FAA Assure A51
Industry desires to automate many types of UAS operations to the extent possible. This research will explore automation failures applicable to UAS operations. Researchers will classify the various types of automation failures in order to better assess automation risks and areas of automated design that require special attention. Operational constraints and limitations of UAS design will also be assessed as part of the overall risk management approach. Generalized design guidance and best engineering practices will be developed. Specific design guidance and recommendations will be proposed for a few key areas of UAS automated design that require special attention. Research findings will be shared with an industry standards body.
Guidance for Autonomous Systems (A51_A11L.UAS.92) - Assure (assureuas.org)
Grant Award Amount:
$357,681.00
FAA Assure A54
Right-of-Way rules govern the interactions between aircraft in order to preserve safety. Right-of-Way rules are derived in part from the See-and-Be-Seen safety concept, the maneuverability limitations of aircraft types to give way, and other safety considerations. Ambiguity exist for certain Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) operations and the right-of-way rules that they should follow. Part 107.37 applies to small UAS (sUAS) and states that sUAS must give way to all other aircraft including those that overtake the sUAS. Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA) DO365 and RTCA DO365 UAS standards have been developed suggesting compliance with Part 91.113, where non-cooperative manned aircraft overtaking the UAS must give way and pass on the right of the UAS. There is ambiguity for mid-sized UAS that may be difficult for other pilots to see. Rules have yet to be developed for interactions between two unmanned aircraft or for UAS swarms. Right-of-way rules impact UAS Detect and Avoid (DAA) requirements and the development of industry standards. This research will explore right-of-way rules for diverse UAS operations and make safety-based recommendations for consideration by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) decision makers and UAS standards bodies.
Right-of-way Rules (A54_A11L.UAS.97) - Assure (assureuas.org)
Grant Award Amount:
$495,933.61
FAA Assure A68
Detect and Avoid (DAA) industry standards have proposed separation criteria to satisfy regulatory well clear requirements for small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) DAA operations that maintain separation from manned aircraft. These distance thresholds are often supported by unmitigated simulation analysis, but have yet to be assessed holistically for compliance with regulatory right-of-way rules, good human factors engineering, remote pilot usability, DAA surveillance limitations, mitigated simulation analysis that includes the DAA system, harmonization with proposed risk ratio values, behavior acceptance by other pilots so as to not interfere with crewed aircraft operations, and so forth. This project will assess, refine (if necessary), and validate well clear separation criteria for a variety of sUAS operations that avoid crewed air traffic. This project will also assess smaller separation criteria that is suitable for interactions between two sUAS for a variety of interactions near and away from flight obstacles at low altitudes.
Validate sUAS Well Clear Requirements (A68_A11L.UAS.117) - Assure (assureuas.org)
Grant Award Amount:
$400,000.00