Detect, sense & avoid: Enhancing the visibility of unmanned aerial systems

With regulations on the rise as more unmanned aerial systems (UAS) deploy into our national airspace (NAS), it is important to understand ways to make each operation safer. Detect, sense, and avoid in UAS is the responsibility of the ground operators and observers. This is a common practice in both general and commercial aviation and the same practice implemented in small-unmanned aerial system (sUAS) operations, which is a task that is easier said than done. We found that sUAS are less detectible at dusk even when the act of detectability is emphasized through the use of onboard lighting. Specific lighting configurations can make all the difference in optimizing visibility to the untrained eye and through the findings within this study, recommendations are presented to aid in the detection of sUAS.