Aviation

Our research to support the safe introduction of autonomous systems in aviation covers underlying technical research and work on areas such as unmanned aerial vehicle teams and legal frameworks.

This section pulls together all the research taking place in the aviation domain. It also highlights cross-domain work which will be of use to those working in this sector.

Where possible, a lot of the guidance we publish is intentionally developed to be suitable for use in any domain. You will therefore find key pieces of research below that are suitable for those working in any sector.

Image of guidance website - www.assuringautonomy.com

Expert guidance

We have created a guidance website that is home to our expert guidance on the safety assurance of autonomous systems, including an interactive version of AMLAS, our methodology for assuring the safety of machine learning components.

Go to the website
(external site)

Body of Knowledge guidance

The guidance in the Body of Knowledge is often generalised, enabling you to learn from research undertaken in other domains. At present we do not have any guidance in the BoK based on research in the aviation domain, so below you can access a number of entries that provide cross-domain guidance. You can also access all Body of Knowledge Guidance.

1.2 Identifying hazardous system behaviour
2.2.1.1 Defining sensing requirements
2.3.2 Sufficiency of the learning process
3.1 Identifying potential deviation from required behaviour

Other resources

Future Flight Initial Aviation Safety Framework

This report was written in partnership with Egis for UK Research and Innovation. Part of this work applied an initial framework for the management of complex systems developed by Professor McDermid and colleagues to gain insight into the potential considerations for the use of complex systems in future flight. This analysis supported the development of the Future Flight Aviation Safety Framework.

Demonstrators

We have funded two demonstrators in the aviation domain, linked below. You can also view all AAIP-funded demonstrator projects.

Remote inspection

Wizard of Oz prototyping

On the blog

Data suitability

Accidental autonomy

Latest research papers

Here are the most recent papers based on research in the aviation domain. You can also view all of our research papers.

Harbin, J., Gerasimou, S., Matragkas, N., Zolotas, T., and Calinescu, R. "Model-driven simulation-based analysis for multi-robot systems" in ACM/IEEE 24th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MODELS 21).
Harbin, J., Gerasimou, S., Matragkas, N., Zolotas, T., Calinescu, R., and Alpizar Santana, M. "Model-driven design space exploration for multi-robot systems in simulation" in Software and Systems Modeling (2022).
Parra, S., Schneider, S., & Hochgeschwender, N. "Specifying QoS requirements and capabilities for component-based robot software" in 2021 IEEE/ACM 3rd International Workshop on Robotics Software Engineering (RoSE) (pp. 29-36). IEEE

Our other research domains

Learn what research is taking place in other domains that might be transferable to your work.