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Glyndŵr University Research Online
Conference Paper
Review of unmanned aircraft system technologies to enable
beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations
Davies, L., Bolam, R., Vagapov, Y. and Anuchin, A.
This is a paper presented at the 10th International Conference on Electrical Power Drive
Systems ICEPDS 2018, Novocherkassk, Russia, 3 -6 October 2018 .
Copyright of the author(s). Reproduced here with their permission and the permission of the
conference organisers.
Recommended citation:
Davies, L., Bolam, R., Vagapov, Y. and Anuchin, A. (2018) ‘Review of unmanned aircraft
system technologies to enable beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations’. In Proc. 10th
International Conference on Electrical Power Drive Systems IC EPDS 2018, Novocherkassk,
Russia, 3 -6 October 2018, pp. 1 -6. doi: 10.1109/ICEPDS.2018.8571665Abstract—The need to develop and deploy Beyond Visual
Line of Sight (BVLOS) aerial vehicles has intensified over the
last decade. As the demand for Unmanned Aircraft Systems
(UAS) has increased, so too has the regulations that surrounds
the industry. Strict regulations are currently in place but
differ from country to country. Due to these regulations
BVLOS innovators have been posed the task of exploring the
means of operating flight missions with the UAV out of the
sight of the pilot. Autonomous flight capability is not only
fundamental to BVLOS operations for UAS but also likely to
have a significant impact on the future development of
passenger carrying autonomous aircraft. This review explores
the technologies that have been developed to date that enable
BVLOS applications. BVLOS flight operations have the
potential to open a huge area of commercial opportunity
however, there remain many concerns about the current
capabilities of UAS to detect and avoid manned andunmanned airborne hazards that may pose a significant safety
risk.
Keywords —drones, unmanned aircraft system, BVLOS,
autonomous aircraft
I. INTRODUCTION
Accompanying the rapid increase of drone operations
over the past few years has been a comparative increase in
the regulations governing the industry. The main driver for
which has been the safety of societies with respect to their
populations, property and environment. This cautious
approach has been very successful to date and in the UK, in
common with many other European countries, amateur
drone operations are only permitted to take place within the
Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) of the Remote Pilot. This is
commonly interpreted to mean up to 500m horizontally and
400ft (120m) vertically. For commercial UAV operators
Extended Visual Line of Sight (EVLOS) operations beyond
the aforementioned distances may also be permissible.
Applications must be submitted to the Civil AviationAuthority (CAA) for EVLOS which include an acceptable
safety case and the use of deployed observers. Operations
Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) may also be
permitted if an approved method of aerial separation and
collision avoidance is employed or alternatively the flights
are made within segregated airspace under Instrument
Flying Rules (IFR) and with Air Traffic Control (ATC)
clearance [1]. Fig. 1 illustrates VLOS, EVLOS and BVLOS
operations. Recently many national governments have identified
UAS as a key economic growth sector for technology and
are keen to encourage its development. In June 2017 the
Single European Sky Air traffic management Research
Joint Undertaking (SESAR Joint Undertaking) released a
blueprint aimed at making a strong and dynamic EU drone
services market by introducing the concept of “U -Space” a
low-level airspace for drone operations [3]. This airspace is
intended to be in place by 2019 and extend vertically to150m. Drone operations within it are to be safe and
automated for BVLOS operations. It has been predicted
that the advent of BVLOS operations will herald a new
boom in the drone industry [4].
It could be claimed that the first recorded BVLOS UAV
mission was carried out by the Austrian army in 1849 with
an attack on Venice using hot air balloons filled with
explosives. [5] Since then the use of UAVs has increase
substantially in both the military and commercial sectors. In
the UK, BVLOS flights are more commonly conducted by
the military normally under the guidance of the Military
Aviation Authority (MAA), but that seems to be about the
change as the UK Civil Aviation Authority has granted
permission to the Defence Infrastructure Organisation
Service Delivery Training (DIO SD TRG), to conduct a
BVLOS test at the Salisbury Plain Training area to meet its
military requirements [6], [7]. This form of approval for
BVLOS flights could be applied to a wide and variednumber of government and public applications. There are
quite a few scenarios where BVLOS could be executed
efficiently and safely such as: package delivery, which has
already been tested by Amazon; pipeline inspections that Review of Unmanned Aircraft System Technologies
to Enable Beyond Visual Line of Sight
(BVLOS) Operations
Alecksey Anuchin
Moscow Power Engineering Institute
Moscow, Russia Lee Davies
Glyndwr University
Wrexham, UK
Fig. 1. VLOS, EVLOS and BVLOS illustrated [2].
UAV Pilot Additional ObserverVLOS Flights EVLOS FlightsBVLOS Flights
Range of Remote ControlVisual Range
978-1-5386 -4713 -4/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE Yuriy Vagapov
Glyndwr University
Wrexham, UK Robert Cameron Bolam
Glyndwr University
Wrexham, UK 2018 X International Conference on Electrical Power Drive Systems (ICEPDS)stretch over great distances; agriculture; search and rescue;
policing and border control etc. [8] -[12]. BVLOS