{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.021335168616655197, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0020646937370956643, 'mean_word_length': 5.349344978165939, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Certification of a Civil UAS: A Virtual Engineering Approach

The use of Unmanned Autonomous Systems (UAS) is becoming an increasingly routine activity in military theatres of operation, particularly for the oft-cited ‘dull, dangerous and dirty’ missions. There is growing acceptance that UAS will find similar utility within the corresponding civilian missions and beyond. UAS technologies are maturing rapidly but the associated regulations to allow open access to civilian airspace are yet to be fully formulated. Current UK practice is therefore to allow UAS operation only in segregated airspace (airspace denied to all other potential users) or in non-segregated airspace but restricted to line-of-sight operations, below 400ft only. There is therefore a growing need to develop a means by which UAS can operate alongside existing airspace users, in all classes of nonsegregated UK airspace. The University of Liverpool's Virtual engineering Centre, is developing tools and techniques that will allow both industry and regulators to establish a ‘design for certification’ ethos within the supply chain where safety-critical software and hardware is required. The processes will include requirements capture and validation phases, as well as a means of testing and evaluating whole UAS/sub-system virtual prototypes, with a view to being able to demonstrate compliance with the relevant airworthiness codes as early as possible in the design cycle.