NASA develops GRASP tool to assess UAS ground risk

Commercial use of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) is expected to grow as industries explore benefits such as goods transport, news coverage and wildfire spotting. Law enforcement agencies are expanding applications as well, including search and rescue and protecting endangered species.

A major challenge for urban operations remains reducing risk to people on the ground. To help operators recognize and minimize those risks, NASA Langley’s Aeronautics System Analysis Branch (ASAB) developed a pre-flight risk assessment service within NASA’s UAS Traffic Management system.

The Ground Risk Assessment Service Provider (GRASP) lets operators submit flight plans and visualize potential ground risk if an aircraft were to fail, showing detailed population density for the hour, day and season. The service is available through a publicly accessible website, and ASAB researchers are also developing onboard software for UAS to autonomously monitor, assess and minimize risk during flight.

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