It's time to develop your own CONOP and Risk Assessment methodology for the UAS you selected for the SWOT analysis in Lesson 2, by doing the following:
- List all potential risks that surround such an operation and classify them into detectable or undetectable risks.
- Select three of the risks that you identified and assess the consequences of each of these risks, if they happened, on each of the following topics:
- Project Cost (budgetary)
- Project Schedule (time)
- Safety (personnel, vehicle, facilities, etc.)
- Describe your mitigation strategy for each of these three risks, when they happen.
Your document, at a minimum, should include the following sections:
- Cover page
- Table of contents
- Complete technical description of your system, element by element, with necessary illustrations and images. It should include at a minimum the following system items:
- UAS and its components
- Ground Control Stations
- Data link and communications frequency and protocol
- Payload (cameras, other sensors, and auxiliary systems such as GPS and IMU)
- Batteries
- Your project description and geographic site parameters. At a minimum, you should include the following:
- Geo-referenced topographic map of the project area, showing the project boundary
- Geo-referenced thematic map of the project area showing the project boundary and surrounding features, i.e., Google map
- Sectional chart showing project boundary, airspace class, restricted flight areas, airports, towers/obstacles, etc.
- An operational plan, i.e., project plan, budget, schedule, flight plan, etc. Your flight plan should be executed in two ways:
- Manual computations according to the formulas provided in lesson 4, provide all details of computations, not just the final computed value.
- From the Mission Planner software, provide a screen capture and details of the flight parameters.
- Besides the details for the two flight plan design scenarios, provide at a minimum the following information:
- Flying altitude
- Number of flight lines
- GSD
- Ground control points layout
- Illustration on a map showing flight lines, take-off and landing spots, etc.
- The project budget should include the following cost items:
- System acquisition or lease
- Personnel travel and per diem
- Man-hours for field operations during data acquisition, including RPIC and perhaps visual observation
- Ground control points survey
- Equipment insurance
- Spare batteries and other supplies, if any
- Data processing using Pix4D
- Etc.
- Identification and classification of all possible risks, classified as detectable and undetectable risks.
- Analysis of the impact of three of these risks on project cost, schedule, and the safety of the surroundings.
- Mitigation strategies for the three risks when they occur.
- Summary and Conclusions.
Submit your report in a Word document, NOT a PDF, to the drop box. The report should not exceed 3500 words or 15 pages (single line spacing). You will have 3 weeks to complete this assignment. (7 points or 7%)
The deadline for this assignment is at the end of lesson 5.
To Read
- Air Combat Command is a good read about UAV CONOP in general
- River Forecast Center (RFC) Analysis and Gridded Forecast Editor Improvement, CONOP developed by NOAA’s National Weather Service.
To Do
- Complete your CONOP and Risk assessment analysis as described above. Drop your completed MS Word document in the drop box in Lesson 5. (7 points)