1.1 Introduction
Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) is referred to as Unmanned Aerial Systems which is defined as a system, whose components include the air vehicles and associated equipment that do not carry a human operator, but instead fly autonomously or are remotely piloted and all equipment. UAS must be considered in a systems context which includes the command, control and communications (C3) system, and personnel necessary to control the unmanned aircraft (Esteban et al., 2010 and HaiYang et al., (2010). Unmanned Aircraft system (UAS) has been used recently a lot in military applications as well as in civilian. Its importance and advantages in the search and rescue, real-time surveillance, reconnaissance operations, traffic monitoring, hazardous site inspection and range extension, recently it also used agriculture field.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
In recent years, the term UAV has been replaced with the term UA which stands for Unmanned Aircraft. To emphasize that a UA is a part of a complete system including ground operator stations, launching mechanisms and so forth, the term Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) has been introduced (Piotr, 2011). That system whose components includes the necessary equipment, network, and personnel to control an unmanned aircraft also called UAS (Major Scott et al., 2010).
The Next Generation Air Transportation System is an effort begun in 2003 whose goals include improving the capacity, efficiency, and safety of the U.S. air transportation system and also enabling reduction in noise, pollution, and energy use. FAA and various stakeholders, including equipment providers, airlines, and contractors, are currently implementing both near-term and mid- term NextGen capabilities. The Federal Aviation Administration Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 calls for the National Research Council to examine NextGen’s enterprise software development approach and safety and human factor design. The National Research Council assembled a committee of experts to study the issue.
The development of UAVs (Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle System) began in earnest at the end of the 1950s, taking advantage of the Vietnam War or the cold war, with full-scale research and development continuing into the 1970s. UAV called Fire bee. After the Vietnam War, the U.S. and Israel began to develop smaller and cheaper UAVs. These were small aircraft that adopted small engines such as those used in motorcycles or snow mobiles. They carried video cameras and transmitted images to the operator‘s location. It seems that the prototype of the present UAV can be found in this period. The U.S. put UAVs into practical use in the Gulf War in 1991, and UAVs for military applications developed quickly after this.
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Perception of People towards Next Generation Air Transportation and Unmanned Aircraft System.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Investigation reveals the challenges of NextGen air transportation system is not how to eliminate risks but rather how to manage them successfully. This usually means understanding the consequences of risky decisions as early in the project’s life cycle as possible, lest the costs of unwinding previous bad decisions become prohibitive. An effective architecture can be a basis for risk assessment and mitigation and can also be used as a tool to support decision-making. The risks to NextGen are not clearly articulated and quantified in order of importance, making it difficult to make sound decisions about how to prioritize effort and allocate resources. Airports cannot take off and land unlimited amounts of aircraft, there are mandatory separation standards set, not by people but by physics. It is just not possible to stack planes on top of each other like cars at a long red light.
Obviously this is impractical for widespread use of Unmanned Aircraft System, so they must achieve an equivalent level of safety to that of manned aircraft operations. There is currently a large amount of research being conducted on the UAV Sense and Avoid problem. Active solutions include the use of radar to detect collision threats; however this requires high amounts of electrical power, and are quite heavy. Passive solutions include the use of machine vision, which reduces the power requirement to a degree but, however, has a high computational requirement.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to scrutinize the Perception of People towards Next Generation Air Transportation and Unmanned Aircraft System. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To examine the perception of People towards Next Generation Unmanned Aircraft System
- To assess the factors affecting the development of Next Generation Air Transportation and Unmanned Aircraft System
- To find out the relationship between the Next Generation Air Transportation and Unmanned Aircraft System
- To proffer solution to the above stated challenges of the Next Generation Air Transportation and Unmanned Aircraft System
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- Are there any significant factors affecting the development of Next Generation Air Transportation and Unmanned Aircraft System?
- Is there any relationship between the Next Generation Air Transportation and Unmanned Aircraft System?
- What is the perception of People towards Next Generation Unmanned Aircraft System?
- What are the possible remedy to the problems of the Next Generation Air Transportation and Unmanned Aircraft System?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
Hypothesis One
- H0: There is no significant relationship between the Next Generation Air Transportation and Unmanned Aircraft System
- H1: There is a significant relationship between the Next Generation Air Transportation and Unmanned Aircraft System
Hypothesis Two
- H0: There are no significant factors affecting the development of Next Generation Air Transportation and Unmanned Aircraft System
- H1: There are significant factors affecting the development of Next Generation Air Transportation and Unmanned Aircraft System
1.7 Justification/Significance of Study
This research will be beneficial to Aviation Industry, especially Pilots which have the best vantage point to review information on how well the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) is performing. With the pilots’ insight, the study revealed other items that need changing. Policymakers who set the system up have overlooked something, or made an assumption that was not true. The issue that most pilots pointed out was that NextGen’s technologies were really going to make point to point flying much easier and more efficient, but it failed to address the fact that airports can only handle so much traffic themselves.
This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.8 Scope of Study
The study focuses on the Perception of People towards Next Generation Air Transportation and Unmanned Aircraft System in Nigeria Aviation Industry.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
1.10 Definition of Terms
System: is a set of connected things that interact or independent component forming an integrated whole.
Installation: Installation is the process whereby a device, apparatus, or piece is fixed or fitted in a place to perform some specific functions.
Knowledge: It can be define as information and skills or education; theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.
LAN: Is a computer network interconnected computer in a limited area such as a home, school, and computer laboratory or office building using network. LAN is also an acronym of local area networks.
Maintenance: This is the performance of present maintenance in the aid to prevent incipient hardware faults or to connect hardware faults that has occurred.
