Ranges of Injury Risk Associated with Impact from Unmanned Aircraft Systems

Annals of Biomedical Engineering, Sep 2017

Regulations have allowed for increased unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) operations over the last decade, yet operations over people are still not permitted. The objective of this study was to estimate the range of injury risks to humans due to UAS impact. Three commercially-available UAS models that varied in mass (1.2–11 kg) were evaluated to estimate the range of risk associated with UAS-human interaction. Live flight and falling impact tests were conducted using an instrumented Hybrid III test dummy. On average, live flight tests were observed to be less severe than falling impact tests. The maximum risk of AIS 3+ injury associated with live flight tests was 11.6%, while several falling impact tests estimated risks exceeding 50%. Risk of injury was observed to increase with increasing UAS mass, and the larger models tested are not safe for operations over people in their current form. However, there is likely a subset of smaller UAS models that are safe to operate over people. Further, designs which redirect the UAS away from the head or deform upon impact transfer less energy and generate lower risk. These data represent a necessary impact testing foundation for future UAS regulations on operations over people.

A PDF file should load here. If you do not see its contents the file may be temporarily unavailable at the journal website or you do not have a PDF plug-in installed and enabled in your browser.

Alternatively, you can download the file locally and open with any standalone PDF reader:

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs10439-017-1921-6.pdf

Ranges of Injury Risk Associated with Impact from Unmanned Aircraft Systems

Ranges of Injury Risk Associated with Impact from Unmanned Aircraft Systems EAMON T. CAMPOLETTANO 0 1 MEGAN L. BLAND 0 1 RYAN A. GELLNER 0 1 DAVID W. SPROULE 0 1 BETHANY ROWSON 0 1 ABIGAIL M. TYSON 0 1 STEFAN M. DUMA 0 1 STEVEN ROWSON 0 1 0 Institute and State University , Blacksburg, VA , USA. Electronic mail: 1 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University , Blacksburg, VA , USA -Regulations have allowed for increased unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) operations over the last decade, yet operations over people are still not permitted. The objective of this study was to estimate the range of injury risks to humans due to UAS impact. Three commercially-available UAS models that varied in mass (1.2-11 kg) were evaluated to estimate the range of risk associated with UAS-human interaction. Live flight and falling impact tests were conducted using an instrumented Hybrid III test dummy. On average, live flight tests were observed to be less severe than falling impact tests. The maximum risk of AIS 3+ injury associated with live flight tests was 11.6%, while several falling impact tests estimated risks exceeding 50%. Risk of injury was observed to increase with increasing UAS mass, and the larger models tested are not safe for operations over people in their current form. However, there is likely a subset of smaller UAS models that are safe to operate over people. Further, designs which redirect the UAS away from the head or deform upon impact transfer less energy and generate lower risk. These data represent a necessary impact testing foundation for future UAS regulations on operations over people. Drone; Skull; Brain; Concussion; Cervical spine; Neck INTRODUCTION Small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) represent a potentially substantial market as their use becomes more commonplace. It has been estimated that the economic benefit from UAS operations may exceed $82.1 billion by 2025.2,26 Since 2008, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been attempting to incorporate the use of UAS within the national airspace system (NAS).1,6,9,16,21,25 The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 set forth directives towards assessing the risks associated with operational UAS.26 Part 107 of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations, which stipulates the regulations regarding UAS flight, was signed into effect in 2016. Operational specifications limit the mass of any UAS to 55 lbs. (25 kg), maximum speed to 100 mph (45 m/s), and maximum altitude to 400 ft. (122 m) above ground level. The rule further states that all UAS must be operated within visual line-of-sight of the pilot and may not operate over persons.9 Unmanned aircraft systems applications are currently limited to monitoring and inspection for agriculture, power lines, and bridges, educational pursuits, research and development, aerial photography, and rescue operations.9 Two applications considered to be among the largest potential markets for UAS, freight transport and public safety applications by police officers or firefighters, are not included in this list.2,5 These operations would require flight over people, which the FAA has yet to allow for two major reasons: a paucity of safety data available for risk to humans and that no other country with UAS regulations allows for operation over people.8,9,16 Safety standards exist in most industries to regulate the potential for catastrophic injury and death. Of note, current safety standards in the automotive and sport industries have been very effective in limiting catastrophic and fatal events. In the automotive industry, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) 208 and 214 specify minimum occupant protection requirements for frontal and side impact motor vehicle crashes. These two standards, combined with the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP), which provides consumers with ratings of occupant 2017 The Author(s). This article is an open access publication protection by vehicle model beyond the standards, have reduced the fatality rate associated with motor vehicle crashes by 80% over the last 50 years.15 In the sport industry, the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE) governs standards that specify minimum performance requirements for protective headgear. When the NOCSAE standard for football helmets was first implemented, the number of fatal head injuries in football was reduced by 74%.13 Safety standards such as these have been so effective because they limit loads transferred to the body during impact events. Impact safety standards employ pass-fail thresholds for biomechanical parameters experienced by a human surrogate. In order to be certified as safe, meaning use of the product is unlikely to result in catastrophic or fatal injury, impact tests of products must produce biomechanical parameters below the threshold. It is important to note that these thresholds represent a specified risk of catastrophic or fatal outcome that is considered acceptable. Passin (...truncated)


This is a preview of a remote PDF: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs10439-017-1921-6.pdf

Eamon T. Campolettano, Megan L. Bland, Ryan A. Gellner, David W. Sproule, Bethany Rowson, Abigail M. Tyson, Stefan M. Duma, Steven Rowson. Ranges of Injury Risk Associated with Impact from Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 2017, pp. 1-9, DOI: 10.1007/s10439-017-1921-6