ICARUS project has the ambition to propose an innovative and feasible solution to address the novel challenge related to the UAS and manned traffic in the same volume of airspace, with the requirement to have a Common Altitude Reference in the operational space and, in the first phase, within the VLL airspaces with the definition of a new U-space service and its validation in a real operational environment.

The activities in which UAS are employed, from commercial to leisure, can lead them to share VLL airspace with “manned” aircrafts (with pilot on board). To manage the separation among all users of this airspace, the altitudes of all these aircrafts must be known unmistakably through a common datum. But, currently, “manned” aviation uses pressure altitude obtained from barometric readings, while UAS normally use other systems such as data provided by GNSS.

Each of these different systems can provide a correct value, but each system provides different altitude values from each other, due to different reference parameters. Consequently, it’s mandatory to define a common altitude reference system in order to ensure an “acceptable separation” among the new actors (UAS, Taxi drones, …) and the UAS and the manned traffic.

ICARUS project proposes a GNSS based altimetry solution to define a Common Altitude Reference system for drones operating at very low level airspace (up to 400ft), through the identification of the navigation requirements applicable to Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs) and the definition of a new “UAS/Manned aircrafts altitude conversion”, to manage all the traffic operating within the U-space.