Ranges of Injury Risk Associated with Impact from Unmanned Aircraft Systems is a Virginia Tech research article by Eamon T. Campolettano, Megan L. Bland, Ryan A. Gellner, David W. Sproule, Bethany Rowson, Abigail M. Tyson, Stefan M. Duma, and Steven Rowson.

This study aimed to assess the potential range of injury risks to humans resulting from UAS impact. Three commercially available UAS models, varying in mass (1.2–11 kg), underwent evaluation to estimate the associated risk in UAS-human interactions. Live flight and falling impact tests were conducted utilizing 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 from live flight tests was 11.6%, while certain falling impact tests indicated risks surpassing 50%. Injury risk was found to escalate with increasing UAS mass, with larger models currently deemed unsafe for operations over people. Nonetheless, there is a likelihood that a subset of smaller UAS models could be deemed safe for such operations. Additionally, designs redirecting the UAS away from the head or deforming upon impact transfer less energy, generating lower risk. These findings serve as essential impact testing groundwork for future UAS regulations pertaining to operations over people.

Publication Date– September 2017

Ranges of Injury Risk Associated with Impact from Unmanned
Aircraft Systems contains the following major sections:

  • Introduction
  • Materials and Methods
  • Results
  • Discussion

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See Also-

Monitoring Risk Associated with Operations of UAS in the NAS

Drone Technology’s Impact on Risk Assessments and cUAS Solutions

Risk Based Paradigm- UAS in the NAS

Ground Risk Model for UAVs

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