SADE Zone (NASA ULI)

Safety-aware drone authorization and reputation for controlled airspace.

This project is part of a multi-university NASA University Leadership Initiative (ULI) effort led at Notre Dame by Prof. Jane Cleland-Huang. The initiative was selected as one of the major 2023 awards supporting university teams tackling key challenges in the future of flight, with multi-year, multi-million-dollar funding.

The rapid growth of small UAS (sUAS) in the National Airspace System has increased incidents tied to software/hardware faults, operator error, and environmental conditions. Current authorization workflows are often slow and manual, creating delays for pilots and operators.

SADE (Safety-Aware Drone Ecosystem) addresses this with transparent, automated authorization decisions for reputation-holding sUAS. Each aircraft submits an automated permission request, and the system grants, denies, or conditionally approves access based on evidence from a privacy-preserving Drone Reputation Profile (DRP). The architecture is designed to be tamper-resistant, resilient, and auditable, with reputation evolving over time from operational flight data.

At zone entry, SADE’s authorization manager evaluates mission readiness from the DRP and mission context, then returns a rationale-backed decision. The ecosystem also incorporates reliable, specialized communication mechanisms between sUAS and ground infrastructure.

Project links