A unified flight phase and event model for the analysis of heterogeneous ATM simulations

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The research activities of the DLR Institute of Flight Guidance include validation and verification of new systems and procedures, such as airport infrastructure, routes, or assistance systems for air traffic controllers and pilots. Research is supported by a number of different simulation environments. Real-time simulators (RTS) like the Apron and Tower Simulator or the Air Traffic Management and Operations Simulator, as well as several fast-time simulation (FTS) tools focus on different parts of air traffic and help to examine various aspects of the air traffic environment (e.g. controller view, pilot view, general traffic situation, etc.). The utilization of all simulation systems in the Institute of Flight Guidance is focused on scientific research, and thus significant effort is placed in the analysis of simulation results. To support this task, the Institute of Flight Guidance has implemented the software system Extensible Workflow Management for Simulations (EWMS) for simulation process and data management. EWMS supports most of the simulation environments used within the institute, and provides generic reporting algorithms independent of the simulation system used. As the different simulation environments use a wide range of output data types and formats, the simulated flight trajectories have to be converted into one common format for subsequent analysis using the generic algorithms built into EWMS. Therefore, a unified description of flight phases and flight events was developed based on the CAST/ICAO Common Taxonomy Team (CICTT) Phase of Flight Definitions (see Stepens and de Kock in Phase of flight definitions and usage notes, CAST/ICAO Common Taxonomy Team, Version 1.0.2, 2010) as well as flight event definitions from the EUROCONTROL CDM Implementation Manual (see Lagios in Airport CDM implementation manual, 2006), and taking into account the flight phase and event models of different simulation environments. A survey of the simulation environments used in the institute resulted in an initial set of flight phases that could be generated by the different simulators. These flight phases were mapped onto the CAST/ICAO definitions, and extensions were made where the CAST/ICAO model offered no corresponding flight phase. Conditions for each phase of flight (e.g., departure boarding, taxi to runway, initial climb, etc.) were documented. Similarly, conditions for the different flight events (e.g., estimated and actual landing time, estimated and actual in-block-time, etc.) and their relation to flight phase boundaries were defined and documented. The resulting unified flight phase and event model was validated through interviews with ATM and simulation experts, air traffic controllers, flight test engineers and pilots. Finally, the model was implemented within the EWMS parsers for the simulation-specific data files. To account for the different capabilities of different simulation environments, the model offers several levels of detail for the individual flight phases, e.g., where one environment may simply show an aircraft that has just taken off as “in flight”, another environment can provide more detailed information about initial climb, climb to cruise and en-route flight. The flight phase model accounts for the different levels of detail to enable meaningful comparisons between the different simulations. The generic flight phase and event model enables the implementation of simulation-independent algorithms for the institute’s heterogeneous ATM simulation environments, allowing comparative analyses for simulations from different environments (e.g., FTS and RTS). In turn, using the same well-validated algorithms for several environments significantly reduces the effort required for the analysis of individual simulation campaigns.