Development of a three-dimensional collision risk model tool to assess safety in high density en-route airspaces

Abstract

A three-dimensional collision risk model (CRM) is being developed by the Technical University of Madrid and INECO for the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL) as a method of assessing the European en-route risk, due to all causes and across all dimensions within the airspace. This model provides a method for assessing the level of safety in en-route airspaces, where controllers monitor air traffic by means of radar and provide tactical instructions to aircraft, and also provides safety metrics required to understand these results. The three-dimensional CRM is based on the analysis of recorded aircraft tracks from radar data processing systems in order to identify and analyse automatically all proximate events within a time span and a given volume of airspace. The three-dimensional collision risk analytical model is backed up by a modular software tool developed to analyse radar data samples and to support the different processes that need to be addressed to obtain the required three-dimensional CRM outcome. The main purpose of this research is to show how the three-dimensional CRM software prototype performs an in-depth analysis of radar data, in order to provide robust information on air traffic factors and safety metrics.