Airport Traffic Control Tower Research Articles

Метод формування еталонної моделі суб'єкта навчання інтелектуальної навчальної системи «Диспетчер Tower»

The rapid development of information technologies significantly affects all spheres of human activity, and if they are introduced into the training of aviation specialists, it becomes possible to shift the emphasis to the subject of training (trainee) independent work. The intelligent training system "ATC of Tower", which is being developed at the Information Technologies Department of the Flight Academy of the National Aviation University, aims to provide such an opportunity when training an air traffic controller of airport traffic control tower (henceforth Tower controller). For the system to meet modern requirements for intelligent training systems of this kind, it must support the user at the training stage and determine the level of his knowledge at the control stage. The implementation of such functions becomes possible when the current and reference models of the subject of training are implemented into the system. The reference model in the process of system functioning closely interacts with the current model, thereby ensuring the fixation of mistakes made by the trainee. Based on mistakes, the intelligent system forms an individual training trajectory for the subject of training. The implementation of the reference model, which is one of the main tasks of the above-mentioned system development, becomes possible due to the use of the proposed method of forming the trainee reference model, which is discussed in this article. The proposed method consists of several stages, each of which is a systematized set of modified (taking into account the specifics of the subject area) known methods. The method allows one to obtain such components of the reference model of the learning subject as the list of technological operations, the correctness of which must be monitored from the point of view of qualitative and quantitative indicators; the procedure (algorithm) for performing these technological operations, depending on the situation, which is determined by the air and/or ground situation, aircraft performance characteristics, weather conditions, etc.; information flows circulation model at the workplace of a given specialist, as well as reference values of the time spent on each technological operation, which provides the possibility of an objective automatic assessment of the operator's activity of the trainee.

Revealing the regularities related to the professional activities of the air traffic controller of airport traffic control tower

The object of research is the professional activity of an air traffic controller of the airport traffic control tower (henceforth Tower controller). The subject of research is the regularities revealing in this specialist activity in the performance of its work responsibility for the trainee reference model formation in the intelligent training system «ATC of Tower». One of the most problematic areas is the lack of training systems that would allow for independent training of these aviation specialists, whose knowledge assessment would be automatic and objective. The study used methods of analysis, combined timing, synthesis, statistical analysis and probabilistic modelling. The approach to data collection and analysis proposed as part of study made it possible to obtain an information flows circulation model at the Tower controller workplace and formalize the time characteristics of technological operations performed by it during the aircraft landing procedure. This is fundamentally important for the development of the trainee reference model of the intellectual training system, as well as for the implementation of the training mode and automatic objective assessment of the student’s knowledge and skills. The approbation obtained results of this approach of data collection and analysis make it possible to consider it an effective tool for obtaining objective information about the subject area of the Tower controller’s professional activity, which is a complex continuous-discrete stochastic dynamic control system with a mixed structure. In contrast to the formation of reference models existing approaches, the approach to collecting and analysing data proposed in the work makes it possible to develop a trainee reference model that more fully describes the Tower controller’s activities. Also, the proposed model reflects the order of actions, and when interacting with the trainee current model, it allows to implement objective (without an instructor) automatic assessment.

Project Spotlight: New Charlotte airport traffic control tower aims high with precast concrete

In recent years, Gate Precast Co. of Oxford, N.C., has successfully built eight airport traffic control towers, including those in Atlanta, Ga., and Orlando, Fla. The company’s expertise was a significant factor in its winning the bid to build the new airport traffic control tower in Charlotte, N.C., which, at 370 ft (113 m) in height, is the second tallest airport traffic control tower in North America

Quantifying the Human Element of Safety in Airport Tower Operations: Overcoming Risks Introduced by Static Airport Characteristics

The primary responsibility of an Airport Traffic Control Tower (ATCT) controller is to prevent collisions between aircraft and other hazards on the surface and in the immediate vicinity. The safety service provided by controllers at towers with larger operations greatly exceeds the costs of establishing those towers. As the number of operations decreases, the costs of operating the tower may begin to outweigh the benefits of staffing the tower. With a focus on visual air traffic services (VATS), this assessment aims to examine the safety benefits being provided by controllers at ATCT in Class Delta (D) airspace through safety event narratives and airport characteristics. Safety event reports describing instances where an ATCT controller provided a service that reduced the consequences of the event were collected. The reports were classified to identify latent factors, causal factors, and positive safety benefits. The adverse causal factors and positive safety benefits were then utilized to determine statistically significant risk-benefit pathways describing the safety benefits that controllers provide at airports in Class D airspace. This paper presents the static risk-benefit pathway, one of the three determined pathways for Class D ATCT.

A neuro-wavelet technique for seismic damage identification of cantilever structures

A method based on artificial neural networks and wavelet transform is proposed for identifying seismic-induced damage of cantilever structures. In the proposed method, response accelerations are measured at strategically selected locations. To extract damage-induced sharp transitions from the measured signals, they are decomposed by continuous wavelet transform. The size of the decomposed signals is reduced by principal component analysis (PCA). Principal components obtained from PCA are fed to a set of neural networks to identify damage. The proposed algorithm is applied to a tall airport traffic control tower by means of numerical simulations. The obtained results show that the proposed method effectively identifies seismic-induced damage, and the noise intensity has a negligible effect on the predicted results. Moreover, the trained neural network system is able to predict the seismic-induced damage of unseen samples well.

Framework for High-Density-Area Departure and Arrival Traffic Management

An operational concept is proposed to improve high-density-area departure and arrival traffic management that specifically accounts for complications arising in metroplex operations where multiple airports are located in close proximity. In the proposed concept, the roles and responsibilities are redistributed among the traffic management coordinators in different facilities, which include the air route traffic control center, terminal radar approach control, and the airport traffic control tower. The redistribution of roles and responsibilities facilitates improved decision-making capabilities, thereby increasing safe, efficient, and stable operation of departure and arrival traffic in the Next Generation Air Transportation System. This paper proposes a set of functions and capabilities needed to support the roles and responsibilities defined in the proposed concept. The decision support system framework defines three levels of decision making and incorporates an optimization methodology to assist decision makers at the different phases of the decision process. A detailed description of the decomposition and corresponding decision support system structure is presented, and a description of the optimization models is provided. An analysis is performed on a realistic traffic example to demonstrate the optimization model and illustrate the concept.

Seismic performance evaluation of an airport traffic control tower through linear and nonlinear analysis

Due to a lack of adequate information about seismic design and the performance of airport traffic control (ATC) towers, structural engineers often rely on building codes. However, seismic performance and the demands of ATC towers differ significantly from common structures. In this paper, the seismic performance of Kuala Lumpur International Airport traffic control tower, with a height of 120 m, was investigated. The results showed that in comparison to modal response spectrum analysis, equivalent static analysis overestimated overturning moments, drifts, maximum displacement and demand/capacity ratio. In addition, linear analysis underestimates base shear, drifts and overturning moments in comparison to the results of nonlinear time history and pushover analysis.

Seismic damage detection of tall airport traffic control towers using wavelet analysis

In this study, the applicability of continuous wavelet transform (CWT) and discrete wavelet transform (DWT) for seismic damage detection of tall airport traffic control (ATC) towers was investigated. Nonlinear finite element (NFE) model of Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) ATC tower with the height of 120 m was created using discrete moment-curvature hinges. Three different strong ground motions excited the tower and three different damage scenarios were then obtained. Response accelerations at four strategically selected locations were analysed by CWT and DWT to detect the damage scenarios. It was found that CWT successfully detects seismic-induced damage even when the signals are polluted by noises. On the other hand, DWT is quite sensitive to noisy signals and successful damage detection by DWT depends on noise level and sampling interval. Moreover, it was observed that DWT is more sensitive to the change in the stiffness of the tower structural elements than CWT.

Composite Steel Stud Blast Panel Design and Experimental Testing

Based on Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) requirements, project specific blast loads are determined for the design of a new airport traffic control tower. These blast loads must be resisted by exterior wall panels on the control tower, protecting building occupants from intentional explosives attack scenarios. Such blast resistant walls are typically constructed of thick reinforced concrete panels or composite steel plate and rolled sections, as conventional building cladding systems have relatively low blast resistance. While these more robust design approaches are valid, the additional cladding mass they represent will significantly increase the base shear and overturning demand in seismic zones. This paper investigates the use of a light structural system comprised of a steel stud wall assembly partially embedded in a thin layer of concrete to obtain composite action. Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites are also included to increase the blast resistance and aid in keeping the panel weight to a minimum. Two full-scale composite steel stud walls are designed, constructed, and tested dynamically in the BakerRisk shock tube. The stud walls consist of back-to-back 150 mm deep, 14 gauge (1.8 mm thick), cold-formed steel studs spaced at 610 mm on center. Both specimens have a 50 mm thick normal weight concrete layer, reinforced with welded wire mesh that is welded to the stud compression flanges to achieve composite action. Two layers of Tyfo® SEH-51A fiber reinforced composites are used on the tension flange of the steel studs. A single layer of Tyfo® SEH-51A composites is used on the tension face of the concrete layer between the studs for one of the specimens. Web stiffeners are used at the bearing support to prevent premature web crippling shear failure of the specimens. The stud walls are analyzed using single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) models. A non-linear moment-curvature relationship, accounting for actual material constitutive properties, is used for determining the resistance function of the walls. Blast pressure and impulse data from the shock tube tests is used to compare analytical predictions to the measured displacement-time response. Analytical predictions of panel response for both tests are within ten percent of the observed response based on displacement.

Evaluations of Data Communications in Tower, TRACON, and En Route Air Traffic Control

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has embarked on a large effort to create the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). NextGen will prepare the National Airspace System to accept increasing air traffic levels and complexity in a safe and efficient manner. Data Communications (Data Comm) is one of the core technologies of NextGen. The use of Data Comm will improve information exchange between pilots and air traffic controllers. In 2009, the FAA conducted three human-in-the-loop experiments to address the use of Data Comm in the Airport Traffic Control Tower, the Terminal Radar Approach Control, and the En Route airspace. The experiments focused on human factors aspects of air traffic control tasks under a variety of conditions including varying percentages of aircraft equipped for Data Comm, different interface designs, and changes in roles of responsibilities of air traffic controllers.

Tower Controllers' Response Behavior to Runway Safety Alerts

As decision support tools to improve runway safety are introduced into Airport Traffic Control Towers, it is critical to understand their impact on controller performance. A Tower Human-In-The-Loop (HITL) simulation was conducted to evaluate the behavior of Local controllers in the presence of tower-based runway safety alerts. The results of this study suggest controllers like to gather as much information about the situation, within a reasonable amount of time (usually less than 5 seconds), before they initiate the action of issuing instructions to the aircraft involved in the emergency.

Performance and Rehabilitation of Type L FAA Airport Traffic Control Tower at San Carlos, California, for Seismic Loading

This paper presents a seismic evaluation of the San Carlos airport traffic control tower (ATCT) in San Carlos, California, that describes the tower, presents the seismic evaluation of the tower, and defines a rehabilitation approach that upgrades the structure to applicable life-safety standards. The San Carlos ATCT is a Federal Aviation Administration Type L tower, whose primary structure below the control cab (tower shaft) is four inverted L-shaped reinforced concrete members that frame together at the top of the tower shaft. The goal of this evaluation was to determine if life-safety performance could be demonstrated, and if not, to develop an upgrade approach to achieve this performance. The seismic hazard was based on the maximum considered earthquake defined in the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) recommended provisions. The evaluation shows that the tower cannot achieve life-safety performance due to large deflections in the cab and the formation of a collapse mechanism. The connection base plates for the cab columns (corner window mullions) will form a collapse mechanism at very low seismic motions. Formation of the collapse mechanism is due to base-plate bending failure and subsequent hinging at the base of each column. The recommended rehabilitation approach is to upgrade the columns to reduce deflections to acceptable levels, and also to protect the vulnerable connections. Upgrading the columns consists of welding plates on the interior and exterior column faces and welding deep structural tubing members to the base of each corner column. The writers considered the evaluation of this particular control tower to be of interest to the technical community because of the unique failure mechanism and proposed upgrade approach.

Fire-Safety Upgrades in Airport Control Towers

This paper discusses fire-safety upgrades and the various aspects of their design and construction in standard airport traffic control towers (ATCTs) for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the Western Pacific region. Towers provide a safe and orderly flow of airport traffic for the benefit of the flying public. Knowledge of ATCT fire-safety upgrades can benefit professionals and contractors in various engineering fields, especially those interested in project management and control techniques. Specifically, the successful upgrading of 35 standard towers in the Western Pacific region to provide smoke-free, fire-protected means of egress and early-warning fire detection and alarm system, as specified in FAA's Fire Safety Guidelines , demonstrates how to meet major program objectives within a cost-effective time frame. This paper includes a brief history of the relationship between the FAA and the Technical Support Services Contract as it relates to these upgrades; a general description of the work...

Object‐oriented programming applied to a prototype workstation

AbstractObject‐oriented programming has been applied to the development of a prototype workstation to be used in airport traffic control towers. Objective‐C was used because it supports objects, classes and inheritance, and it allows easy access to system services. A number of design practices emerged as helpful in the course of development, some of which have been reported elsewhere. The notion of a framework of co‐operating classes as a paradigm of design was especially helpful. Comparisons with the size and rate of code production of an earlier, similar workstation programmed in C indicate an advantage to object‐oriented programming.

Historical Development of the Air Traffic Control System

Early attempts to provide a semblance of air traffic control were based on simple "rules of the road" resulting from the European sponsored International Convention for Air Navigation (1919). The United States formulated its first regulations relating to air traffic following the passage of the Air Commerce Act of 1926. By 1930, radio equipped airport traffic control towers were being established by some local (municipal) authorities. In 1933 instrument flying commenced, and by 1935 several airlines jointly established the first Airway Traffic Control centers to safeguard their aircraft against midair collisions. In 1936 this preliminary effort was transferred to the Federal Government, and the first-generation Air Traffic Control (ATC) System was born. This generation pioneered the development of ATC procedures, rules and regulations, the establishment of a nationwide ATC system for both civil and military air traffic, and certain new equipment and facilities. The advent of radar in the early 1950's marked the inauguration of the second-generation system, which carried on, expanded, and improved the accomplishments of the first generation, and brought into operational use radar and direct center/pilot communication capability. In the early 1960's the third generation came into being with the introduction of automation. Recognizing the need to develop a more comprehensive approach to solving the requirements of ever increasing air traffic volume, an upgraded third-generation system was postulated in 1969. The third/upgraded third generations will merge during the 1970's. From this base, the ATC System will transition to a fourth generation, which may be expected to be defined during the first half of the 1970's, with initial implementation commencing perhaps in the early 1980's.