Automated Air Traffic Management Research Articles

Autonomous and collaborative trajectory planning for traffic complexity management

AbstractTo accommodate growing air traffic demand, the traffic complexity management plays a crucial role in the capacity improvement of future automated air traffic management. In this paper, an autonomous and collaborative trajectory planning (ACTP) method is presented to facilitate collaborative decision‐making and enhance flexibility of the traffic complexity management in the en route airspace. A nonlinear integer model is formulated for the conflict‐free autonomous trajectory planning by reorganizing the trajectories with the combination of speed adjustment, lateral rerouting and flight level allocation maneuvers. Within the framework of the air‐ground situation awareness sharing, the spatio‐temporal reachable space is defined to describe the feasible solution space under the constraints of aircraft performance and required time of arrival. In addition, both the system‐level and the individual‐level objectives, traffic complexity and flight efficiency, are considered in the model, which are measured through the metric based on linear dynamical systems and the deviation from the user‐preferred trajectory. To balance the optimality and computational efficiency in the multi‐aircraft trajectory planning, a multi‐aircraft clustered and collaborative optimization algorithm is proposed based on the hybrid distributed‐centralized control strategy. The experimental results of the scenario in Western China airspace is presented, which verify the effectiveness of the proposed ACTP method through the comparison of other methods. Furthermore, a multi‐criteria decision‐making problem is discussed to strike a better trade‐off between different objectives in the trajectory planning.

Universal prediction algorithm in maneuvering target tracking

The paper considers the methods to increase the accuracy of trajectory processing of the results of radar measurements in automated air traffic management systems (AATMS). The recursive filters traditionally used in the secondary processing path of radar information of modern AATMS systems are briefly considered: alpha-beta filter, linear and extended Kalman filters, multi-model filter. Along with multi-model Kalman filters it is proposed to use a universal filter based on the universal prediction theorem, the accuracy of which is asymptotically no worse than any other filter in the class of continuous functions. The algorithm for the operation of a universal alpha-beta filter was developed. As a result of modeling, it was obtained that the mean square of the tracking error of the trajectory of a maneuvering target for the universal filter during the change of the motion model turned out to be lower than for traditional filters.

EuroDRONE, a European Unmanned Traffic Management Testbed for U-Space

EuroDRONE is an Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) demonstration project, funded by the EU’s SESAR organization, and its aim is to test and validate key UTM technologies for Europe’s ‘U-Space’ UTM program. The EuroDRONE UTM architecture comprises cloud software (DroNav) and hardware (transponder) to be installed on drones. The proposed EuroDRONE system is a Highly Automated Air Traffic Management System for small UAVs operating at low altitudes. It is a sophisticated, self-learning system based on software and hardware elements, operating in a distributed computing environment, offering multiple levels of redundancy, fail-safe algorithms for conflict prevention/resolution and assets management. EuroDRONE focuses its work on functionalities which involve the use of new communication links, the use of vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) technology to communicate information between drones and operators for safe and effective UTM functionality. Practical demonstrations that took place in Patras/Messolonghi in 2019 are presented and show the benefits and shortcomings of near-term UTM implementation in Europe.

Masked hypertension in air traffic controllers at work

Objective. To study the features of changes in hemodynamic parameters in the air traffic controllers at work and the rate of “masked” hypertension. Design and methods . We examined 55 air traffic controllers from Moscow Centre for Automated Air Traffic Management of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “State Corporation for Air Traffic Management” and 30 information security specialists who formed the comparison group. The groups were comparable by age, work experience (by the specialty), and the level of office blood pressure (BP). We assessed the main cardiovascular risk factors, and blood pressure parameters by 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM). Results. Despite comparable rates of cardiovascular risk factors, the air traffic controllers demonstrate higher BP levels and higher rates of masked hypertension. According to 24-hour ABPM masked hypertension was detected in 40 % air traffic controllers, which is twice higher than in the comparison group. In addition, the air traffic controllers show significant difference in BP levels in working days and daysoff. Conclusions. The high rate of masked hypertension among air traffic controllers might be associated with the peculiarities of professional activity, namely, with the high stress level.

Ensuring the implementation of the modernized structure and automation of air traffic control processes in the area of responsibility of the Moscow district of air traffic control

The article considers the new automated air traffic management system «Synthesis AR4», as well as a system description for ensuring the implementation of a modernized airspace structure, navigation and surveillance that provides technical capabilities. A number of functional capabilities and advantages of the airspace security system are presented.

PP.LB01.12] THE FEATURES OF DIURNAL BLOOD PRESSURE PROFILE IN AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS IN CIVIL AVIATION

Objective: According to the reports of the medical-flight expert commissions, cardiovascular (CV) diseases in aviation personnel have a high prevalence. CV diseases and arterial hypertension are the cause of disqualification or professional disability of the air traffic controllers (ATC) in even greater percentage than among flying personnel. The purpose of our study is to assess the features of diurnal blood pressure (BP) in civilian ATC in the real life. Design and method: The study was conducted in the Moscow Center for Automated Air Traffic Management of Federal State Unitary Enterprise 'State Corporation for Air Traffic Management in the Russian Federation’; 55 ATC are randomly selected men aged between 20 and 55 years. All subjects were performed ABPM (BPLab, ’Petr Telegin’, Russia), holter ECG monitoring, psychological testing. ABPM was conducted during a working shift and a rest time. Part of the ATC were monitored again on the second rest day. Results: During working shifts the increase of average BP in 17 people (30.9%) was found. All the ATC have 24-h systolic and diastolic BP (SBP and DBP) of 140.2 ± 8 mmHg and of 82.5 ± 5 mmHg respectively; daytime SBP of 146.8 ± 8 mmHg; daytime DBP of 88.5 ± 6.3 mmHg; nighttime SBP of 131.2 ± 6.4 mmHg and nighttime DBP of 77.0 ± 7 mmHg. Rest time ABPM data were within the normal range: 24-h SBP of 118.2 ± 7.3 mmHg; 24-h DBP of 70.0 ± 6 mmHg; daytime SBP of 127.0 ± 6 mmHg; daytime DBP of 74,2 ± 4,1 mmHg; nighttime SBP of 112.0 ± 4.6 mmHg and nighttime DBP of 66.2 ± 5 mmHg.Conclusions: The diurnal BP profile of ATC can be significantly changed under the influence of external factors, in particular, during stressful situations, which are widely represented in the work of ATC. Possible reasons for the prevalence of CV diseases in the structure of morbidity of ATC may be features of professional activity namely a psychological stress. A high-stress environment affects the haemodynamics, which can be seen in the presented results.

Hybrid systems modeling and automated air traffic control for three-dimensional separation assurance

The increasing volume of traffic in the air transportation is leading to excessive workload on air traffic controllers. Developing automated air traffic management (ATM) tools is a critical technology in reducing the workload of air traffic controllers and hence increasing the airspace capacity. The existing approaches to automated ATM either use overly-simplified air traffic and aircraft dynamics models to reduce computational complexity or end up being computationally intractable for large-scale ATM scenarios. This paper presents a new hybrid system description of modeling the decision process of the air traffic controllers in en-route and approach operations. The model is based on the domain expertise provided by the State Airport Authority and Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) of Turkey. The emulation of air traffic controller decision process in the hybrid model provides realistic conflict resolution maneuvers and separation assurance in 3D, while being computationally tractable. The algorithm has polynomial iteration complexity in the number of waypoints of the aircraft, which makes it scalable to large-scale ATM scenarios with more than 100 aircraft. The algorithm is validated on the real air traffic data over the Istanbul region extracted from the ALLFT+ dataset provided by EUROCONTROL, which includes over 7000 flights in a 96-hour period. The developed algorithm is also integrated into a Boeing 737-800 flight deck simulator with a custom radar display to demonstrate the applicability to existing avionics systems.

Automatic-dependent surveillance–broadcast experimental deployment using system wide information management

This paper describes an automatic-dependent surveillance–broadcast (ADS–B) implementation for air-to-air and ground-based experimental surveillance within a prototype of a fully automated air traffic management (ATM) system, under a trajectory-based-operations paradigm. The system is built using an air-inclusive implementation of system wide information management (SWIM). This work describes the relations between airborne and ground surveillance (SURGND), the prototype surveillance systems, and their algorithms. System's performance is analyzed with simulated and real data. Results show that the proposed ADS–B implementation can fulfill the most demanding surveillance accuracy requirements.

Analysis and Modeling of Flight Crew Performance in Automated Air Traffic Management Systems

NASA has recently initiated a research program to enhance commercial aviation throughput in crowded terminal areas. The Terminal Area Productivity (TAP) initiative seeks to focus technologies in automated air traffic management and to improve flight management systems. The interaction between air traffic control (ATC) automation, flight deck automation and the human operators who mediate them will be reported here. We’ve performed empirical studies in full-mission simulation to address procedural coordination between flight crews and air traffic controllers. In parallel, we have addressed the need for rapidly adaptable analytic techniques by developing a human performance model of flight crew.

Computer‐aided analysis and development of automated air traffic management procedures using ATSAM (air traffic simulation analysis model)

Due to safety reasons, ATC related research depends on the availability of flexible simulation?tools to model candidate concepts/procedures and the respective test scenarios with the required level of precision. The analysis and development of procedures for Air Traffic Management (ATM) requires a model to simulate en?route traffic operations, allowing the assessment of safety and economy for numerous operational, environmental, traffic?related or aircraft?related boundary conditions. Therefore, in contrast to a commonly used network?type approach a ?mesoscopic model, called ATSAM (Air Traffic Simulation .Analysis Model), was developed. ATSAM was designed as a general?purpose fast?time simulation?tool for en?route Air Traffic System (ATS) scenarios based on a generalized, somewhat object?oriented modeling of ATS scenario elements/ATM control actions and a detailed continuous aircraft/flight simulation model considering error influences modeled by discrete events. The ATSAM program package includes numerical and graphical software for result data assessment and presentation.