Center For Advanced Aviation System Development Research Articles

Validating airspaceAnalyzer Metrics for En Route ATC Sector Complexity

The MITRE Corporation’s Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) has developed a tool, airspaceAnalyzer, to measure sector complexity. It does so by performing automated air traffic control—separating traffic while respecting aircraft performance and restrictions on altitude and miles-in-trail. It outputs a suite of raw metrics, derived from characteristics of these resolutions. We performed experiments first to calibrate, then to validate, the model.To define a “correct” value for sector complexity against which to calibrate and validate, we enlisted a team of experts (retired Certified Professional Controllers). The experts performed air traffic control for en route sectors in Indianapolis Center in a realistic simulation environment. They provided periodic assessments of the sector’s complexity on a scale from 1 (minimum) to 7 (maximum).We averaged the assessments of all participating experts at a particular time to define the correct answer for that time.We calibrated airspaceAnalyzer to output a metric that matched as closely as possible the “correct” answers. Then, we performed validation experiments on a new set of four scenarios, which featured realistic, but somewhat different, traffic flows and restrictions. The validation set involved three Indianapolis sectors (including one not used in calibration) and seven experts (including three not used in calibration). Assessments were obtained from each expert at 20-30 times during each scenario, for a total of 101 data points. Using its calibrated metric, airspaceAnalyzer predicts the correct answer with a root mean square error of at most 0.687 points on the 1-7 scale. That it could match the human experts this well is evidence for the validity of airspaceAnalyzer as a predictor of sector complexity.

Using parallelization to improve the efficiency of an automated taxi route generation algorithm

AbstractAs part of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) concept, surface support tools that generate taxi routes and monitor pilot conformance against those routes have been designed and implemented by Mosaic ATM and tested in simulations conducted by The Mitre Corporation’s Center for Advanced Aviation System Development(CAASD). The purpose of these tools is to increase the overall safety of the airport’s surface by detecting aircraft movement that is not in conformance with the taxi route assigned to that aircraft. Additionally, the tools aim to increase the overall efficiency of airport operations by ensuring that aircraft taxi in compliance with their assigned routes. One of the keys to providing a reliable conformance monitoring system is to produce reliable taxi routes against which to monitor compliance. The tools provided by Mosaic ATM generate these taxi routes via a set of predefined routes commonly used at an airport. In the simulations conducted by CAASD, it was found that the routes provided were found to be reliable and trustworthy. In addition to the predefined routes, Mosaic ATM provided an ad hoc route capability. This capability uses an algorithm that finds a route based on the taxiways assigned by a user through the ad hoc route tool. However, in the simulations conducted by CAASD, this tool was not used extensively by the users. In this paper, we describe our efforts to verify the correctness of the ad hoc taxi route generation algorithm as well as our efforts to increase the speed of the algorithm by implementing a lock-free parallelized version.

Effectiveness of a Spatial Algorithm for Air Traffic Controller Use in Airport Surface Conformance Monitoring

The MITRE Corporation examined the effectiveness of a spatial algorithm to assess pilot conformance to assigned surface taxi routes. This capability, designed and developed by Mosaic ATM, is envisioned by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to be implemented as part of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) to improve surface safety and efficiency. Thirteen participants were asked to serve as ground controllers in a tower simulator at The MITRE Corporation's Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD), moving simulated traffic from the ramp area to the runway edge while monitoring each aircraft's conformance to taxi clearances. Results indicate that the algorithm was sufficient for improving detection accuracy of pilot deviations. In addition, controllers reported high trust in the system, likely due to their ability to understand its simplistic logic and predict its behavior. However, the lack of predictive information resulted in alert onsets that were too late and failed to improve detection response time. Results suggest that spatial algorithms, which consider only the aircraft's position on the airport surface and use no predictive information, can be useful in supporting effective event detection, but that predictive information may be useful in maximizing their benefit. Language: en

Field Evaluation of Advanced Training Technologies in Terminal Air Traffic Control

Currently, the FAA performs site-specific training for Terminal Air Traffic Control students at facilities using mainly non-automated methods of training. While higher fidelity simulation is used, much of the training occurs in classrooms and with instructors during on-the-job training, making it resource intensive and non-standardized. Innovative approaches to controller training need to be developed to improve efficiency, quality, and standardization across facilities, particularly as the air traffic system evolves towards the next generation (NextGen) of automation (FAA, 2009a). The MITRE Corporation's Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) is developing the Terminal Trainer Prototype, a web-based airspace training system that incorporates state-of-the art training and data-driven technology using templates for multimedia tutorials, serious games, simulations, and interactive discovery learning tools. This prototype has been undergoing field evaluation since September 2008, first at the Miami TRACON facility site, and now continuing at Potomac Consolidated TRACON. This paper describes the prototype and discusses the results of field evaluations performed to date.

Achieving Nextgen's air traffic management operational improvements

A significant amount of attention has been paid to the functional and ground components in the evolution of the NAS to achieve the Next Generation System (NextGen) but there has been less attention paid to the aircraft equipage side of the equation. This is now changing with the recent establishment of an aircraft working group within the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO). The MITRE Corporation's Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) has been working over the past year to provide input to the FAA and JPDO which will help inform the avionics evolution and provide more insight into the aircraft equipage considerations for evolving to NextGen.

CRCT (Collaborative Routing Coordination Tools) and TFM (Traffic Flow Management) Decision Support Tool Prototyping

This paper summarizes several years of Traffic Flow Management (TFM) R&D work. The MITRE Corporation's Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) has been engaged in a longterm research program to define and refine decision support concepts and capabilities for TFM, the branch of Air Traffic Management that manages the strategic aspect of air traffic by balancing airspace capacity with demand, especially during severe weather or heavy traffic. This paper describes CAASD's work on the concept of Collaborative Routing, in which all affected parties — Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and aircraft operators - can share in realtime a common picture of TFM problems and potential solutions. The Collaborative Routing Coordination Tools (CRCT) refers to a set of functionalities that support Collaborative Routing, and also to a software platform developed and used by CAASD to conduct the R&D. In this paper, the Collaborative Routing concept is described, and sample user interfaces supporting the concept are presented. Evaluations with operational personnel are described at a high level. Capabilities developed and refined via this work include the FCA (Flow Constrained Area), and the reroute modeling capability. These functions allow the user to evaluate the impact of a rerouting solution to controllers and airspace users (airlines and other pilots), before implementing that solution. Finally, ongoing research on future TFM decision support capabilities is described.

Using Component-Based Development and Web Technologies to Support a Distributed Data Management System

Over recent years, “Internet-able” applications have been used to support domains where distributed functionality is essential. This flexibility is also pertinent in situations where data is collected and derived to support a distributed set of stakeholders. There are major problems in this distributed data management scenario. One problem is the change that occurs in such domains. Both the schema of the data and the individual needs of the stakeholders evolve over time. Any architecture to support this distributed data management domain must be designed to support these specific changes. One such approach to this architecture is the use of “plug-able” web-based components. As new computational needs arise, new components can be plugged into the architecture. Another aspect of this solution architecture is toward a run-time evolvable process to support the change of the data schemas. At the MITRE Corporation, this architecture has been designed, deployed and tested to support the internal need for a composite data repository. This paper presents the motivation and architecture of this distributed data management system that supports the Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD). This component-based run-time configurable architecture is implemented using web-based technologies, such as the Extensible Markup Language (XML), Java Servlets, and a relational database management system (RDBMS).

Validating a future operational concept for en route air traffic control

In an effort to accommodate the predicted growth in air traffic, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the aviation community have developed a concept of operations for the National Airspace System (NAS) called Free Flight. This operational concept has been developed for the midterm time frame (nominally a period of time that centers around 2005). The Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) at The MITRE Corporation developed the concept and has conducted laboratory exercises to validate the portion of the concept that applies to the en route domain. The paper describes CAASD's laboratory efforts to begin validating the en route portion of the concept by examining the operational issues associated with the concept and the functional issues related to its evolution to the midterm. The laboratory validation exercises described examine the functionality of possible capability enhancements, but do not address associated detailed human factors issues. Favorable results from CAASD's initial qualitative validation efforts support the need for further quantitative validation activities that include more detailed analyses, further development of operational procedures and computer-human interfaces, and more rigorous exercises involving FAA field controllers.

Problem resolution support for free flight operations

The MITRE Corporation's Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) has been conducting research into new automation capabilities to support free flight operations. One of these capabilities is a problem resolution function to assist the en route sector controller team in handling the more complex traffic patterns that can result from a less structured free flight environment. This function is termed problem analysis, resolution and ranking (PARR). PARR is envisaged as an enhancement to the user request evaluation tool (URET) free flight phase 1 (FFP1) capability, and has been designated as priority research for the follow-on free flight phase 2 (FFP2) effort. PARR is being developed as a series of incremental enhancements, with the first step focusing on the resolution of aircraft-to-aircraft and aircraft-to-airspace problems. Follow-on enhancements include resolutions for metering and other traffic flow management (TFM) flow initiatives, resolutions for the avoidance of severe weather areas, and the integration into a common en route sector team CHI. A research management plan has been prepared by the Federal Aviation Administration and MITRE/CAASD to support this development process. The paper describes the initial PARR capabilities, along with an extension to incorporate assigned metering time constraints.

Predicting Congestion in the Northeast U.S.: A Search for Indicators

The Northeast U.S. is arguably the most congested airspace in the world. Four major New York airports have very high total operations counts and are concentrated geographically. Improvements are needed for traffic managers’ decision support systems to support proactive intervention leading to smoother arrival flows. A team at The MITRE Corporation’s Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) addressed this issue by investigating predictive indicators of the future balance of air traffic demand and capacity at airport resources. Most flights in the Northeast last less than 70 minutes, so predictions of airspace congestion at least one hour ahead would be most useful, because flow control could therefore extend to pre-departure. Predictions are needed especially during visual meteorological conditions, when congestion is not necessarily an expected outcome.The approach was to conduct an analysis in two phases. In phase one the team postulated four different indicators and used off-line and real-time tools with archived flight data to evaluate the indicators’ potential for predicting congestion. The indicators evaluated in phase one were as follows:•Airport arrival rate and arrival fix crossing rate, expressed in terms of capacity vs. demand•Close-in and further-out (from the Terminal Radar Approach Control [TRACON]) distance-based demand aircraft counts for major arrival flows•Wedge-shaped airspace arrival aircraft counts into the TRACON•Sector counts, including red and yellow alerts when thresholds are exceededIn phase two, the indicator with the most potential (airport and arrival fix crossing rates) was evaluated in more detail to determine if it did indeed predict congestion successfully. The team again examined historical data, in search of air traffic management situations identifiable as problematic or problem-free. These situations were then replayed using an integrated real-time model, combining two previously built CAASD systems, Self Managed Arrival Resequencing Tool (SMART) and Collaborative Routing Coordination Tool (CRCT). The simulation clock was halted one hour prior to the known situation (congested or not), and the indicator was evaluated. This paper documents the successful discovery of a congestion prediction indicator.

Near-Term Procedural Enhancements in Air Traffic Control

As the National Airspace System (NAS) of the United States grows in usage and complexity, there is continuous improvement in the procedures that support it. Of particular interest are the improvements that can be made without acquiring new automation or systems. Fundamentally, these improvements are changes to the performance of operations that make better use of the tools and capabilities currently available to the users and service providers. These changes are collectively called “procedural enhancements.” The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has identified a number of procedural enhancements that can be implemented in the 1998–2002 time frame, which has been labeled the “near-term” time frame. Due to financial constraints, not all the enhancements can be implemented, so FAA has selected several that could yield efficiency benefits to the NAS. In partnership with FAA, MITRE’s Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) is assisting with the implementation of several of these near-term procedural enhancements. These include lifting the 250-knot speed limit, improving North American Route Program transitions, reducing flow restrictions, and eliminating air traffic control preferred routes. Analysis and implementation of procedural enhancements by FAA and CAASD continue to assist system efficiency while new automation and tools are being procured.

Performance Analysis of a Tightly Coupled GPS/Inertial System for Two Integrity Monitoring Methods1

Use of an integrated GPS/inertial system can be effective in mitigating the effects of GPS signal interference such as intentional jamming. Currently the GPS/Inertial Working Group of RTCA SC-159 is developing requirements and test procedures for a tightly coupled GPS/inertial system. To support this Working Group, this paper investigates two of the key issues being addressed by the Working Group. The first issue is how well a tightly coupled GPS/inertial system can detect slowly growing errors. This paper investigates this issue for two integrity monitoring methods. The other issue relates to how long the system can coast upon complete loss of GPS signals caused by interference. Using analytic formulas, this paper determines maximum coasting times possible under various scenarios. BIOGRAPHY Dr. Young C. Lee is a Lead Engineer in the Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) at The MITRE Corporation in McLean, Virginia. He has been working in the area of GPS integrity since 1986, in support of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Supporting the FAA’s Satellite Operational Implementation Team (SOIT), he made major contributions towards the development of Technical Standards Order (TSO)-C129 and subsequent use of the GPS for aviation navigation. Over these years, he presented many papers at the Institute of Navigation (ION) conferences, some of which were published in

COLLABORATIVE SYSTEM ENGINEERING APPROACH TO AN EVOLUTIONARY OCEANIC SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

AbstractThe Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is in the process of developing significant new capabilities in the Oceanic Air Traffic Management (ATM) System in response to the increasing demand on the system and the needs of the users of the oceanic air traffic management system. The FAA has planned for an evolutionary approach to the oceanic system development with a series of successive “Builds” adding new operational capabilities. The Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) at The MITRE Corporation is providing the system engineering support to the FAA in this effort. One of the major components of the R&D system engineering process is the generation/validation of operational concepts and requirements for the successive Builds. A second, equally important, element is the requirements tracking/traceability process to ensure that the system evolution does indeed provide the operational capability to the users/operators/maintainers of the system. This paper describes some innovative measures (including the use of CASE tools) for the life cycle of the evolution of the Oceanic ATM System.

Development of an integrated network manager for heterogeneous networks using OSI standards and object-oriented techniques

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is using an increasing number of interconnected, heterogeneous telecommunications networks. The FAA is looking at new ways of automating the operations and maintenance activities of these networks in a cost-effective manner in a rapidly changing environment. Open system interconnection (OSI) standards provide a structure for dealing with multivendor systems and network management problems, including mechanisms for monitoring, controlling, and coordinating resources, as well as protocol standards for communicating information about these resources. An example of a standards-based open system for network and services management is a prototype system being developed by the Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) and the FAA for managing telecommunications networks and services at Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCCs). This system, the Telecommunications ARTCC Prototype (TAP), is being developed to integrate the various existing communications management capabilities at the ARTCC into a single management system. Following OSI standards and object-oriented techniques provides a concept and structure for a distributed management architecture. The syntax and semantics for management information and functions specified in the standards provide an understanding and definition of the operations to be performed and the information to be collected and communicated. The paper provides an overview of the prototype architecture, describes how OSI standards and object-oriented techniques were applied and interpreted to meet the specific requirements of the ARTCC.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>