New Concept Of Operations Research Articles

The road to on-board crew autonomy: Using ISS’ Columbus module as the basis for ground procedure automation

Future human exploration missions require new concepts of operations since the international roadmap foresees stations with uncrewed periods (e.g. Lunar Gateway) and deep space missions with communication delays making real-time monitoring and control impossible (e.g. any vehicle on its way to or in orbit of Mars). As part of the commitment to achieve human presence in lunar orbit and prepare for missions to Mars, the goal for future operations is to become independent from ground and enable crews to live and work autonomously. However, as a first step towards on-board crew autonomy, the ground segment itself needs to be automated and its functions eventually transferred on-board. For this purpose, this paper introduces a novel tool, based on Columbus operations, conducted at the Columbus Control Center (COL-CC), allowing the interaction between scheduled activities and the commanding infrastructure, by automatically generating a command sequence, transferring the command sequence to the operators’ command interface for inspection and approval, and finally sending the commands to the receiver for execution. This tool is implemented as a ground prototype, in order to show how ground operations can be automated and how such a tool can ultimately lead to increased crew autonomy.

BUBBLES: A new concept of operations for separation management in the U-space

BUBBLES (Defining the building basic blocks for a U-space separation management service) is an Exploratory Research project funded by SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) that aims to define a new Concept of Operations (ConOps) to provide separation management by means of the U-space. In the context of this project, this work defines the principles on which separation management in the U-space is based, as well as the basic building blocks that support the separation management service and how they should be assembled and operated. One of the most important challenges in conflict management is the selection of appropriate separation minima. In this sense, this work proposes the calculation of dynamic separation minima, which are adapted to the traffic class, the operational environment, and the Communication, Navigation, and Surveillance (CNS) systems performance, and validates it by means of test-flights in a rural environment.

Benefits Derived from Arrival Management and Wake Turbulence Re-Categorization in China

Air traffic administration requires evidence when promoting new technology or a new concept of operation. Therefore, when decision support tools are applied, it is necessary to analyze the costs and benefits quantitatively. This paper focuses on the evaluation of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) correlated with the improvement of arrival operations after the implementation of the Arrival Management (AMAN) system and Wake Turbulence Re-categorization in China (RECAT-CN). Firstly, we give an overview of the implementation of the AMAN system and RECAT in China. Secondly, the KPIs related to the arrival operation are established according to the characteristics of AMAN and RECAT-CN, based on the existing KPI systems in the field of Air Traffic Management (ATM). The proposed KPIs are: airport acceptance rate; final approach interval; flight time within the terminal area (TMA); and taxi-in time. Thirdly, arrival operation within the TMA around Guangzhou International Airport is used as an example to carry out the quantitative analysis. The region and time range were defined for the performance comparison, and external factors were also examined. Finally, using descriptive and inferential statistics, the proposed KPIs’ comparison results are presented and visualized. Such results indicate a significant improvement in arrival operation with the AMAN system and RECAT-CN at Guangzhou International Airport.

Harnessing solar energy and green hydrogen – the energy transition

The article presents various aspects of harnessing solar energy and green hydrogen which is one of the objectives of the EU and Poland’s energy transition. Theoretical issues were examined on the basis of the analysis of available source literature on renewable energy sources (RES), green hydrogen and energy transition. The research methods used in this paper include: critical analysis of the source literature, comparative analysis method and secondary data analysis. The article describes actions taken in Poland to facilitate the energy transition associated with harnessing solar energy and green hydrogen and presents author’s diagram of energy transition related to RES and green hydrogen in EU and Poland. The analysis and assessment carried out in the article indicated that the new concept of operation of the entire energy market and its transition involves the integration of three sectors: transport, heat engineering and power engineering. In the future, green hydrogen will enable a reduction of CO2 emissions from the power engineering and heat engineering sector to zero. Importantly, the electrification of heat engineering and transport based on domestic renewable energy sources will render Poland independent of the energy resources from other countries. The issues as presented in the article concerning renewable energy sources, green hydrogen and energy transition have not been collectively studied in Polish and foreign literature.

English

Borderline as a defence line is central in countering transnational insurgency. Yet, countries in African Sub-region are lackadaisical about redefining inherited colonial borders. Primarily, the study examined the origin of Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF)  counterinsurgency (COIN) operational mandate as well as the linkage between border, threat of insurgency and MNJTF COIN operation  in Nigeria's northeastern region. It derived data from secondary sources and method of analysis adopted was content descriptive analysis ; enemy-centric and population-centric COIN theories upheld  this study. Interestingly, study reveals that in 1994, MNJTF was established by Nigeria to deal with insurgent from its northern borders and later expanded to include African neighbours. That in 2015, MNJTF was formally authorized  under a new concept of operation to cover COIN with the mandate to: Create a safe environment in areas affected by Boko Haram activities; prevent expansion of insurgency activities and facilitate overall stabilization programme to fully restore state authority. However, study found four evidences linking the threat of insurgency to the porous/undefined nature of the shared borderland with Niger, Chad and Cameroon: (1) the overlapping pattern in community settlements on the borderland makes it difficult for MNJTF to effectively counter insurgents; (2) it favours illegal arms trafficking;  (3) borderland forested area serves as shelter and factory base of the insurgents; (4) borderland ecological factor strengthens insurgent membership and operation in the terrain. Therefore, paper argues that with the present character of the shared borderland in northeastern Nigeria, countering insurgency would remain challenging. Paper recommends policy guide for effective COIN.   Key words: Arms trafficking, ecological factor, insurgency, counterinsurgency, Nigeria's northeast.  

A Systematic Approach to Development Assurance and Safety of Unmanned Aerial Systems

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">The unrestrained design space for unmanned aerial systems (UAS) presents challenges to accurate safety assessment and the assurance of development to appropriate levels of rigor within those systems. The established safety and development assurance standards and practices were developed for vehicles operating in highly controlled conditions with continuous oversight. The very nature of unmanned systems introduce new failure conditions, even in those systems operating within the strict rules of the National Airspace System (NAS), particularly failures of control and command, situational awareness, and control security. Beyond those, the new concepts of operation being conceived by UAS developers introduce their own new set of considerations with regards to operating in uncontrolled airspace, often in close proximity to bystanders. These new concepts require new technologies beyond those currently supported by the hardware and software development assurance processes. However, the established standards and practices of aircraft development assurance and safety assessment can be adapted for the broader world of UAS applications, provided that the considerations driven by the new concepts of operation can be identified and properly analyzed. The two major challenges to this are the identification and determination of criticality of failure conditions in the new operational environment, and the analysis of the new architectures, technologies, and the “new and novel” mitigations that will be possible from them. If these challenges can be addressed, it will be possible to apply established principles of development assurance and system safety to these new products, and thus give confidence both to the developers and the regulators tasked with certificating them.</div></div>

Present and Future of Air Navigation: PBN Operations and Supporting Technologies

The present work reviews the new concept of operation that will be soon implemented in SESAR and NextGen (January 2020) using new state-of-the-art technology mainly based on onboard avionics: data link equipment, broadcast and surveillance systems, and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) area augmentation. One of the main improvements of Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) is the use of satellites and more precise and accurate onboard instruments than current standard avionics related to ground-based navigation aids (VOR, NDB, DME, etc.). Air navigation systems have been without mayor updates for nearly 40 years, when most Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range (VOR) and Tactical Air Navigation (TACAN) systems were implemented worldwide in the civil and military fields, respectively. These standard navigation systems lack new required performance navigation and required big deal of maintenance, especially in redundant systems. Recently, the development of new and precise GNSS and communication systems has allowed their use on different scenarios: Instrumental Flight Rules (IFR) departures, initial and final approaches, etc. Additionally, in several international airports, Ground Based Augmentation System (GBAS) approaches have been already successfully tested and implemented. Related to GBAS, the Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) is a cooperative technology that enhances pilots and controllers’ situation awareness, since ADS-B broadcasts own and other aircraft position. Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) may be another key element of the PBN concept of operations (CONOPS), since it provides air–ground data communications for the air traffic control (ATC) service and the aircrew, reducing risks associated to human factor: poor speaking, radio congestion, message confusion, standardization, etc. The main goal of this review is to present the PBN concept and the potentially supporting Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) systems, in the context of the NextGen and SESAR Air Traffic Management (ATM) modernization programmes.

Using Science-Driven Analog Research to Investigate Extravehicular Activity Science Operations Concepts and Capabilities for Human Planetary Exploration.

Biologic Analog Science Associated with Lava Terrains (BASALT) is a science-driven exploration program seeking to determine the best tools, techniques, training requirements, and execution strategies for conducting Mars-relevant field science under spaceflight mission conditions. BASALT encompasses Science, Science Operations, and Technology objectives. This article outlines the BASALT Science Operations background, strategic research questions, study design, and a portion of the results from the second field test. BASALT field tests are used to iteratively develop, integrate, test, evaluate, and refine new concepts of operations (ConOps) and capabilities that enable efficient and productive science. This article highlights the ConOps investigated during BASALT in light of future planetary extravehicular activity (EVA), which will focus on scientific exploration and discovery, and serves as an introduction to integrating exploration flexibility with operational rigor, the value of tactical and strategic science planning and execution, and capabilities that enable and enhance future science EVA operations.

Analyzing cleaner alternatives of solid and gaseous fuels for iron ore sintering in compacts machines

Abstract The steel industry has faced challenges with regard to the raw materials and fuels and hence economic and environmental restrictions. This paper is focused on searching alternatives based on biomass and gaseous fuels suitable for replacing the coke breeze fossil fuel. Nevertheless, testing these technologies are expensive. Therefore, comprehensive mathematical models based on transport phenomena are efficient tools to study and indicate new possibilities for designing operational conditions as well as resizing the machines for minimizing the hazardous emissions. We proposed new concept of operation combining gaseous fuels and biomass for partially replacing the coke breeze in a compact sintering machine. Thus three possible ways for 20% of the amount of coke breeze replacement are analyzed in a combined manner: a) replacement by steelmaking mixing gas, b) replacement by biogas and c) replacement by pellets of biomass. The results indicated that about 20% of the solid fossil fuels could be replaced by waste solid residue of biomass (processed as small pellets). For the analyzed cases, the productivity increase of 5% for the steelmaking mixing gas, 15% for the biomass pellets and 25% for the biogas fuel. For all cases considered it was predicted a decrease of the amount of hazardous compounds emissions.

US Defense Innovation and Artificial Intelligence

The United States seeks conventional military overmatch in the strategic competition with China and Russia through efforts to develop advanced technology for military application and new concept of operations as well as pursue organizational adaptation and human talent pool development. The current article will trace the development of US defense innovation efforts from the Obama administration to the Trump administration and focus on the technological dimension of defense innovation by illustrating ways through which the U.S. Department of Defense is attempting to apply “narrow” artificial intelligence for military purposes such as situational awareness, cyber, military logistics, command and control, and swarm technology and tactics for autonomous unmanned systems. The article will conclude by making two caveats regarding the actual introduction of artificial intelligence into the US battle network, and very briefly point to implications for US allies.

Integration of Parametric Cost Estimation with System Architecture - It's a dirty job but someone has to do it!

The rapid adoption and advancement of Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) methods and tools opens up new avenues of systems engineering practices. One of them is cost estimation. As a key enabler for affordability analysis and budgetary decision making, cost estimation is an essential component for all system development and sustainment efforts. However, cost estimation is typically a separate endeavor from the design and development effort, creating a professional “chasm” between the worlds of systems designers and of cost analysts, causing a disconnect between the system as designed and the cost and effort required to build it. This paper describes an approach to “tightly” integrate the existing practice of parametric cost estimation with the system architecture development process by leveraging MBSE and SysML to enable repeatable and efficient estimation of system development cost, and to allow system cost and affordability to be incorporated into the “digital thread” of the design while improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the cost estimation process. By expanding our previous work (Papke, Wang and Pavalkis 2017), this paper describes a new concept of operation (CONOP) for system development, enabled by the integrated SysML and COSYSMO modeling environment, that effectively connects the cost baselines to the technical baselines throughout the project life cycle. This new CONOP presents another step towards “pulling the digital thread” by making affordability and economic analysis an integral part of the system architecture.

The strategic value of human factors engineering in control room modernization

Control room modernization is one of the most challenging and complex upgrade projects that a nuclear power plant can undertake. It can have almost as big an impact on operations as, for example, turbine replacement. The challenges of migrating an analog control system to a distributed control system are already well known and a number of nuclear utilities have embarked upon various levels of effort to upgrade some of the systems in the control room. When planning for control room upgrades, plants have to deal with a multitude of engineering, operational, and regulatory impacts. This will inevitably include several human factors considerations, such as workstation ergonomics, viewing angles, lighting, seating, new interaction modalities, new communication requirements, and new concepts of operation. In helping nuclear power utilities to deal with these challenges, the United States Department of Energy researchers located at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) have developed research-based human factors design and evaluation methods to be used in the development of end-state concepts for modernized control rooms and to manage the various phases of the upgrade life cycle. The methodology includes interactive sessions with operators in INL's Human System Simulation Laboratory, three-dimensional modeling to visualize control board changes and operator-system interaction, and development of human-system prototypes to evaluate various aspects of proposed modifications. This methodology has been applied at a number of U.S. nuclear power plants where modernization projects are underway, including Exelon's Braidwood and Byron plants, and Arizona Public Service's Palo Verde plant. It was demonstrated that including this methodology in the plant's engineering process helps to ensure an integrated and cohesive outcome that is consistent with human factors engineering principles and provide substantial improvement in operator performance.

Assessing Utilization and Effectiveness in Public Participative and Volunteered Geographic Information Systems for Environmental Data

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can serve as a planning tool to promote community health at many levels, such as the policy, organizational and public levels. The Brownfields to Healthfields (B2H) program involves creating new opportunities to support community public health, including the development of park spaces and new hospital facilities. However, there was no existing portal for organizations to access a map of brownfields data to meet the required criteria of the organization in seeking a space for transformation to a “healthfield” or other public services facility. Since the various types of community and demographic data were scattered, it was necessary to combine the data in a web application available to all stakeholders. This paper discusses the utilization of a new concept of operation, which includes participative and volunteered approaches that are addressed to include the contribution of various stakeholder groups, and to further improve planning for public health.

A Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy power-distribution method for a prototypical advanced reactor considering pump degradation

Abstract Advanced reactor designs often feature longer operating cycles between refueling and new concepts of operation beyond traditional baseload electricity production. Owing to this increased complexity, traditional proportional–integral control may not be sufficient across all potential operating regimes. The prototypical advanced reactor (PAR) design features two independent reactor modules, each connected to a single dedicated steam generator that feeds a common balance of plant for electricity generation and process heat applications. In the current research, the PAR is expected to operate in a load-following manner to produce electricity to meet grid demand over a 24-hour period. Over the operational lifetime of the PAR system, primary and intermediate sodium pumps are expected to degrade in performance. The independent operation of the two reactor modules in the PAR may allow the system to continue operating under degraded pump performance by shifting the power production between reactor modules in order to meet overall load demands. This paper proposes a Takagi–Sugeno (T–S) fuzzy logic-based power distribution system. Two T–S fuzzy power distribution controllers have been designed and tested. Simulation shows that the devised T–S fuzzy controllers provide improved performance over traditional controls during daily load-following operation under different levels of pump degradation.

Permeability-controlled optical modulator with Tri-gate metamaterial: control of permeability on InP-based photonic integration platform.

Metamaterials are artificially structured materials that can produce innovative optical functionalities such as negative refractive index, invisibility cloaking, and super-resolution imaging. Combining metamaterials with semiconductors enables us to develop novel optoelectronic devices based on the new concept of operation. Here we report the first experimental demonstration of a permeability-controlled waveguide optical modulator consisting of an InGaAsP/InP Mach-Zehnder interferometer with ‘tri-gate’ metamaterial attached on its arms. The tri-gate metamaterial consists of metal resonator arrays and triple-gate field effect elements. It changes its permeability with a change in the controlling gate voltage, thereby changing the refractive index of the interferometer arm to switch the modulator with an extinction ratio of 6.9 dB at a wavelength of 1.55 μm. The result shows the feasibility of InP-based photonic integrated devices that can produce new functions by controlling their permeability as well as their permittivity.

Compact deuterium-tritium neutron generator using a novel field ionization source

Active interrogation using neutrons is an effective method for detecting shielded nuclear material. A lightweight, lunch-box-sized, battery-operated neutron source would enable new concepts of operation in the field. We have developed at-scale components for a highly portable, completely self-contained, pulsed Deuterium-Tritium (DT) neutron source producing 14 MeV neutrons with average yields of 107 n/s. A gated, field ionization ion source using etched electrodes has been developed that produces pulsed ion currents up to 500 nA. A compact Cockcroft-Walton high voltage source is used to accelerate deuterons into a metal hydride target for neutron production. The results of full scale DT tests using the field ionization source are presented.

Stabilising Somalia

From late 2012, the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) had adopted a largely defensive posture, citing limited resources as the principal reason for this. However, increasing numbers of Al-Shabaab attacks both inside and outside Somalia have forced AMISOM and its partners to open a new phase in the war against the group. To that end, in November 2013 the UN Security Council called for AMISOM to be enhanced in several areas and in January 2014 the mission adopted a new Concept of Operations. These developments facilitated a new wave of offensive operations conducted in tandem with the Somali National Security Forces. Nevertheless, AMISOM still confronts some familiar – and fundamental – challenges in its efforts to stabilise Somalia.

Application of Part-Whole Training Methods to Evaluate When to Introduce NextGen Air Traffic Management Tools to Students

The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) will use advanced technologies and new concepts of operation to accommodate projected increases in air travel over the next few decades. Use of NextGen tools requires air traffic controllers (ATCos) to use different procedures than those required to manage NextGen-unequipped aircraft, and ATCos will need to integrate the 2 skill sets when managing a sector consisting of NextGen-equipped and unequipped aircraft. The goal of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of 2 procedures in the training of student controllers to manage both equipage types. We applied a variant of the part-whole training paradigm in the present study. Using a quasi-experimental design, we trained students from 2 different labs of an internship course to manage air traffic with potential NextGen tools concurrent with their traditional training (whole-task group) or after they had time to learn traditional air traffic management skills (part-whole group). Participants were then tested in their ability to manage a simulated sector consisting of different percentages of NextGen-equipped and unequipped aircraft at the mid-term and after the final week of their internship. Results showed that it is better to train students in manual ATCo skills before introducing NextGen tools, unless the students are of higher aptitude. For more skilled students, simultaneously introducing NextGen and manual tools into their curriculum had little negative impact.

Significance of organisational alignment to organisational efficiency

The problem of organisational alignment has recently gained in significance, both in the theory and practice of management. In the era of economic crisis, when more and more companies change their strategies or even transform entirely their business models, it is essential to recognise whether the new concepts of operation are consistent with other elements such as the values prevailing in the organisational culture. The main aim of the paper is to analyse the impact of organisational alignment, particularly strategy and organisational culture, on organizational efficiency. The theoretical considerations are based on a literature study and results of discussions held in a focus group at a conference on “Time for growth. Strategic thinking at work and in everyday life”. As a result of the debates, advantages and disadvantages of organisational fit, as well as the relevance of match between strategy and organisational culture have been identified. In conclusion several methods for enhancing this alignment have been suggested.

Towards unmanned systems for dismounted operations in the Canadian Forces

Unmanned systems are designed to reduce risk and magnify the impact of manned forces. Expanding unmanned involvement in military operations will require greater vehicle autonomy and the adoption of new concepts of operations. This paper discusses the technical challenges of unmanned systems in support of dismounted operations and research efforts by Defence R&D Canada to support unmanned vehicles in this role. New projects have been formulated to address these technical challenges.