PROJECTS and STUDIES

Big Airspace

Sponsor: ATO-P System Engineering Office

The current split between En Route and terminal air traffic control services is a legacy of compromises among automation/surveillance, traffic demand, and the more tactical procedures needed to manage arrivals and departures to/ and from airport runways.  While these compromises do not restrict the flow at smaller airports, in the nation's larger metropolitan areas, especially the eight largest, these restrictions limit the efficiency of flow and the full utilization of capacity at the associated airports.  The need for a new approach to arrival/departure operations has long been a community concern.  The desire is to transform this flight phase and optimize the design to take advantage of advanced capabilities as well as to meet increased demand.

To address the issues, the Integrated Arrival/Departure Control Service (Big Airspace) Concept of Operations was developed.  A complementary suite of validation activities has been planned to evaluate the feasibility and assess the proposed benefits and assumptions of the concept.  Big Airspace promises two main deliverables that if achieved, will dramatically impact NAS operations: 1) integrated arrival/departure airspace, 2) improved air traffic services to serve as the model for the future.  Planning for the effort began in May 2005.  All validation activities are scheduled to be completed in 2007.  The study will include paper analyses, subject matter expert cognitive walkthroughs, fast-time modeling, and high fidelity human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulations.

Dynamic Density (DD)

Sponsor: NASA Ames Research Center

The overall objective of the DD research is to develop and validate a model that can measure and predict the complexity or difficulty of an air traffic situation at the sector level. 

Simulation Conducted September 27-29, 2005. Six air traffic controllers and one supervisor from Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center participated in the study.  One training run and the 9 planned 75-minute data collections runs were completed, though one run had to be repeated due to technical issues in the laboratory.  The data from Phase IV will be used in the post processing modeling effort of Phase V (sensitivity analyses, regression analyses, etc.) to further refine and validate the DD metric being assessed.

Highway in the Sky (HITS) Evaluation for Steep Angle Helicopter Approached

Sponsor: Airport and Aircraft Safety

The Technical Center's Airport and Aircraft Safety Group with support of the Flight Program Group are leading a flight test effort to compare HITS flight guidance to conventional guidance in the context of precision approaches.  Data from this study will be provided to the FAA's Southwest Region Aircraft Certification Service, Rotorcraft Directorate.  The avionics suite providing the Synthetics Vision System (SVS)/ HITS display information is a product of Chelton Flight Systems Inc.  A similar version of this product is currently in operational use under the Capstone Program.  This electronic flight information system (EFIS) equipment will provide HITS and other flight and navigation information to a Chelton Pilot Flight Display (PFD) installed in the Technical Center's S-76A helicopter.  At present, this effort is planned to be conducted in two phases.  Phase One (prelimenary) testing will be conducted during the Fall of 2006.  Lessons learned in research focus and data collection methods will be identified and used to refine the test approach and execution of Phase Two (formal) testing.  The Technical Center's Simulation and Analysis Team will support this effort in the areas of 1) Test Plan and Test Approach Development, 2) Test Execution, 3) Data Analysis, and 4) Reporting.

Action Plan 5 (Validating and Verifying Air Traffic Management systems) and

Action Plan 9 (fast-time simulation models for models for modeling Air Traffic Operational Concepts)

Sponsor: ATO-P, System Engineering Office, NAS Service Engineering

The establishment of the FAA/EUROCONTROL R&D Committee is the result of the second FAA/EUROCONTROL R&D Symposium held in December 1995 in Denver under the legal framework of the Memorandum of Co-operation (MoC).  The scope of the FAA/EUROCONTROL R&D Committee is to redefine the priority of common actions.  As a result, areas of mutual interest where the FAA and EUROCONTROL can work together in R&D were identified and several R&D Cooperative Tasks (Action Plans) were defined.  The Simulation Analysis Team is a contributing member of Action Plan 5, "Validation and Verification Strategy", and Action Plan 9, "Air Traffic Modeling of Operational Concept".

http://www.tc.faa.gov/acb300/ap5_workshops/action_plan5_9.html

FAA/Eurocontrol Action Plan 16 – Common Trajectory Prediction

Sponsor: ATO-P System Engineering Office

The establishment of the FAA/EUROCONTROL Research & Development Committee (RDCom) was the result of the second FAA/EUROCONTROL R&D Symposium held in December 1995 in Denver under the legal framework of Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) between the FAA and EUROCONTROL, signed in 1986 and revised in 1992.  The scope of RDCom is to redefine the priority of common activities.  As a result, areas of mutual interest where the FAA and EUROCONTROL can work together in cooperative R&D were identified and several R&D Cooperative Tasks (Action Plans) were identified.  Action Plan 16: Common Trajectory Prediction Capability, is one of these teams in which Mike Paglione is the FAA is the FAA representative and member of core team.  The team is implementing a  9 point task that promotes common trajectory prediction services.  Our main focus on the team is on point 7 of the 9 point plan which includes the development of a comprehensive validation database and support tools for evaluation trajectory predictors.

Two main activities under this project,  is occurring at the Technical Center and another is a collaboration with Eurocontrol, NASA, etc. (CTP core team) 

JPDO EAD Evaluation Testbed Working Group

Sponsor: JPDO Evaluation and Analysis Division

The Joint Planning & Development Office (JPDO) Evaluation and Analysis Division (EAD) is responsible for developing a method to analyze all suggested NGATs operational concepts against assessment criteria that encompass JPDO goals.  The goal is to develop a comprehensive suite of models that provide hard data to justify and/or substantiate the concepts the IPT creates.  The Modeling and Simulation Team proposes the following areas of support:

1. Gap Analysis - Research the existing and required modeling capabilities for evaluating ATM Concepts.  MIT published a report in 1997 that assessed the strengths and weaknesses of existing fast-time models and identified areas where additional development is needed.  Given the said study is almost 10 years old, we propose to build on the work MIT and conduct a gap analysis of the current models and those needed to evaluate future NGATs concepts.  Included in this analysis would be the metrics associated with each model.

2. Evaluation Methodology - Leveraging off the work done by our AP5 participants, we can support the development and documentation of the EAD's Evaluation Methodology.  Along with supporting the development of the methodology, the Simulation and Analysis Team proposes to develop a process to integrate new models into the testbed suite to ensure a flexible and adaptable product that can easily accommodate the integration of new modeling platforms.  Additionally, we propose to review subgroup outcomes and provide engineering feedback, engineering advice (i.e., validation) and assist with project plans and coordination, as needed.

3. NAS Modeling Conduct analysis of the NAS using various modeling techniques and tools (e.g., HITL, RDSIM, NASPAC).

NAS Modeling - Business Strategy Office Support: NAS Modeling - Financial Office Support

Sponsor: Business Planning and Development, ATO-P

The Simulation and Analysis Team provides the sponsor with analysis capabilities; in order to assess the impact of various tools and procedures, including those programs deemed priority programs, designed to increase efficiency for the National Airspace System (NAS).  The analysis consists of using state-of-the-art modeling and simulation tools to provide system metrics and reporting the results to the sponsor.  Studies are completed as requested by the sponsor to support investment analysis.

NAS Modeling - Commercial Space Support

Sponsor: (AST-100, AST-300) Commercial Space Agency

The Simulation and Analysis Team provides support to define airspace impacts of returning space shuttle missions.

User Request Evaluation Tool (URET) Accuracy Testing/ Risk Reduction

Sponsor: URET Program Office, ATO-E

This work represents major project for Conflict Probe Assessment Team (CPAT) since 1996.  Current effort provides technical support to URET Program Office for URET testing and deployment.  Most notably, the CPAT develops testing scenarios and data reduction analysis tools to test URET before it goes into operation in deployed ARTCCs.  These scenarios and tools are provided to the URET development contractor.

En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) Support

Sponsor: ERAM Test Group and Program Office, ATO-E

The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA's) En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) Test Group formed the Automation Metrics Test Working Group (AMTWG) in 2004.  The team's charter is to support the developmental and operational testing of ERAM by developing a set of metrics that quantify the effectiveness of key system functions in ERAM.  The targeted system functions are Surveillance Data Processing (SDP), Flight Data Processing (FDP), Conflict Probe Tool (CPT), and the Display System (DS) modules.  The metrics are designed to measure the performance of ERAM.  They also are designed to measure the performance of the legacy En Route automation systems in operation today.  When appropriate, they will allow comparisons of similar functionality in ERAM to legacy systems (e.g. Host Computer Systems).

Rowan University Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRDA)

Sponsor: Office of Knowledge Management/ Simulation & Analysis

Work is conducted under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRDA) with Rowan University. Two Rowan Computer Science teams are starting work on aircraft data GUI software projects.

Team 1: The first team, as part of their Computer Engineering Course, are developing software documentation (User's Manual, SSD, etc.) and extending features in the current TrajectoryGui application.  The main goal is to rebuild the TrajectoryGui application using traditional software development processes (requirement gathering, design, testing, etc.) of course with the priority going to the academic objectives of the class.  It includes extending the features to allow more windows (plots) available in the current implementation.  There are 5 students on this and one is potentially continuing the work as a senior project (a student that intends to continue as a graduate student at Rowan.

Team 2: The second team, as part of their Computer Engineering Course and Senior projects, are developing a new application called FlightGui that will replace our current Preps and Proof Animation product.  This application will query our databases and animate one aircraft or a pair of aircraft just like our old application.  However, this will use Java and not require the costly Proof Animation Tool.  Furthermore, they intend to include 3-D animations not available with Proof.  Four students are working on the software documentation applying the traditional software development process.  One of the four and another two students are going to start implementation in parallel as part of their Senior Project.  The challenge will be the interchange between the two subgroups.

Aviation Integrated Reasoning Modeling Matrix (AIRMM)

Sponsor: Office of Knowledge Management/ Simulation & Analysis

Work is conducted under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRDA) with Optimal Systems.  The collaborative research is in increased predictability in the National Airspace System (NAS).  A concept paper described a vision of an integrated modeling capability that will provide answers to policy level decision-makers with regard to changes in the NAS.  This vision was developed in response to the needs of the aviation modeling and simulation community.  The vision presented in this concept paper is the Aviation Integrated Reasoning Modeling Matrix (AIRMM), an envisioned architecture and system with a capability to provide a robust, integrated, decision-centric environment that supports the analysis needs of policy and decision-makers.  The AIRMM system utilizes state-of-the-art technologies from decision systems, information systems, and modeling and simulation systems.  Various models of the system were developed in prototyping activity.  The objectives of this research are to organize a team that will continue the development of AIRMM and reach its goal of an integrated state-of-the-art decision-making tool that could be used across multiple domains and organizations.

View 2004- 2005 PROJECTS