Continuing a Partnership with EuroControl
By Albert Schwartz, Karen Buondonno, Jacqueline Rehmann and Mike Paglione
The Technical Center has formed partnerships with other organizations, both in the U.S. and worldwide. One such partnership was established with EuroControl, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation. EuroControl’s primary objective is to develop a seamless, pan-European Air Traffic Management system.
In 1995, the FAA/ EuroControl Research & Development (R&D) Committee was established during the 2nd FAA/ EuroControl R&D Symposium (Denver, CO). The Committee identified areas of mutual interest where the FAA and EuroControl could work together in R&D, and defined several cooperative tasks or “Action Plans”.
Of eighteen Action Plans that were organized (currently 15 are active), the Tech Center plays a key role in Action Plan 2 (AP2) - Air Traffic Operation Concepts, Action Plan 5 (AP5) - Validation and Verification Strategy, Action Plan 9 (AP9) - Air Traffic Modelling of Operation Concepts and Action Plan 16 (AP-16) - Common Trajectory Prediction Capability.
The goal of AP2 is to build a mutual understanding of international air traffic environments, issues, and solutions and to identify opportunities for cooperation. While the intention is not to establish a common operational environment, AP2 participants strive to understand their airspace differences and problems that occur when operating between the U.S. and Europe.
The goal of AP5 is to determine a unified strategy for validating and verifying the performance, reliability, and safety of Air Traffic Management (ATM) systems. Karen Buondonno, of the Simulation and Analysis Group has been a member of AP5 for more than five years. She helped develop the Operational Concept Validation Strategy Document (OCVSD), which was created to establish a common understanding of validation in ATM and provides the prerequisite for a better planning, re-use and exchange of validation results. She also was the U.S. lead and organizer for two international Practitioners’ Workshops.
The first was held in Atlantic City, and provided information on the best practices for real-time human-in-the-loop simulation. The second, the joint AP5/AP9 workshop, was held in Rome, Italy and provided information on the best practices for simulation scenario development.
Buondonno also provided feedback and input into the development of the Validation Data Repository (VDR), a global information management system that captures concept validation projects, objectives, tools, techniques and other validation information.
The goal of AP9 is to globally share information concerning fast-time simulation models for modelling Air Traffic operational concepts and to identify areas of cooperation in the use and development of fast-time simulation models. Al Schwartz, of the Simulation and Analysis Group, has been involved in AP9 for more than three years, and also has provided assistance to AP5 and AP16. He has played a key role as the U.S. lead and organizer in the development of two international Technical Interchange Meetings, titled, “Presentation and capability assessment of various fast-time simulation models and tools”, and “Modelling Architectures.” He also has developed and coordinated two international joint AP5/AP9 Practitioners’ Workshops. Products developed from these meetings include a report on current Fast Time modelling capabilities, a modelling capability survey, and lessons learned documents concerning fast-time modelling and concept validation (the latter is included as an appendix in the OCSVD).
The goal of AP16 is to minimize duplication of effort in the many organizations involved in trajectory tool and predictor development, thereby reducing costs, reducing time to deployment and enhancing the quality of the validation and improvement process. Many advanced tools are in the research phase, and they are expected to make more exacting demands of trajectory predictors, particularly in terms of speed of computation and accuracy. Another purpose of this action plan is to understand and push the limits of trajectory predictor performance. Execution of this action plan will create a common methodology and resources for the validation and improvement of trajectory prediction capabilities. Mike Paglione, of the Simulation and Analysis Group, is the FAA lead on AP16 and has many years of experience with trajectory prediction, due to his work with the User Request Evaluation Tool (URET).
Through cooperative research, the FAA and EuroControl have established a working relationship that benefits each organization by sharing technical experience, establishing aviation standards and providing valuable research opportunities. To find out more about these and other Action Plans, visit: http://www.EuroControl.int/faa-euro/.
|
