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NASA NTRS2011

Design and Evaluation of the Terminal Area Precision Scheduling and Spacing System

This paper describes the design, development and results from a high fidelity human-in-the-loop simulation of an integrated set of trajectory-based automation tools providing precision scheduling, sequencing and controller merging and spacing functions. These integrated functions are combined into a system called the Terminal Area Precision Scheduling and Spacing (TAPSS) system. It is a strategic and tactical planning tool that provides Traffic Management Coordinators, En Route and Terminal Radar Approach Control air traffic controllers the ability to efficiently optimize the arrival capacity of a demand-impacted airport while simultaneously enabling fuel-efficient descent procedures. The TAPSS system consists of four-dimensional trajectory prediction, arrival runway balancing, aircraft separation constraint-based scheduling, traffic flow visualization and trajectory-based advisories to assist controllers in efficient metering, sequencing and spacing. The TAPSS system was evaluated and compared to today's ATC operation through extensive series of human-in-the-loop simulations for arrival flows into the Los Angeles International Airport. The test conditions included the variation of aircraft demand from a baseline of today's capacity constrained periods through 5%, 10% and 20% increases. Performance data were collected for engineering and human factor analysis and compared with similar operations both with and without the TAPSS system. The engineering data indicate operations with the TAPSS show up to a 10% increase in airport throughput during capacity constrained periods while maintaining fuel-efficient aircraft descent profiles from cruise to landing.

Swenson, Harry N.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

TPSAS-NF1676L-15334-DND

Objective - develop a near-term application of ADS-B that delivers immediate airline benefits through the introduction of more efficient oceanic operations - Develop - Conduct the research, simulations, safety analyses and flight tests required that lead to an implementation of a new oceanic capability - Near-Term Application of ADS-B - ADS-B is a fundamental component of NextGen; near-term aspect helps get ADS-B out of the lab and into the real world - Immediate Airline Operational benefits - Airline operators benefit from their equipage investment; provides an incentive for operators to voluntarily equip with transformational technologies - More Efficient Operations - Applications that enable aircraft to fly at optimal altitudes, tracks and speeds - Oceanic - Air traffic environment that is open to new technologies and procedures - Provide tangible benefits by solving a significant problem (aircraft flying at inefficient altitudes) using relatively low cost technology

Kenneth M Jones↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Enhanced UAS Availability via Vehicle to Vehicle Routing Scaled Experiments

The safe integration of modern unmanned aerial systems into the national airspace requires the ability to be able to confirm that the vehicles are working as planned. This means the availability of the vehicle and latency of the communication is critical. These requirements, along with a complex and multifaceted environment as well as the unmanned air traffic management framework, present a unique optimization problem. In this paper, we articulate our envisioned problem space and create a scaled-down version to test the functional feasibility of utilizing the vehicle to vehicle communication as a secondary communication assurance mechanism. We present our framework, experimental approach, and some lessons learned through the process.

Nicholas B Cramer↗

NASA NTRS2016

Conflict Resolution for Wind-Optimal Aircraft Trajectories in North Atlantic Oceanic Airspace with Wind Uncertainties

Air traffic in the North Atlantic oceanic airspace (NAT) experiences very strong winds caused by jet streams. Flying wind-optimal trajectories increases individual flight efficiency, which is advantageous when operating in the NAT. However, as the NAT is highly congested during peak hours, a large number of potential conflicts between flights are detected for the sets of wind-optimal trajectories. Conflict resolution performed at the strategic level of flight planning can significantly reduce the airspace congestion. However, being completed far in advance, strategic planning can only use predicted environmental conditions that may significantly differ from the real conditions experienced further by aircraft. The forecast uncertainties result in uncertainties in conflict prediction, and thus, conflict resolution becomes less efficient. This work considers wind uncertainties in order to improve the robustness of conflict resolution in the NAT. First, the influence of wind uncertainties on conflict prediction is investigated. Then, conflict resolution methods accounting for wind uncertainties are proposed.

wind uncertainties↗

NASA NTRS2016

A Vision and Roadmap for Increasing User Autonomy in Flight Operations in the National Airspace

The purpose of Air Transportation is to move people and cargo safely, efficiently and swiftly to their destinations. The companies and individuals who use aircraft for this purpose, the airspace users, desire to operate their aircraft according to a dynamically optimized business trajectory for their specific mission and operational business model. In current operations, the dynamic optimization of business trajectories is limited by constraints built into operations in the National Airspace System (NAS) for reasons of safety and operational needs of the air navigation service providers. NASA has been developing and testing means to overcome many of these constraints and permit operations to be conducted closer to the airspace user's changing business trajectory as conditions unfold before and during the flight. A roadmap of logical steps progressing toward increased user autonomy is proposed, beginning with NASA's Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests (TASAR) concept that enables flight crews to make informed, deconflicted flight-optimization requests to air traffic control. These steps include the use of data communications for route change requests and approvals, integration with time-based arrival flow management processes under development by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), increased user authority for defining and modifying downstream, strategic portions of the trajectory, and ultimately application of self-separation. This progression takes advantage of existing FAA NextGen programs and RTCA standards development, and it is designed to minimize the number of hardware upgrades required of airspace users to take advantage of these advanced capabilities to achieve dynamically optimized business trajectories in NAS operations. The roadmap is designed to provide operational benefits to first adopters so that investment decisions do not depend upon a large segment of the user community becoming equipped before benefits can be realized. The issues of equipment certification and operational approval of new procedures are addressed in a way that minimizes their impact on the transition by deferring a change in the assignment of separation responsibility until a large body of operational data is available to support the safety case for this change in the last roadmap step.This paper will relate the roadmap steps to ongoing activities to clarify the economics-based transition to these technologies for operational use.

Cotton, William B.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Transforming the NAS: The Next Generation Air Traffic Control System

The next-generation air traffic control system must be designed to safely and efficiently accommodate the large growth of traffic expected in the near future. It should be sufficiently scalable to contend with the factor of 2 or more increase in demand expected by the year 2020. Analysis has shown that the current method of controlling air traffic cannot be scaled up to provide such levels of capacity. Therefore, to achieve a large increase in capacity while also giving pilots increased freedom to optimize their flight trajectories requires a fundamental change in the way air traffic is controlled. The key to achieving a factor of 2 or more increase in airspace capacity is to automate separation monitoring and control and to use an air-ground data link to send trajectories and clearances directly between ground-based and airborne systems. In addition to increasing capacity and offering greater flexibility in the selection of trajectories, this approach also has the potential to increase safety by reducing controller and pilot errors that occur in routine monitoring and voice communication tasks.

Erzberger, Heinz↗

NASA NTRS2000

A Conceptual Design of a Departure Planner Decision Aid

Terminal area Air Traffic Management handles both arriving and departing traffic. To date, research work on terminal area operations has focused primarily on the arrival flow and typically departures are taken into account only in an approximate manner. However, arrivals and departures are highly coupled processes especially in the terminal airspace, with complex interactions and sharing of the same airport resources between arrivals and departures taking place in practically every important terminal area. Therefore, the addition of automation aids for departures, possibly in co-operation with existing arrival flow automation systems, could have a profound contribution in enhancing the overall efficiency of airport operations. This paper presents the conceptual system architecture for such an automation aid, the Departure Planner (DP). This architecture can be used as a core in the development of decision-aiding systems to assist air traffic controllers in improving the performance of departure operations and optimize runway time allocation among different operations at major congested airports. The design of such systems is expected to increase the overall efficiency of terminal area operations and yield benefits for all stakeholders involved in Air Traffic Management (ATM) operations, users as well as service providers.

Anagnostakis, Ioannis↗

NASA NTRS2017

Future ATM Concepts Evaluation Tool (FACET) Interface Control Document

This Interface Control Document (ICD) documents the airspace adaptation and air traffic inputs of NASA's Future ATM Concepts and Evaluation Tool (FACET). Its intended audience is the project manager, project team, development team, and stakeholders interested in interfacing with the system. FACET equips Air Traffic Management (ATM) researchers and service providers with a way to explore, develop and evaluate advanced air transportation concepts before they are field-tested and eventually deployed. FACET is a flexible software tool that is capable of quickly generating and analyzing thousands of aircraft trajectories. It provides researchers with a simulation environment for preliminary testing of advanced ATM concepts. Using aircraft performance profiles, airspace models, weather data, and flight schedules, the tool models trajectories for the climb, cruise, and descent phases of flight for each type of aircraft. An advanced graphical interface displays traffic patterns in two and three dimensions, under various current and projected conditions for specific airspace regions or over the entire continental United States. The system is able to simulate a full day's dynamic national airspace system (NAS) operations, model system uncertainty, measure the impact of different decision-makers in the NAS, and provide analysis of the results in graphical form, including sector, airport, fix, and airway usage statistics. NASA researchers test and analyze the system-wide impact of new traffic flow management algorithms under anticipated air traffic growth projections on the nation's air traffic system. In addition to modeling the airspace system for NASA research, FACET has also successfully transitioned into a valuable tool for operational use. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) traffic flow managers and commercial airline dispatchers have used FACET technology for real-time operations planning. FACET integrates live air traffic data from FAA radar systems and weather data from the National Weather Service to summarize NAS performance. This information allows system operators to reroute flights around congested airspace and severe weather to maintain safety and minimize delay. FACET also supports the planning and post-operational evaluation of reroute strategies at the national level to maximize system efficiency. For the commercial airline passenger, strategic planning with FACET can result in fewer flight delays and cancellations. The performance capabilities of FACET are largely due to its architecture, which strikes a balance between flexibility and fidelity. FACET is capable of modeling the airspace operations for the continental United States, processing thousands of aircraft on a single computer. FACET was written in Java and C, enabling the portability of its software to a variety of operating systems. In addition, FACET was designed with a modular software architecture to facilitate rapid prototyping of diverse ATM concepts. Several advanced ATM concepts have already been implemented in FACET, including aircraft self-separation, prediction of aircraft demand and sector congestion, system-wide impact assessment of traffic flow management constraints, and wind-optimal routing.

FACET↗

NASA NTRS2014

Development of Super Ensemble-Based Aviation Turbulence Guidance (SEATG) for Air Traffic Management

A new method for forecasting turbulence is developed and evaluated using the high resolution weather model and in situ turbulence observations from commercial aircraft. The new method is an ensemble of various turbulence metrics from multiple time-lagged ensemble forecasts created using a sequence of four procedures. These include weather modeling, calculation of turbulence metrics, mapping the metrics into a common turbulence-scale, and production of final forecast. The new method uses similar methodology as current operational turbulence forecast with three improvements. First, it uses a higher resolution ((delta)x = 3 km) weather model to capture cloud resolving scale phenomena. Second, it computes the metrics for multiple forecasts that are combined at the same valid time resulting in a time-lagged ensemble of multiple turbulence metrics. Finally, it provides both deterministic and probabilistic turbulence forecasts. Results show the new forecasts match well with observed radar reflectivity along a surface front as well as convectively induced turbulence outside the clouds on research period. Overall performance skill of the new turbulence forecast compared with the observed EDR data during the research period is superior to any single turbulence metric. The probabilistic turbulence forecast is used in an example air traffic management application for creating a wind-optimal route considering turbulence information. The wind-optimal route passing through areas of 50% potential for moderate-or-greater turbulence and the lateral turbulence avoidance routes starting from three different waypoints along the wind-optimal route from Los Angeles international airport to John F. Kennedy international airport are calculated using different turbulence forecasts. This example shows additional flight time is required to avoid potential turbulence encounters.

modeling↗

NASA NTRS1988

It's time to reinvent the general aviation airplane

Current designs for general aviation airplanes have become obsolete, and avenues for major redesign must be considered. New designs should incorporate recent advances in electronics, aerodynamics, structures, materials, and propulsion. Future airplanes should be optimized to operate satisfactorily in a positive air traffic control environment, to afford safety and comfort for point-to-point transportation, and to take advantage of automated manufacturing techniques and high production rates. These requirements have broad implications for airplane design and flying qualities, leading to a concept for the Modern Equipment General Aviation (MEGA) airplane. Synergistic improvements in design, production, and operation can provide a much needed fresh start for the general aviation industry and the traveling public. In this investigation a small four place airplane is taken as the reference, although the proposed philosophy applies across the entire spectrum of general aviation.

Stengel, Robert F.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Future of Fuel Savings

Using automation to free up controllers for more strategic management of air traffic is one approach being studied by NASA as it seeks to boost airspace system capacity and efficiency, thereby saving fuel. Heinz Erzberger, a NASA Ames Research Center senior scientist, says the Advanced Airspace Concept (AAC) has been studied for several years. It could increase efficiency 15% by providing optimal routes that cut airlines direct operating costs. A 25% increase in landings on existing runways could follow an important benefit. AAC is one of the efforts to be reviewed by the Joint Planning and Development Organization, an FAA-led initiative by six federal agencies to redesign the U.S. air transportation system by 2025. The main goal is to triple air traffic capacity within 20 years to avert the sort of gridlock that would make fuel consumption only one of many travel nightmares. The automated system approach would allow aircraft to fly optimal trajectories. A trajectory would be defined in the standard three dimensions and eventually include the fourth, time. The management of air traffic by the data-linked exchange of trajectories would start at high altitude and eventually move down to lower altitudes. The automated concept is an outgrowth of the type of tools developed by NASA for use by FAA controllers in managing traffic flows over the years, including ones that optimize routings for the best fuel burn. But AAC would push automation further to reduce workload so controllers can focus on "solving strategic control problems, managing traffic flow during changing weather and ... other unusal events." One key component, the automated trajectory server (ATS), is a ground systems that would rely on software to manage flight path requests from aircrews and controllers. But, Erzberger acknowledges, "The FAA's current plan for upgrades to air traffic services does not include [allowing] the future ground system to issue separation-critical clearances of trajectory changes autonomously to aircraft via data link without explicit approval of a controller," as the AAC proposes. The AAC enables pilots or controllers to data link requests for a trajectory change to the ATS for approval after they are deconflicted with the paths of other aircraft. To divert around storms, for example, pilots could data link their trajectory preference to the ATS. Since several aircraft might request similar routes, the computer would then have to suggest alternatives. This could be accomplished without pilot-controller radio calls, a big bottleneck now. The ATS would have a built-in conflict monitor to call for a resolution (turn, climb or descend), when loss of separation is likely in 1-20 min. The AAC system would reduce controller errors by 90%, according to NASA Ames estimates. The AAC would have a back-up program to assure separation-Tactical Separation Assurance (TSAFE). It s designed to detect short-term traffic conflicts within 3-4 min. of loss of separation. The last line of defense would still be provided by traffic alert & collision avoidance systems (TCAS).

Hughes, David↗

NASA NTRS2014

Three-Dimensional Trajectory Design for Reducing Climate Impact of Trans-Atlantic Flights

The impact of aircraft emissions and contrails on the environment adds an additional aspect to aircraft trajectory optimization. This study developed a three-dimensional trajectory optimization algorithm for trans-Atlantic flights in cruise to generate aircraft trajectories that minimize environmental impacts due to CO2 emissions and contrails in the presence of winds. The climate-optimal trajectory is developed using dynamic programming that adjusts a wind-optimal aircraft heading while determining the optimal locations, altitudes and times for en-route step climbs. Flying wind-optimal routes minimize aircraft travel time, fuel burn and associated emissions during cruise while adjusting aircraft heading and en-route step climbs at the optimal locations and times minimize climate impact of contrails. This capability integrates an air traffic management simulation with aircraft fuel burn and emissions models, contrail formation and dispersion models, simplified climate response models, and a common climate metric. A study was conducted to evaluate the potential cost and benefits of flying climate-optimal routes in North Atlantic Airspace and their impacts to the Organized Track System design based on the trans-Atlantic air traffic during a day, July 12, 2012. Results show eastbound flights achieved a larger environmental benefit with less additional fuel burn than westbound flights that operated in strong headwinds that caused more additional fuel burn and aircraft emissions to avoid traversing contrails favorable regions.

climate impact of aviation↗

NASA NTRS1984

Application of fuel/time minimization techniques to route planning and trajectory optimization

Rising fuel costs combined with other economic pressures have resulted in industry requirements for more efficient air traffic control and airborne operations. NASA has responded with an on-going research program to investigate the requirements and benefits of using new airborne guidance and pilot procedures that are compatible with advanced air traffic control systems and that will result in more fuel efficient flight. The results of flight testing an airborne computer algorithm designed to provide either open-loop or closed-loop guidance for fuel efficient descents while satisfying time constraints imposed by the air traffic control system is summarized. Some of the potential cost and fuel savings that are obtained with sophisticated vertical path optimization capabilities are described.

Knox, C. E.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Application of optimization techniques to near terminal area sequencing and flow control.

Development of an arrival air-traffic management system for a single runway. Traffic is segregated throughout most of the near terminal area according to performance characteristics. Nominal approach routes for each class of aircraft are determined by an optimization procedure. In this fashion, the nominal approach routes are dependent upon and, hence, determined by the near terminal area operating capabilities of each class of aircraft. The landing order and spacing of aircraft on the common approach path are determined so that a measure of total system deviation from the nominal landing times is minimized and safety standards are met. Delay maneuvers required to satisfy sequencing needs are then carried out in a manner dependent upon the particular class of aircraft being maneuvered. Finally, results are presented to illustrate the effects of the rate of arrivals upon a one-runway system serving three different classes of aircraft employing several different sequencing strategies and measures of total system deviation.

Straeter, T. A.↗

NASA NTRS1996

Decision-Aiding and Optimization for Vertical Navigation of Long-Haul Aircraft

Most decisions made in the cockpit are related to safety, and have therefore been proceduralized in order to reduce risk. There are very few which are made on the basis of a value metric such as economic cost. One which can be shown to be value based, however, is the selection of a flight profile. Fuel consumption and flight time both have a substantial effect on aircraft operating cost, but they cannot be minimized simultaneously. In addition, winds, turbulence, and performance vary widely with altitude and time. These factors make it important and difficult for pilots to (a) evaluate the outcomes associated with a particular trajectory before it is flown and (b) decide among possible trajectories. The two elements of this problem considered here are: (1) determining what constitutes optimality, and (2) finding optimal trajectories. Pilots and dispatchers from major u.s. airlines were surveyed to determine which attributes of the outcome of a flight they considered the most important. Avoiding turbulence-for passenger comfort-topped the list of items which were not safety related. Pilots' decision making about the selection of flight profile on the basis of flight time, fuel burn, and exposure to turbulence was then observed. Of the several behavioral and prescriptive decision models invoked to explain the pilots' choices, utility maximization is shown to best reproduce the pilots' decisions. After considering more traditional methods for optimizing trajectories, a novel method is developed using a genetic algorithm (GA) operating on a discrete representation of the trajectory search space. The representation is a sequence of command altitudes, and was chosen to be compatible with the constraints imposed by Air Traffic Control, and with the training given to pilots. Since trajectory evaluation for the GA is performed holistically, a wide class of objective functions can be optimized easily. Also, using the GA it is possible to compare the costs associated with different airspace design and air traffic management policies. A decision aid is proposed which would combine the pilot's notion of optimality with the GA-based optimization, provide the pilot with a number of alternative pareto-optimal trajectories, and allow him to consider unmodelled attributes and constraints in choosing among them. A solution to the problem of displaying alternatives in a multi-attribute decision space is also presented.

Patrick, Nicholas J. M.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Developing an Onboard Traffic-Aware Flight Optimization Capability for Near-Term Low-Cost Implementation

The concept of Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests (TASAR) combines Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) IN and airborne automation to enable user-optimal in-flight trajectory replanning and to increase the likelihood of Air Traffic Control (ATC) approval for the resulting trajectory change request. TASAR is designed as a near-term application to improve flight efficiency or other user-desired attributes of the flight while not impacting and potentially benefiting ATC. Previous work has indicated the potential for significant benefits for each TASAR-equipped aircraft. This paper will discuss the approach to minimizing TASAR's cost for implementation and accelerating readiness for near-term implementation.

Wing, David J.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Costs of Limiting Route Optimization to Published Waypoints in the Traffic Aware Planner

The Traffic Aware Planner (TAP) is an airborne advisory tool that generates optimized, traffic-avoiding routes to support the aircraft crew in making strategic reroute requests to Air Traffic Control (ATC). TAP is derived from a research-prototype self-separation tool, the Autonomous Operations Planner (AOP), in which optimized route modifications that avoid conflicts with traffic and weather, using waypoints at explicit latitudes and longitudes (a technique supported by self-separation concepts), are generated by maneuver patterns applied to the existing route. For use in current-day operations in which trajectory changes must be requested from ATC via voice communication, TAP produces optimized routes described by advisories that use only published waypoints prior to a reconnection waypoint on the existing route. We describe how the relevant algorithms of AOP have been modified to implement this requirement. The modifications include techniques for finding appropriate published waypoints in a maneuver pattern and a method for combining the genetic algorithm of AOP with an exhaustive search of certain types of advisory. We demonstrate methods to investigate the increased computation required by these techniques and to estimate other costs (measured in terms such as time to destination and fuel burned) that may be incurred when only published waypoints are used.

TASAR↗

NASA NTRS2013

Usability Evaluation of Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA) Concept in Dallas/Fort Worth Airport Tower Simulation

Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA) is a proposed decision-support tool for air traffic control tower controllers for reducing taxi delay and optimizing the departure sequence. In the present study, the tool's usability was evaluated to ensure that its claimed performance benefits are not being realized at the cost of increasing the work burden on controllers. For the evaluation, workload ratings and questionnaire responses collected during a human-in-the-loop simulation experiment were analyzed to assess the SARDA advisories' effects on the controllers' ratings on cognitive resources (e.g., workload, spare attention) and satisfaction. The results showed that SARDA reduced the controllers' workload and increased their spare attention. It also made workload and attention levels less susceptible to the effects of increases in the traffic load. The questionnaire responses suggested that the controllers generally were satisfied with the ease of use of the tool and the objectives of the SARDA concept, but with some caution. To gain more trust from controllers, the the reasoning behind advisories may need to be made more transparent to them.

human factors↗