Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “integrated terminal airspace operations”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

90 records · Page 5
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2016

Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management (UTM) Safely Enabling UAS Operations in Low-Altitude Airspace

Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) Enabling Civilian Low-Altitude Airspace and Unmanned Aircraft System Operations What is the problem? Many beneficial civilian applications of UAS have been proposed, from goods delivery and infrastructure surveillance, to search and rescue, and agricultural monitoring. Currently, there is no established infrastructure to enable and safely manage the widespread use of low-altitude airspace and UAS operations, regardless of the type of UAS. A UAS traffic management (UTM) system for low-altitude airspace may be needed, perhaps leveraging concepts from the system of roads, lanes, stop signs, rules and lights that govern vehicles on the ground today, whether the vehicles are driven by humans or are automated. What system technologies is NASA exploring? Building on its legacy of work in air traffic management for crewed aircraft, NASA is researching prototype technologies for a UAS Traffic Management (UTM) system that could develop airspace integration requirements for enabling safe, efficient low-altitude operations. While incorporating lessons learned from the today's well-established air traffic management system, which was a response that grew out of a mid-air collision over the Grand Canyon in the early days of commercial aviation, the UTM system would enable safe and efficient low-altitude airspace operations by providing services such as airspace design, corridors, dynamic geofencing, severe weather and wind avoidance, congestion management, terrain avoidance, route planning and re-routing, separation management, sequencing and spacing, and contingency management. One of the attributes of the UTM system is that it would not require human operators to monitor every vehicle continuously. The system could provide to human managers the data to make strategic decisions related to initiation, continuation, and termination of airspace operations. This approach would ensure that only authenticated UAS could operate in the airspace. In its most mature form, the UTM system could be developed using autonomicity characteristics that include self-configuration, self-optimization and self-protection. The self-configuration aspect could determine whether the operations should continue given the current andor predicted windweather conditions. NASA envisions concepts for two types of possible UTM systems. The first type would be a Portable UTM system, which would move from between geographical areas and support operations such as precision agriculture and disaster relief. The second type of system would be a Persistent UTM system, which would support low-altitude operations and provide continuous coverage for a geographical area. Either system would require persistent communication, navigation, and surveillance (CNS) coverage to track, ensure, and monitor conformance. What is NASA doing to test the technologies? NASA's near-term goal is the development and demonstration of a possible future UTM system that could safely enable low-altitude airspace and UAS operations. Working alongside many committed government, industry and academic partners, NASA is leading the research, development and testing that is taking place in a series of activities called Technology Capability Levels (TCL), each increasing in complexity. UTM TCL1 concluded field testing in August 2015 and is undergoing additional testing at an FAA site.

UTM Low-altitude↗
NASA NTRS1992

CTAS: Computer intelligence for air traffic control in the terminal area

A system for the automated management and control of arrival traffic, referred to as the Center-TRACON Automation System (CTAS), has been designed by the ATC research group at NASA Ames research center. In a cooperative program, NASA and the FAA have efforts underway to install and evaluate the system at the Denver and Dallas/Ft. Worth airports. CTAS consists of three types of integrated tools that provide computer-generated intelligence for both Center and TRACON controllers to guide them in managing and controlling arrival traffic efficiently. One tool, the Traffic Management Advisor (TMA), establishes optimized landing sequences and landing times for aircraft arriving in the center airspace several hundred miles from the airport. In TRACON, TMA frequencies missed approach aircraft and unanticipated arrivals. Another tool, the Descent Advisor (DA), generates clearances for the center controllers handling at crossing times provided by TMA. In the TRACON, the final approach spacing tool (FAST) provides heading and speed clearances that produce and accurately spaced flow of aircraft on the final approach course. A data base consisting of aircraft performance models, airline preferred operational procedures and real time wind measurements contribute to the effective operation of CTAS. Extensive simulator evaluations of CTAS have demonstrated controller acceptance, delay reductions, and fuel savings.

Erzberger, Heinz↗
NASA NTRS2008

An Enhanced Convective Forecast (ECF) for the New York TRACON Area

In an effort to relieve summer-time congestion in the NY Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) area, the FAA is testing an enhanced convective forecast (ECF) product. The test began in June 2008 and is scheduled to run through early September. The ECF is updated every two hours, right before the Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC) national planning telcon. It is intended to be used by traffic managers throughout the National Airspace System (NAS) and airlines dispatchers to supplement information from the Collaborative Convective Forecast Product (CCFP) and the Corridor Integrated Weather System (CIWS). The ECF begins where the current CIWS forecast ends at 2 hours and extends out to 12 hours. Unlike the CCFP it is a detailed deterministic forecast with no aerial coverage limits. It is created by an ENSCO forecaster using a variety of guidance products including, the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model. This is the same version of the WRF that ENSCO runs over the Florida peninsula in support of launch operations at the Kennedy Space Center. For this project, the WRF model domain has been shifted to the Northeastern US. Several products from the NASA SPoRT group are also used by the ENSCO forecaster. In this paper we will provide examples of the ECF products and discuss individual cases of traffic management actions using ECF guidance.

Wheeler, Mark↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Evaluation of Initial and Mid-Term Air Traffic Procedures for Urban Air Mobility Operations

Urban air mobility (UAM) operations are expected to expand in scale over the next several years as novel aircraft types, including electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, are certified and begin operations. These new aircraft may increase safety, decrease noise, and lower operating costs compared with helicopters, allowing them to operate in ways existing aircraft do not. It is vital that these expanded operations are compatible with and do not disrupt existing operations or the air traffic management system. To study the ways in which scaled UAM operations can best integrate in the national airspace system, NASA and Joby Aviation partnered to conduct a high-fidelity air traffic controller-in-the-loop study. Building on air traffic procedures used to manage high tempo operations in other parts of the airspace, new procedures, routes, and communications protocols were developed and tested by retired controllers in NASA’s Future Flight Central tower simulation facility. In addition, new cooperative airspace constructs in the form of corridors were developed to understand their potential contributions to even greater scales of operation. The controllers managed traffic scenarios in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Dallas Love Field airports consisting of fleets of up to 100 UAM aircraft operating alongside traditional traffic . Metrics for air traffic controller workload, duration of communications, departure delays, and other measures of allowable aircraft throughput were collected. The analysis indicates that using today’s procedures for initial UAM operations under nominal conditions could enable up to 40 operations per hour to an airport’s central terminal area if that involved crossing a runway and up to 55operations per hour if reaching the central terminal did not involve crossing a runway. Operations at these tempos did not delay or otherwise interfere with simulated runway traffic and were rated acceptable by the air traffic controllers. The new corridor constructs dramatically lowered controller workload in certain circumstances, suggesting they may be effective in further increasing the allowable scale of operations.

Urban Air Mobility↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Evaluation of Initial and Mid-Term Air Traffic Procedures for Urban Air Mobility

Urban air mobility (UAM) operations are expected to expand in scale over the next several years as novel aircraft types, including electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, are certified and begin operations. These new aircraft may increase safety, decrease noise, and lower operating costs compared with helicopters, allowing them to operate in ways existing aircraft do not. It is vital that these expanded operations are compatible with and do not disrupt existing operations or the air traffic management system. To study the ways in which scaled UAM operations can best integrate in the national airspace system, NASA and Joby Aviation partnered to conduct a high-fidelity air traffic controller-in-the-loop study. Building on air traffic procedures used to manage high tempo operations in other parts of the airspace, new procedures, routes, and communications protocols were developed and tested by retired controllers in NASA’s Future Flight Central tower simulation facility. In addition, new cooperative airspace constructs in the form of corridors were developed to understand their potential contributions to even greater scales of operation. The controllers managed traffic scenarios in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Dallas Love Field airports consisting of fleets of up to 100 UAM aircraft operating alongside traditional traffic. Metrics for air traffic controller workload, duration of communications, departure delays, and other measures of allowable aircraft throughput were collected. The analysis indicates that using today’s procedures for initial UAM operations under nominal conditions could enable up to 40 operations per hour to an airport’s central terminal area if that involved crossing a runway and up to 55 operations per hour if reaching the central terminal did not involve crossing a runway. Operations at these tempos did not delay or otherwise interfere with simulated runway traffic and were rated acceptable by the air traffic controllers. The new corridor constructs dramatically lowered controller workload in certain circumstances, suggesting they may be effective in further increasing the allowable scale of operations.

Advanced Air Mobility↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Integration of Automated Systems (IAS) Flight Test - Hazard Perception & Avoidance (HPA) Results

The Integration of Automated Systems (IAS) flight test series concluded in October 2023 in support of NASA's Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) project. These flights include crewed, test (i.e., ownship) and traffic (i.e., intruder) aircraft that flew with unique technologies onboard. The presentation includes overviews of the flight tet itself and the specific results that pertain to the Hazard Perception and Avoidance (HPA) technical areas. HPA tested the FAA's Airborne Collision Avoidance System X (ACAS X), a next-generation collision avoidance tool developed to support different aircraft types and operations. The rotorcraft variant, ACAS Xr, is designed to accommodate existing helicopter platforms and in-development, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) concepts, which are critical to the emerging AAM concept of operations. Two configurations of ACAS Xr were examined: Collision Avoidance System (CAS, similar to the Traffic Collision Avoidance System [TCAS] II) and Detect and Avoid (DAA, previously developed to provide added situational awareness for remote pilots). Additionally, this system was flown in cruise and low-speed flight regimes as well as within en-route and (emulated), structured (i.e., dense/urban), and terminal airspaces. Results include the types of alerts generated by ACAS Xr across the different configurations, the distances at which the alerts were generated, response times, manuever sizes, miss distances, and general comments from pilots. Key takeaways and next steps are also provided.

detect and avoid↗
NASA NTRS2013

Evaluation of Flight Deck-Based Interval Management Crew Procedure Feasibility

Air traffic demand is predicted to increase over the next 20 years, creating a need for new technologies and procedures to support this growth in a safe and efficient manner. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Air Traffic Management Technology Demonstration - 1 (ATD-1) will operationally demonstrate the feasibility of efficient arrival operations combining ground-based and airborne NASA technologies. The integration of these technologies will increase throughput, reduce delay, conserve fuel, and minimize environmental impacts. The ground-based tools include Traffic Management Advisor with Terminal Metering for precise time-based scheduling and Controller Managed Spacing decision support tools for better managing aircraft delay with speed control. The core airborne technology in ATD-1 is Flight deck-based Interval Management (FIM). FIM tools provide pilots with speed commands calculated using information from Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast. The precise merging and spacing enabled by FIM avionics and flight crew procedures will reduce excess spacing buffers and result in higher terminal throughput. This paper describes a human-in-the-loop experiment designed to assess the acceptability and feasibility of the ATD-1 procedures used in a voice communications environment. This experiment utilized the ATD-1 integrated system of ground-based and airborne technologies. Pilot participants flew a high-fidelity fixed base simulator equipped with an airborne spacing algorithm and a FIM crew interface. Experiment scenarios involved multiple air traffic flows into the Dallas-Fort Worth Terminal Radar Control airspace. Results indicate that the proposed procedures were feasible for use by flight crews in a voice communications environment. The delivery accuracy at the achieve-by point was within +/- five seconds and the delivery precision was less than five seconds. Furthermore, FIM speed commands occurred at a rate of less than one per minute, and pilots found the frequency of the speed commands to be acceptable at all times throughout the experiment scenarios.

Wilson, Sara R.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Integration of Automated Systems (IAS) Flight Test Overview

The Integration of Automated Systems (IAS) Project is conducting a series of 2023 flight tests supporting NASA's Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) and National Campaign efforts. These flights include crewed, test (i.e., ownship) and traffic (i.e., intruder) aircraft that will fly with unique technologies onboard. The presentation will include overviews of the Hazard Perception and Avoidance (HPA) and Flight Path Management (FPM) technical areas but will focus primarily on HPA. HPA will test the FAA's Airborne Collision Avoidance System X (ACAS X), a next-generation collision avoidance tool developed to support different aircraft types and operations. The rotorcraft variant, ACAS Xr, is designed to accommodate existing helicopter platforms and in-development, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) concepts, which are critical to the emerging AAM concept of operations. Two configurations of ACAS Xr will be examined: Collision Avoidance System (CAS, similar to the Traffic Collision Avoidance System [TCAS] II) and Detect and Avoid (DAA, previously developed to provide added situational awareness for uncrewed aircraft). Additionally, this system will be explored during cruise and low-speed flight as well as flights within en-route, structured (i.e., dense/urban), and terminal airspaces. Scripted flight conflicts will be conducted, and these conflicts will be mitigated through maneuvers that are manual (i.e., performed by the pilots) or automated (i.e., achieved by the cooperation of the program middleware and onboard ownship systems). Objective data will be collected involving system and pilot performance as well as pilot decisions; subjective data will include pilot opinions of ACAS Xr's alerting and guidance as well as the automated maneuvers.

detect and avoid↗
NASA NTRS2018

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Integration into the National Airspace System (NAS)

NASA's Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) integration into the National Air Space (NAS) project has been working closely with the FAA and RTCA Special Committee 228 to identify and break down barriers to UAS integration. A focus of this work is on detect and avoid (DAA) technologies. A pilot has responsibility to see and avoid other aircraft and to remain "well clear," using their best judgment (Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) Sec. 91.113). For UAS to perform this function, the see function is replaced by sensors to detect the other aircraft. Secondly, the pilot judgment of well clear has to be replaced by a mathematical expression. For Phase 1 of this effort, a well clear violation was defined if all three of these conditions are true: a) the horizontal clearance is less than 4000 ft., and b) the vertical clearance is less than 450 ft., and c) the time to loss of well clear is less than 35 seconds. This definition was developed with a great deal of community input and testing to ensure interoperability with Air Traffic Control (ATC) and pilots of manned aircraft. Appropriate guidance, alerting and displays were developed to allow UAS, with the appropriate sensors, to effectively maintain well clear. This work contributed to FAA Technical Standard Orders: TSO-C211, Detect and Avoid and TSO-C212, ATAR for Traffic Surveillance. Phase 2 of this work extends the operational environment to include the terminal area and lesser capable aircraft that might not have the payload capability to carry the RADAR defined in Phase 1. This session reports on work from Phase 1 and initial work in Phase 2.

UAS↗
NASA NTRS2018

Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 (ATD-2) Technology Description Document (TDD)

This Technology Description Document (TDD) provides an overview of the technology for the Phase 1 Baseline Integrated Arrival, Departure, and Surface (IADS) prototype system of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 (ATD-2) project, to be demonstrated beginning in 2017 at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT). Development, integration, and field demonstration of relevant technologies of the IADS system directly address recommendations made by the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) Integration Working Group (NIWG) on Surface and Data Sharing and the Surface Collaborative Decision Making (Surface CDM) concept of operations developed jointly by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and aviation industry partners. NASA is developing the IADS traffic management system under the ATD-2 project in coordination with the FAA, flight operators, CLT airport, and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA). The primary goal of ATD-2 is to improve the predictability and operational efficiency of the air traffic system in metroplex environments, through the enhancement, development, and integration of the nation's most advanced and sophisticated arrival, departure, and surface prediction, scheduling, and management systems. The ATD-2 project is a 5-year research activity beginning in 2015 and extending through 2020. The Phase 1 Baseline IADS capability resulting from the ATD-2 research will be demonstrated at the CLT airport beginning in 2017. Phase 1 will provide the initial demonstration of the integrated system with strategic and tactical scheduling, tactical departure scheduling to an en route meter point, and an early implementation prototype of a Terminal Flight Data Manager (TFDM) Electronic Flight Data (EFD) system. The strategic surface scheduling element of the capability is consistent with the Surface CDM Concept of Operations published in 2014 by the FAA Surface Operations Directorate.

integrated arrival↗
NASA NTRS2018

Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 (ATD-2) Phase 1 Concept of Use (ConUse)

This document presents an operational Concept of Use (ConUse) for the Phase 1 Baseline Integrated Arrival, Departure, and Surface (IADS) prototype system of NASA's Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 (ATD-2) sub-project, which began demonstration in 2017 at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT). NASA is developing the IADS system under the ATD-2 sub-project in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and aviation industry partners. The primary goal of ATD-2 sub-project is to improve the predictability and the operational efficiency of the air traffic system in metroplex environments, through the enhancement, development, and integration of the nation's most advanced and sophisticated arrival, departure, and surface prediction, scheduling, and management systems. The ATD-2 effort is a five-year research activity through 2020. The initial phase of the ATD-2 sub-project, which is the focus of this document, will demonstrate the Phase 1 Baseline IADS capability at CLT in 2017. The Phase 1 Baseline IADS capabilities of the ATD-2 sub-project consists of: (a) Strategic and tactical surface scheduling to improve efficiency and predictability of airport surface operations, (b) Tactical departure scheduling to enhance merging of departures into overhead traffic streams via accurate predictions of takeoff times and automated coordination between the Airport Traffic Control Tower (ATCT, or Tower) and the Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC, or Center), (c) Improvements in departure surface demand predictions in Time Based Flow Management (TBFM), (d) A prototype Electronic Flight Data (EFD) system provided by the FAA via the Terminal Flight Data Manager (TFDM) early implementation effort, and (e) Improved situational awareness and demand predictions through integration with the Traffic Flow Management System (TFMS), TBFM, and TFDM (3Ts) for electronic data integration and exchange, and an on-screen dashboard displaying pertinent analytics in real-time. The surface scheduling and metering element of the capability is consistent with the Surface CDM Concept of Operations published in 2014 by the FAA Surface Operations Directorate.1 Upon successful demonstration of the Phase 1 Baseline IADS capability, follow-on demonstrations of the matured IADS traffic management capabilities will be conducted in the 2018-2020 timeframe. At the end of each phase of the demonstrations, NASA will transfer the ATD-2 sub-project technology to the FAA and industry partners.

integrated arrival↗
NASA NTRS2016

Operational Characteristics Identification and Simulation Model Verification for Incheon International Airport

Incheon International Airport (ICN) is one of the hub airports in East Asia. Airport operations at ICN have been growing more than 5% per year in the past five years. According to the current airport expansion plan, a new passenger terminal will be added and the current cargo ramp will be expanded in 2018. This expansion project will bring 77 new stands without adding a new runway to the airport. Due to such continuous growth in airport operations and future expansion of the ramps, it will be highly likely that airport surface traffic will experience more congestion, and therefore, suffer from efficiency degradation. There is a growing awareness in aviation research community of need for strategic and tactical surface scheduling capabilities for efficient airport surface operations. Specific to ICN airport operations, a need for A-CDM (Airport - Collaborative Decision Making) or S-CDM(Surface - Collaborative Decision Making), and controller decision support tools for efficient air traffic management has arisen since several years ago. In the United States, there has been independent research efforts made by academia, industry, and government research organizations to enhance efficiency and predictability of surface operations at busy airports. Among these research activities, the Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA) developed and tested by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is a decision support tool to provide tactical advisories to the controllers for efficient surface operations. The effectiveness of SARDA concept, was successfully verified through the human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulations for both spot release and runway operations advisories for ATC Tower controllers of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) in 2010 and 2012, and gate pushback advisories for the ramp controller of Charlotte/Douglas International Airport (CLT) in 2014. The SARDA concept for tactical surface scheduling is further enhanced and is being integrated into NASA's Airspace Technology Demonstration - 2 (ATD-2) project for technology demonstration of Integrated Arrival/Departure/Surface (ADS) operations at CLT. This study is a part of the international research collaboration between KAIA (Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement)/KARI (Korea Aerospace Research Institute) and NASA, which is being conducted to validate the effectiveness of SARDA concept as a controller decision support tool for departure and surface management of ICN. This paper presents the preliminary results of the collaboration effort. It includes investigation of the operational environment of ICN, data analysis for identification of the operational characteristics of the airport, construction and verification of airport simulation model using Surface Operations Simulator and Scheduler (SOSS), NASA's fast-time simulation tool.

scheduling↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Impact of ATD-2 Tools on Human Factors Metrics at Charlotte Douglas International Airport

New decision support tools were introduced at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) as part of NASA’s Air Traffic Demonstration 2 (ATD-2) project. ATD-2 is based on concepts which enable integrated arrival, departures, and surface (IADS) operations in a metroplex environment. Metrics on environmental benefits from ATD-2’s surface metering at CLT have shown impressive reductions in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Questions have remained on 1) the human factors impact of these new ATD-2 tools and surface metering and 2) the users’ perceptions of how these tools affect operations. To address these questions, post-bank surveys were designed for the four types of users of the new tools at CLT: Ramp Controllers, Ramp Managers, Tower Traffic Management Coordinators (TMCs) and Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) TMCs. These surveys were administered during five-day blocks at three different times. Three types of banks were compared: No ATD-2 tool use, ATD-2 tool use, and ATD-2 use plus surface metering. Results indicate that higher workload or decreased situation awareness was not significantly associated with ATD-2 tool use more than no ATD-2 tool use--in fact for many users the opposite was true. Also, acceptability and operational efficiency measures indicate that the users did not perceive that banks with ATD-2 tools were significantly less acceptable or less efficient than banks without ATD-2 tools.

Airspace Technology Demonstration 2↗
NASA NTRS2016

Operational Characteristics Identification and Simulation Model Verification for Incheon International Airport

Incheon International Airport (ICN) is one of the hub airports in East Asia. Airport operations at ICN have been growing more than 5 percent per year in the past five years. According to the current airport expansion plan, a new passenger terminal will be added and the current cargo ramp will be expanded in 2018. This expansion project will bring 77 new stands without adding a new runway to the airport. Due to such continuous growth in airport operations and future expansion of the ramps, it will be highly likely that airport surface traffic will experience more congestion, and therefore, suffer from efficiency degradation. There is a growing awareness in aviation research community of need for strategic and tactical surface scheduling capabilities for efficient airport surface operations. Specific to ICN airport operations, a need for A-CDM (Airport - Collaborative Decision Making) or S-CDM (Surface - Collaborative Decision Making), and controller decision support tools for efficient air traffic management has arisen since several years ago. In the United States, there has been independent research efforts made by academia, industry, and government research organizations to enhance efficiency and predictability of surface operations at busy airports. Among these research activities, the Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA) developed and tested by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is a decision support tool to provide tactical advisories to the controllers for efficient surface operations. The effectiveness of SARDA concept, was successfully verified through the human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulations for both spot release and runway operations advisories for ATC Tower controllers of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) in 2010 and 2012, and gate pushback advisories for the ramp controller of Charlotte-Douglas International Airport (CLT) in 2014. The SARDA concept for tactical surface scheduling is further enhanced and is being integrated into NASA's Airspace Technology Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) project for technology demonstration of Integrated Arrival-Departure-Surface (IADS) operations at CLT. This study is a part of the international research collaboration between KAIA (Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement), KARI (Korea Aerospace Research Institute) and NASA, which is being conducted to validate the effectiveness of SARDA concept as a controller decision support tool for departure and surface management of ICN. This paper presents the preliminary results of the collaboration effort. It includes investigation of the operational environment of ICN, data analysis for identification of the operational characteristics of the airport, construction and verification of airport simulation model using Surface Operations Simulator and Scheduler (SOSS), NASA's fast-time simulation tool.

surface operations analysis↗
NASA NTRS2015

Arrival Scheduling with Shortcut Path Options and Mixed Aircraft Performance

Previous work introduced the concept of using tactical shortcut options to improve schedule conformance in terminal airspace. When a scheduling point is congested, aircraft are scheduled to longer nominal paths, holding shortcut path options in reserve for tactical use if an aircraft is late, thereby improving the schedule conformance, reducing the required scheduling buffer, and increasing throughput. When the scheduling point is less congested, aircraft may be scheduled to the shorter path with original larger scheduling buffers. Previous work focused on a single generic merge point serving aircraft with uniform arrival precision. This paper extends the previous concept to enhance the performance of time-based arrival management and consider mixed aircraft performance. Aircraft equipped to achieve a high degree of schedule conformance may be scheduled to the shorter path under the same conditions that a less equipped aircraft would be scheduled to the longer path, giving the equipped aircraft an advantage that can be seamlessly integrated into the scheduler. The arrival scheduler with shortcut path options for mixed aircraft performance is applied to a model of first-come first-served terminal metering at Los Angeles International Airport. Whereas clear system benefits were found for tactical shortcut routing and higher percentages of equipped aircraft, very little advantage could be seen for equipped over unequipped aircraft that could be used to incentivize early equipage.

Equipage operations↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Usability Evaluation of Fleet Management Interface for High Density Vertiplex Environments

To meet the rising demand for an Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) (i.e. urban and rural unmanned aircraft systems) ecosystem, the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) is hosting a series of simulations and flight tests under the High Density Vertiplex sub-project (HDV) to prototype and study the effectiveness AAM capabilities under various operational contexts. HDV aims to develop an integrated automation architecture to support terminal area flight operations. The HDV simulations and flight tests address safety, integration, and operational challenges, while integrated systems and software demonstrate design readiness, robustness, and interoperability. During the initial HDV simulation in 2021, a prototype traffic management tool developed by NASA called the Fleet Management Interface (FMI) was tested. FMI was designed to introduce an advanced level of human-automation interaction to aid both Ground Control Station Operators (GCSOs) and Fleet Managers (FMs) in remotely managing flights under their ownership. In a human-in-the-loop simulation, a usability study was conducted with the FMI to identify optimal approaches for displaying information to human operators using subjective measures of usability, workload, situation awareness, risk, and trust, along with qualitative feedback. This study consisted of task analysis in which GCSO and FM subjects used an Urban Air Mobility (UAM) environment to develop and execute a plan for two different traffic scenarios of remotely controlled vehicles. In each scenario, a remotely controlled vehicle completed a takeoff, active flight, and landing sequence while simulated traffic flew in the background at a rate of 20 operations per hour. In the first scenario, the controlled vehicle flew a nominal route with takeoff and landing at the same vertiport. In the second scenario, the controlled vehicle started on the nominal route, then diverted to an unplanned location mid-flight. Results showed that self- reported performance, usability, trust, and situation awareness ratings of FMI were moderately to strongly high. There were small differences between scenarios, with Scenario 2 being perceived as more unstable, complex, variable, risky, and potentially harmful than Scenario 1. Furthermore, participants described improvements that could be made to create a better user experience. For example, users suggested customizable interfaces to accommodate information display preferences, and the ability to review routes before assigning them. The results from this study will inform future development of the FMI with the end goal of creating a reference automation tool for airspace management procedures in AAM. The FMI could serve to reduce dependency on traditional air navigation services through increased automation in high density vertiplex environments.

Fleet manager↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Usability Evaluation of Fleet Management Interface for High Density Vertiplex Environments

To meet the rising demand for an Advanced Air Mobility (i.e. urban and rural unmanned aircraft systems) ecosystem, NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) is hosting a series of simulations and flight tests under the High Density Vertiplex sub-project (HDV). HDV aims to develop an integrated automation architecture to support terminal area flight operations. The HDV simulations and flight tests address safety, integration, and operational challenges, while integrated systems and software demonstrate design readiness, robustness, and interoperability. During the initial HDV simulation in 2021, a prototype traffic management tool developed by NASA called Fleet Management Interface (FMI) was tested. FMI was designed to introduce an advanced level of human-automation interaction to aid both Ground Control Station Operators (GCSOs) and Fleet Managers (FMs) in remotely managing flights under their ownership. In a human-in-the-loop simulation, a usability study was conducted with FMI to identify optimal approaches for displaying information for human operators using subjective measures of usability, workload, situation awareness, risk, and trust, along with qualitative feedback. This study consisted of task analysis in which GCSO and FM subjects used an Urban Air Mobility (UAM) environment to develop and execute a plan for two different traffic scenarios of remotely controlled vehicles. In each scenario, a controlled vehicle completed a takeoff, active flight, and landing sequence while automated traffic flew in the background at a rate of 20 operations per hour. In the first scenario, the controlled vehicle flew a nominal route with takeoff and landing at the same vertiport. In the second scenario, the controlled vehicle started on the nominal route, then diverted to an unplanned location mid-flight. Results showed that self-reported performance, usability, trust, and situation awareness ratings of FMI were moderately to strongly high. There were small differences between scenarios, with Scenario 2 being perceived as more unstable, complex, variable, risky, and potentially harmful than Scenario 1. Furthermore, participants described improvements that could be made to create a better user experience. For example, users would like greater configurability of the interface based on their personal information requirements, and they would like the opportunity to review routes before assigning them. The results from this study will inform future development of the FMI with the end goal of creating a reference automation tool for airspace management procedures in AAM. The FMI could be introduced as a potential way to reduce dependency on traditional air navigation services through increased automation in high density vertiplex environments.

vertiplex↗
NASA NTRS2015

Scheduling and Delivering Aircraft to Departure Fixes in the NY Metroplex with Controller-Managed Spacing Tools

In this paper, successful Time-Based Flow Management (TBFM) scheduling systems for arrivals are considered and adapted to apply to departures. We present a concept of operations that integrates Controller-Managed Spacing tools for departures (CMS-D) with existing tactical departure scheduling tools to coordinate demand at departure fixes in a metroplex environment. We tested our concept in a Human-in-the-Loop simulation and compared the effect of two scheduling conditions: 1) "Departure Scheduling" consisting of an emulation of the Integrated Departure and Arrival Capability (IDAC) where Towers and a Planner (Traffic Management Coordinator at the appropriate facility) coordinate aircraft scheduled takeoff times to departure fixes; and 2) "Arrival Sensitive Departure Scheduling" where, in addition, the Tower and Planner also consider arrival Scheduled Time of Arrivals (STAs) at the airport's dependent runway. Results indicate little difference between the two scheduling conditions, but a large difference between the No Tools and the two scheduling conditions with CMS-D tools. The scheduling/CMS-D tools conditions markedly reduced heading, speed clearances, and workload for controllers who were merging flows at the departure fixes. In the tool conditions, departure controllers conditioned departures earlier rather than later when aircraft were tied near the departure fixes. In the scheduling/CMS-D tools conditions, departures crossed the departure fixes 50 seconds earlier and with an 8% error rate (consisting of time ahead or behind desired time of arrival) compared to a 19% error rate in the No Tool condition. Two exploratory runs showed that similar beneficial effects can be obtained only with the CMS-D tools without scheduling takeoff times, but at the cost of a somewhat higher workload for controllers, indicating the benefits of pre-departure scheduling of aircraft with minimal delays. Hence, we found that CMS-D tools were very beneficial in the metroplex environment we tested but that further research is needed to clarify the benefits of the various scheduling approaches.

terminal airspace↗