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At least 19 records

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NASA NTRS1994

A knowledge-based system for controlling automobile traffic

Transportation network capacity variations arising from accidents, roadway maintenance activity, and special events as well as fluctuations in commuters' travel demands complicate traffic management. Artificial intelligence concepts and expert systems can be useful in framing policies for incident detection, congestion anticipation, and optimal traffic management. This paper examines the applicability of intelligent route guidance and control as decision aids for traffic management. Basic requirements for managing traffic are reviewed, concepts for studying traffic flow are introduced, and mathematical models for modeling traffic flow are examined. Measures for quantifying transportation network performance levels are chosen, and surveillance and control strategies are evaluated. It can be concluded that automated decision support holds great promise for aiding the efficient flow of automobile traffic over limited-access roadways, bridges, and tunnels.

Maravas, Alexander↗

NASA NTRS2003

Improved Conflict Detection for Reducing Operational Errors in Air Traffic Control

An operational error is an incident in which an air traffic controller allows the separation between two aircraft to fall below the minimum separation standard. The rates of such errors in the US have increased significantly over the past few years. This paper proposes new detection methods that can help correct this trend by improving on the performance of Conflict Alert, the existing software in the Host Computer System that is intended to detect and warn controllers of imminent conflicts. In addition to the usual trajectory based on the flight plan, a "dead-reckoning" trajectory (current velocity projection) is also generated for each aircraft and checked for conflicts. Filters for reducing common types of false alerts were implemented. The new detection methods were tested in three different ways. First, a simple flightpath command language was developed t o generate precisely controlled encounters for the purpose of testing the detection software. Second, written reports and tracking data were obtained for actual operational errors that occurred in the field, and these were "replayed" to test the new detection algorithms. Finally, the detection methods were used to shadow live traffic, and performance was analysed, particularly with regard to the false-alert rate. The results indicate that the new detection methods can provide timely warnings of imminent conflicts more consistently than Conflict Alert.

Paielli, Russell A.↗

NASA NTRS1996

Intelligent Highway System

Under contract to the Texas Department of Transportation, AlliedSignal Technical Services developed the Transportation Guidance System (TransGuide) used in San Antonio, Texas. The system monitors the passage of traffic over the sensors embedded in the roadways and detects incidents. Control center operators are alerted to the occurrence of an accident and the area of the occurrence is highlighted on a map display. TransGuide incorporates technology AlliedSignal developed under various contracts to NASA at Goddard Space Flight Center, Johnson Space Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory, including the design of ground control centers.

Source record↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Fire Front Detection and Tracking for Autonomous sUAS in STEReO

The Scalable Traffic Management Emergency Response Operations (STEReO) project aims to incorporate unmanned aerial systems (UAS) into wildfire incident response to safely quicken response times, improve operator awareness, and scale-up aircraft operations.Autonomous UAS can be used to relieve human operators of dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks such as checking for re-ignitions and geo-locating fires. To geo-locate fires, the UAS must be able to detect whether a fire is present and also have the necessary information to stamp a location. Furthermore, the UAS should be able to track the fire front to determine the extent of the fire. This study presents a fire front detection and tracking methodology for an autonomous small UAS (sUAS). The methodology is evaluated in simulation.

Autonomous UAV,Wildfire,Detection,Tracking↗

NASA NTRS2016

Conducting Safe and Efficient Airport Surface Operations in a NextGen Environment

The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) vision proposes many revolutionary operational concepts, such as surface trajectory-based operations (STBO) and technologies, including display of traffic information and movements, airport moving maps (AMM), and proactive alerts of runway incursions and surface traffic conflicts, to deliver an overall increase in system capacity and safety. A piloted simulation study was conducted at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center to evaluate the ability of a flight crew to conduct safe and efficient airport surface operations while utilizing an AMM. Position accuracy of traffic was varied, and the effect of traffic position accuracy on airport conflict detection and resolution (CD&R) capability was measured. Another goal was to evaluate the crew's ability to safely conduct STBO by assessing the impact of providing traffic intent information, CD&R system capability, and the display of STBO guidance to the flight crew on both head-down and head-up displays (HUD). Nominal scenarios and off-nominal conflict scenarios were conducted using 12 airline crews operating in a simulated Memphis International Airport terminal environment. The data suggest that all traffic should be shown on the airport moving map, whether qualified or unqualified, and conflict detection and resolution technologies provide significant safety benefits. Despite the presence of traffic information on the map, collisions or near-collisions still occurred; when indications or alerts were generated in these same scenarios, the incidents were averted. During the STBO testing, the flight crews met their required time-of-arrival at route end within 10 seconds on 98 percent of the trials, well within the acceptable performance bounds of 15 seconds. Traffic intent information was found to be useful in determining the intent of conflicting traffic, with graphical presentation preferred. The CD&R system was only minimally effective during STBO because the prevailing visibility was sufficient for visual detection of conflicting traffic. Overall, the pilots indicated STBO increased general situation awareness but also negatively impacted workload, reduced the ability to watch for other traffic, and increased head-down time.

Jones, Denise R.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Air traffic management evaluation tool

Methods for evaluating and implementing air traffic management tools and approaches for managing and avoiding an air traffic incident before the incident occurs. A first system receives parameters for flight plan configurations (e.g., initial fuel carried, flight route, flight route segments followed, flight altitude for a given flight route segment, aircraft velocity for each flight route segment, flight route ascent rate, flight route descent route, flight departure site, flight departure time, flight arrival time, flight destination site and/or alternate flight destination site), flight plan schedule, expected weather along each flight route segment, aircraft specifics, airspace (altitude) bounds for each flight route segment, navigational aids available. The invention provides flight plan routing and direct routing or wind optimal routing, using great circle navigation and spherical Earth geometry. The invention provides for aircraft dynamics effects, such as wind effects at each altitude, altitude changes, airspeed changes and aircraft turns to provide predictions of aircraft trajectory (and, optionally, aircraft fuel use). A second system provides several aviation applications using the first system. Several classes of potential incidents are analyzed and averted, by appropriate change en route of one or more parameters in the flight plan configuration, as provided by a conflict detection and resolution module and/or traffic flow management modules. These applications include conflict detection and resolution, miles-in trail or minutes-in-trail aircraft separation, flight arrival management, flight re-routing, weather prediction and analysis and interpolation of weather variables based upon sparse measurements. The invention combines these features to provide an aircraft monitoring system and an aircraft user system that interact and negotiate changes with each other.

Sridhar, Banavar↗

NASA NTRS2014

Effect of Traffic Position Accuracy for Conducting Safe Airport Surface Operations

The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) concept proposes many revolutionary operational concepts and technologies, such as display of traffic information and movements, airport moving maps (AMM), and proactive alerts of runway incursions and surface traffic conflicts, to deliver an overall increase in system capacity and safety. A piloted simulation study was conducted at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center to evaluate the ability to conduct safe and efficient airport surface operations while utilizing an AMM displaying traffic of various position accuracies as well as the effect of traffic position accuracy on airport conflict detection and resolution (CD&R) capability. Nominal scenarios and off-nominal conflict scenarios were conducted using 12 airline crews operating in a simulated Memphis International Airport terminal environment. The data suggest that all traffic should be shown on the airport moving map, whether qualified or unqualified, and conflict detection and resolution technologies provide significant safety benefits. Despite the presence of traffic information on the map, collisions or near collisions still occurred; when indications or alerts were generated in these same scenarios, the incidences were averted.

Jones, Denise R.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Behavioral Indicators in Air Traffic Control: Detecting and Preventing Performance Decline

Air traffic controllers are responsible for the safety and efficiency of air traffic and therefore must maintain a consistently high standard of performance. However, performance can be negatively affected by factors such as workload and fatigue, potentially leading to performance decline and performance-related incidents. Real-time identification of negative influences would facilitate timely implementation of supportive strategies prior to performance decline. The current study aimed to explore the concept of ‘behavioral indicators’ to identify when a controller was reaching a performance limit. A second aim was to capture behavioural indicators associated with performance influencing factors. A total of 65 controllers spanning Tower, Approach and En-route facilities across the united states of America were interviewed. Findings revealed that controllers were familiar with the concept of behavioural indicators, and that indicators were associated with specific performance influencing factors. Implications for implementing behavioral indicators training in control environments are discussed.

behavioral indicators↗

NASA NTRS2002

Examining the Pilot and Controller Performance Data When in a Free Flight with Weather Phenomenon

The present study investigated effects of weather related factors on the performance of pilots under free flight. A weather scenario was defined by a combination of precipitation factors (light rain, moderate rain, and heavy rain or snow), visibility (1,4,8 miles), wind conditions (light, medium, or heavy), cloud ceiling (800ft. below, 1800ft above, and 4000ft horizontal). The performance of the aircraft self-separation was evaluated in terms of detection accuracy and detection times for student- and commercial (expert) pilots. Overall, the results obtained from a behavioral analysis showed that in general, the ability to recognize intruder aircraft conflict incidents, followed by the ability to acquire the spatial location of the intruder aircraft relative to ownership aircraft were judged to be the major cognitive tasks as perceived by the participants during self-separation. Further, the participants rarely used cockpit display of traffic information (CDTI) during conflict management related to aircraft separation, but used CDTI highly during decision-making tasks. In all weather scenarios, there were remarkable differences between expert and student pilots in detection times. In summary, weather scenarios were observed to affect intruder aircraft detection performance accuracies. There was interaction effects between weather Scenario-1 and Scenario-2 for climbing task data generated by both expert- and student- pilots at high traffic density. Scenario-3 weather condition provided an opportunity for poor detection accuracy as well as detection time increase. This may be attributed to low visibility. The intruder aircraft detection times were not affected by the weather conditions during climbing and descending tasks. The decision of pilots to fly into certain weather condition was dependent in part on the warning distance to the location of the weather. When pilots were warned of the weather conditions, they were more likely to fly their aircraft into it, but mostly when the warning was not close to the weather location.

Nituen, Celestine A.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Behavioral Indicators in Air Traffic Control: Detecting and Preventing Performance Decline

Air traffic controllers are responsible for the safety and efficiency of air traffic and therefore must maintain a consistently high standard of performance. However, performance can be negatively affected by factors such as workload and fatigue, potentially leading to performance decline and performance-related incidents. Real-time identification of negative influences would facilitate timely implementation of supportive strategies prior to performance decline. The current study aimed to explore the concept of ‘behavioral indicators’ to identify when a controller was reaching a performance limit. A second aim was to capture behavioral indicators associated with performance influencing factors. A total of 65 controllers spanning Tower, Approach and Enroute facilities across the United States of America were interviewed. Findings revealed that controllers were familiar with the concept of behavioral indicators, and that indicators were associated with specific performance-influencing factors. Implications for implementing behavioral indicators training in control environments are discussed.

air traffic control↗

NASA NTRS1978

Wide area detection system: Conceptual design study

An integrated sensor for traffic surveillance on mainline sections of urban freeways is described. Applicable imaging and processor technology is surveyed and the functional requirements for the sensors and the conceptual design of the breadboard sensors are given. Parameters measured by the sensors include lane density, speed, and volume. The freeway image is also used for incident diagnosis.

Hilbert, E. E.↗

NASA NTRS2005

Runway Incursion Prevention System Testing at the Wallops Flight Facility

A Runway Incursion Prevention System (RIPS) integrated with a Synthetic Vision System concept (SVS) was tested at the Reno/Tahoe International Airport (RNO) and Wallops Flight Facility (WAL) in the summer of 2004. RIPS provides enhanced surface situational awareness and alerts of runway conflicts in order to prevent runway incidents while also improving operational capability. A series of test runs was conducted using a Gulfstream-V (G-V) aircraft as the test platform and a NASA test aircraft and a NASA test van as incurring traffic. The purpose of the study, from the RIPS perspective, was to evaluate the RIPS airborne incursion detection algorithms and associated alerting and airport surface display concepts, focusing on crossing runway incursion scenarios. This paper gives an overview of the RIPS, WAL flight test activities, and WAL test results.

Jones, Denise R.↗

NASA NTRS2010

Air traffic management evaluation tool

Method and system for evaluating and implementing air traffic management tools and approaches for managing and avoiding an air traffic incident before the incident occurs. The invention provides flight plan routing and direct routing or wind optimal routing, using great circle navigation and spherical Earth geometry. The invention provides for aircraft dynamics effects, such as wind effects at each altitude, altitude changes, airspeed changes and aircraft turns to provide predictions of aircraft trajectory (and, optionally, aircraft fuel use). A second system provides several aviation applications using the first system. These applications include conflict detection and resolution, miles-in trail or minutes-in-trail aircraft separation, flight arrival management, flight re-routing, weather prediction and analysis and interpolation of weather variables based upon sparse measurements.

Sridhar, Banavar↗

NASA NTRS2024

DSS Security Assessment

The Discovery and Synchronization service (DSS) has implemented some reasonable technical controls that help improve security and there are very few technical findings. The use of Docker and Kubernetes helps simplify the deployment process, and the DSS uses mutual TLS (mTLS) to connect. Much of the security risk across the DSS is a factor of its nature, a distributed environment that relies on all members to secure their parts correctly. As such, the DSS team should attempt to emphasize security controls that reduce complexity for securing entities’ Cockroach DB (CRDB) instances properly and improve coordination among DSS members for things like security patching, incident response, detecting, and removing bad actors. The DSS team must recognize that operating a DSS instance securely will require a combination of technical and procedural controls. Each DSS entity must configure their instance properly and follow standard operating procedures to ensure that the DSS service is secure.

threat modeling↗

NASA NTRS1971

Acoustic Echo-Sounding Experiments in an Urban Environment

A 1320 Hz tuned source was mounted on a 4 ft diameter parabolic reflector, with the same driver working as the receiving transducer. This highly directional system is able to detect the small amount of energy backscattered from a vertically directed pulse of sound by inhomogeneities in the density structure of the atmosphere even in the presence of city noises which include rapid-transit and express-way traffic sounds. Results showing thermal plumes and the formation and breakup of radiation inversions are presented. A network of such echo-sounding stations in and around a city could be used to give early warning of atmospheric conditions which might lead to a pollution incident.

Damkevala, R. J.↗

NASA NTRS2016

Cyber-Threat Assessment for the Air Traffic Management System: A Network Controls Approach

Air transportation networks are being disrupted with increasing frequency by failures in their cyber- (computing, communication, control) systems. Whether these cyber- failures arise due to deliberate attacks or incidental errors, they can have far-reaching impact on the performance of the air traffic control and management systems. For instance, a computer failure in the Washington DC Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZDC) on August 15, 2015, caused nearly complete closure of the Centers airspace for several hours. This closure had a propagative impact across the United States National Airspace System, causing changed congestion patterns and requiring placement of a suite of traffic management initiatives to address the capacity reduction and congestion. A snapshot of traffic on that day clearly shows the closure of the ZDC airspace and the resulting congestion at its boundary, which required augmented traffic management at multiple locations. Cyber- events also have important ramifications for private stakeholders, particularly the airlines. During the last few months, computer-system issues have caused several airlines fleets to be grounded for significant periods of time: these include United Airlines (twice), LOT Polish Airlines, and American Airlines. Delays and regional stoppages due to cyber- events are even more common, and may have myriad causes (e.g., failure of the Department of Homeland Security systems needed for security check of passengers, see [3]). The growing frequency of cyber- disruptions in the air transportation system reflects a much broader trend in the modern society: cyber- failures and threats are becoming increasingly pervasive, varied, and impactful. In consequence, an intense effort is underway to develop secure and resilient cyber- systems that can protect against, detect, and remove threats, see e.g. and its many citations. The outcomes of this wide effort on cyber- security are applicable to the air transportation infrastructure, and indeed security solutions are being implemented in the current system. While these security solutions are important, they only provide a piecemeal solution. Particular computers or communication channels are protected from particular attacks, without a holistic view of the air transportation infrastructure. On the other hand, the above-listed incidents highlight that a holistic approach is needed, for several reasons. First, the air transportation infrastructure is a large scale cyber-physical system with multiple stakeholders and diverse legacy assets. It is impractical to protect every cyber- asset from known and unknown disruptions, and instead a strategic view of security is needed. Second, disruptions to the cyber- system can incur complex propagative impacts across the air transportation network, including its physical and human assets. Also, these implications of cyber- events are exacerbated or modulated by other disruptions and operational specifics, e.g. severe weather, operator fatigue or error, etc. These characteristics motivate a holistic and strategic perspective on protecting the air transportation infrastructure from cyber- events. The analysis of cyber- threats to the air traffic system is also inextricably tied to the integration of new autonomy into the airspace. The replacement of human operators with cyber functions leaves the network open to new cyber threats, which must be modeled and managed. Paradoxically, the mitigation of cyber events in the airspace will also likely require additional autonomy, given the fast time scale and myriad pathways of cyber-attacks which must be managed. The assessment of new vulnerabilities upon integration of new autonomy is also a key motivation for a holistic perspective on cyber threats.

Complex Networks↗

NASA NTRS2004

Smart Camera Technology Increases Quality

When it comes to real-time image processing, everyone is an expert. People begin processing images at birth and rapidly learn to control their responses through the real-time processing of the human visual system. The human eye captures an enormous amount of information in the form of light images. In order to keep the brain from becoming overloaded with all the data, portions of an image are processed at a higher resolution than others, such as a traffic light changing colors. changing colors. In the same manner, image processing products strive to extract the information stored in light in the most efficient way possible. Digital cameras available today capture millions of pixels worth of information from incident light. However, at frame rates more than a few per second, existing digital interfaces are overwhelmed. All the user can do is store several frames to memory until that memory is full and then subsequent information is lost. New technology pairs existing digital interface technology with an off-the-shelf complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) imager to provide more than 500 frames per second of specialty image processing. The result is a cost-effective detection system unlike any other.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1991

Who or what saved the day? A comparison of traditional and glass cockpits

This study examined incidents reported to NASAs Aviation Safety Reporting System from a different perspective: rather than focusing on the factors contributing to or causing incidents, this study concentrated on who and what (subsystems and information) enabled the recovery from an anomaly. Incident reports describing altitude deviations were classified as to cockpit type (glass or traditional), flight phase, agent restoring safety, and cockpit subsystems providing specific information that helped restore safety. The data revealed and quantified the agents, information, and factors that 'saved the day'. The flight crews used many sources of information to detect the altitude deviations: altimeter, outside scene, altitude alert, kinesthesia, attitude and communications monitoring. In the glass cockpits the crews also used the map display and autothrottles to detect deviations from assigned altitudes. There was an interaction between the person detecting the anomaly (controller/flight crew) and the type of cockpit. Glass cockpit flight crews detect proportionally more deviations than their counterparts in traditional cockpits, while controllers tend to detect more deviations involving traditional cockpits. There was no effect of cockpit position (captain/first officer). A model that details the flow of altitude information between air traffic control, flight crews, and cockpit subsystems, was developed and validated. This model identifies strengths and weaknesses in the flow of altitude information within the current ground/air system.

Degani, Asaf↗