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At least 433 records · Page 24
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2024

Vertiport Management from Simulation to Flight: Continued Human Factors Assessment of Vertiport Operations

The Urban Air Mobility concept envisions a new future for transportation in urban environments, primarily focused around vertiport operations. A vertiport refers to an identifiable ground or elevated area used for the vertical takeoff and landing of an aircraft. One critical role within vertiport operations that has been proposed but is under-researched is the vertiport manager. The vertiport manager is expected to manage the ground-to-air operations at the vertiport, but their precise responsibilities, tasks, and challenges are currently undefined. The High Density Vertiplex Subproject at NASA is responsible for developing and testing technologies, concepts, and architectures that will support the infrastructure needed for terminal environments around vertiports. Our previous work investigated ground control station operators performing simulated and live flight operations within a remote operations environment. In the current study, we extended from our previous work to explore the role of a vertiport manager. Specifically, we investigated five participants serving as a vertiport manager across both simulated and live flight operations. We performed multiple knowledge elicitation techniques, a thematic content analysis of qualitative data, and naturalistic observations to create a list of insights, design and training recommendations, and a simplified cognitive task diagram of the vertiport manager’s primary task. Findings from this study are discussed within the context of the current debate on the degree to which this role should be automated. A third alternative is suggested to allow a human vertiport manager to be successful by teaming with increasingly autonomous systems, designing the role to improve safety and efficiency of Urban Air Mobility operations.

AAM↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Statistical Wind-Tunnel Experimentation Advancements for eVTOL Aircraft Aero-Propulsive Model Development

Compared to many conventional aircraft, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle designs present greater aero-propulsive complexity and many interacting factors requiring development of novel testing and model development strategies. This paper describes several advances in statistically-rigorous experiment design methods for wind-tunnel testing of eVTOL aircraft enabling accurate aero-propulsive model development. The techniques are applied to a subscale tilt-rotor eVTOL aircraft configuration built at NASA Langley Research Center that has 24 independent control effectors. The general testing approach, leveraging design of experiments and response surface methodology, is outlined and followed by a detailed description of the experiment design and modeling approach employed for different phases of the wind-tunnel testing. A new approach for gravitational tare modeling is developed and validated, which reduces the required wind-tunnel test time by nearly 50%. A mostly automated trim envelope determination approach is formulated to rapidly determine the aircraft flight envelope to inform transition testing for aero-propulsive model development. Efficient powered-airframe characterization tests are conducted using a nested I-optimal design approach formulated in previous simulation-based testing. The collective wind-tunnel testing approach facilitates rapid characterization of eVTOL aircraft configurations and produces accurate aero-propulsive models that can be used in flight dynamics simulations.

design of experiments↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

High Density Vertiplex: Scalable Autonomous Operations Prototype Assessment Simulation

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is a rapidly growing topic within the field of aviation because of the impact a refined ecosystem and uncrewed aerial vehicles could have on modern society, such as urban air mobility, cargo, and emergency transport. Before the UAM concept can be actualized, research is needed to understand how to integrate these new classes of vehicles and operations into the National Airspace System. One under-researched but critical piece of infrastructure required for UAM operations is Vertiport operations. Vertiports are the envisioned takeoff and landing locations for these uncrewed aerial vehicles. To accommodate the high use of the vertiport, new technologies and roles will be required for optimal use. At NASA, the High Density Vertiplex sub-project targets research into vertiports. The High Density Vertiplex team created an Urban Air Mobility ecosystem to test and evaluate different concepts and tools used to support higher density operations at vertiports. Part of the test and evaluation included the Prototype Assessment Operations simulation of highdensity operations around a vertiport to study vertiport management and vertiport operations. The research team also evaluated how the prototype Urban Air Mobility ecosystem supported fleet managers, ground control station operators, and vertiport managers in execution of nominal and off-nominal high-density operations. Results from this simulation provided insight regarding UAM ecosystem research and development and vertiport automation systems.

Small Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (sUAS)↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

An Experimental System for Strategic Flight Path Management in Advanced Air Mobility

In the concept envisioned for Urban Air Mobility (UAM) operations, fleets of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles would operate between vertiports distributed within a densely populated area. These operations would be largely independent from the existing air traffic control system and would place the responsibility for flight planning and aircraft separation on fleet operators. The fourth major level on the UAM Maturity Level scale, UML-4, relies on “collaborative and responsible” automation to enable operations in non-visual conditions with medium traffic density (hundreds of aircraft in one metropolitan region) and medium complexity. This level of service places many requirements on automation systems to assist the operators of these aircraft. NASA has developed the Autonomous Operations Planner (AOP), a reference prototype Flight Path Management automation system, and has modified AOP to support research of anticipated UML-4 operations. AOP creates a four-dimensional flight plan conforming to the constraints of these operations, evaluates and modifies the flight plan during flight as conditions and constraints evolve, and coordinates the flight plan with other airspace users and with service providers. This version of AOP has been integrated into the Sikorsky Autonomy Research Aircraft and used in a flight test activity. In this paper we discuss anticipated characteristics of UAM operations, modifications that were made to AOP to adapt to that environment or to support the flight test, and observations of software and aircraft performance during the flight test. The aircraft achieved four-dimensional conformance with the flight plan and AOP provided adequate planning in almost all cases. We discuss improvements that could be made to AOP to address deficiencies that were observed.

Autonomous Operations Planner↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

High Density Vertiplex: Scalable Autonomous Operations Prototype Assessment Simulation

Urban Air Mobility is a rapidly growing topic within the field of aviation because of the impact a refined ecosystem and uncrewed aerial vehicles could have on modern society, such as urban air, cargo, and emergency transport. Before the UAM concept can be actualized, research is needed to understand how to integrate these new classes of vehicles and operations into the National Airspace System. One under-researched but critical piece of infrastructure required for UAM operations is Vertiport operations. Vertiports are the envisioned takeoff and landing locations for these uncrewed aerial vehicles. To accommodate the high use of the vertiport, new technologies and roles will be required for optimal use. At NASA, the High Density Vertiplex sub-project targets research into vertiports. The High Density Vertiplex team created their own Advanced Air Mobility ecosystem to test and evaluate different concepts and tools used to support higher density operations at vertiports. Part of the test and evaluation included the Prototype Assessment Operations simulation of high-density operations around a vertiport to study vertiport management and vertiport operations. The research team also evaluated how their simulated Urban Air Mobility ecosystem supported fleet managers, ground control station operators, and vertiport managers in execution of nominal and off-nominal high-density operations. Takeaways from this simulation helped the team evaluate well how the users of the ecosystem were able to use the components of the ecosystem to complete Urban Air Mobility missions.

Small Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (sUAS)↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

High Density Vertiplex: Scalable Autonomous Operations Flight Test

The NASA High Density Vertiport project has completed a multi-aircraft flight test of a scalable autonomous vertiport prototype system. These tests included end to end system integration testing of hardware and software, operational procedure testing of defined roles and responsibilities within a vertiport environment, and human factors data collection. This paper provides an overview of the flight test setup , scenarios, and summary results.

AAM↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

An Experimental System for Strategic Flight Path Management in Advanced Air Mobility

In the concept envisioned for Urban Air Mobility (UAM) operations, fleets of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles would operate between vertiports distributed within a densely populated area. These operations would be largely independent from the existing air traffic control system and would place the responsibility for flight planning and aircraft separation on fleet operators. The fourth major level on the UAM Maturity Level scale, UML-4, relies on “collaborative and responsible” automation to enable operations in non-visual conditions with medium traffic density (hundreds of aircraft in one metropolitan region) and medium complexity. This level of service places many requirements on automation systems to assist the operators of these aircraft. NASA has developed the Autonomous Operations Planner (AOP), a reference prototype Flight Path Management automation system, and has modified AOP to support research of anticipated UML-4 operations. AOP creates a four-dimensional flight plan conforming to the constraints of these operations, evaluates and modifies the flight plan during flight as conditions and constraints evolve, and coordinates the flight plan with other airspace users and with service providers. This version of AOP has been integrated into the Sikorsky Autonomy Research Aircraft and used in a flight test activity. In this paper we discuss anticipated characteristics of UAM operations, modifications that were made to AOP to adapt to that environment or to support the flight test, and observations of software and aircraft performance during the flight test. The aircraft achieved four-dimensional conformance with the flight plan and AOP provided adequate planning in almost all cases. We discuss improvements that could be made to AOP to address deficiencies that were observed.

Autonomous Operations Planner↗
NASA NTRS2024

Concept, Design, & Implementation of a Remote Vehicle Operations Center for Autonomous Missions

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is supporting research to develop a prototype remote vehicle operations center at Langley Research Center to explore current and future advanced air mobility operations using small unmanned aerial systems vehicles as surrogates for future, larger-scale passenger carrying vehicles. The prototype facility known as the Remote Operations for Autonomous Missions (ROAM) Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Operations Center is being used to explore different roles and responsibilities of remote operators managing multiple autonomous vehicles, with the goal of exploring human-autonomy teaming concepts that enable m:N operations (i.e., m operators managing N vehicles). ROAM has developed into a world-class research, development, and technology (RD&T) environment that can support both the collection of human factors data and the command and control of remote vehicles in beyond visual line of sight conditions. ROAM provides a key capability to enable full end-to-end hardware- and human-in-the-loop simulation testing, connecting with simulated small-UAS and creating a seamless Live-Virtual-Constructive (LVC) environment. This report describes the development of the ROAM UAS Operations Center from concept through design, culminating in the current implementation at NASA’s Langley Research Center.

CERTAIN↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Individual Response Trends to Urban Air Mobility Noise in A Laboratory Study

Advanced Air Mobility, of which Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is a subset, presents new opportunities for more dynamic aviation transportation systems. It is essential to understand the human response to the noise of these vehicles for sustainable operations. This research aims to investigate the relationship between the noise level and number of events on individual human annoyance to UAM vehicle noise. A “noise and number” laboratory psychoacoustic study was conducted in the Exterior Effects Room at NASA Langley Research Center in January 2023. A total of 38 participants listened to 4-minute audio clips of UAM vehicle flyover noise and provided their annoyance response on an 11-point numerical scale. A test hypothesis was that annoyance to multiple flyovers can be found by adding the annoyance responses to individual flyovers. Results for the overall test subject pool suggest that annoyance grows faster than hypothesized as the number of aircraft events increases. This trend of faster annoyance growth only seems to hold when the individual flyovers are heard as distinct events. Parsing the data down to individuals provides further insight into the mechanisms contributing to the increased annoyance with number of events.

noise and number↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Air Traffic Management Response to Vertiport Closure

Increasing quantities of urban air mobility operations requires consideration of various contingencies associated with novel operational tempos and airspace management practices. This paper explores a contingency scenario in which a single vertiport closes unexpectedly during high tempo operations. Dynamic re-planning is explored as a function performed both by operators using common operating procedures and through emergency assistance from air traffic control. Implications for airspace capacity, infrastructure requirements, and vehicle energy reserves are discussed.

UAM↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Cyber Resiliency and the Implementation of a Host-Based Intrusion Detection System in an Urban Air Mobility Environment

With the growth in Urban Air Mobility systems and the increasing reliance on interconnected technologies, ensuring the security of these complex components has become critical. As cities evolve into smart urban centers, the vulnerability to cyber threats escalates, possibly endangering citizens safety and the efficiency of transportation networks.In response to these challenges, this paper presents a study on the need for cyber resilient techniques within future air traffic environments. It will pay specific attention to the implementation of a Host-Based Intrusion Detection System (HIDS) utilizing Atomic OSSEC software, tailored specifically to a NASA simulation of an UrbanAirMobility environments’ unique demands. Further, this study seeks to outline the rational for NASA’s recommendation for a HIDS in such environments. It explores the design, development, and deployment of the proposed HIDS, focusing on its adaptability to monitor the hybrid nature of the Urban Air Mobility environment. Leveraging machine learning algorithms and anomaly detection techniques, the HIDS is equipped to continuously monitor and analyze the behavior of individual host systems, vehicles, and devices, thereby providing a proactive approach to threat detection. Implementing a HIDS is a pivotal strategy for enhancing cyber resiliency, as it gives an organization granular visibility into internal system activities, enables rapid detection and response to anomalous behavior and cyber threats, and fortifies the organizations overall cybersecurity posture. Finally, this study aims to provide recommendations and include learned takeaways that the Urban Air Mobility industry should consider. In brief, this paper highlights the significance of host-based intrusion detection in UrbanAirMobility environments and underscores the necessity of tailored security solutions to safeguard against emerging cyber threats.

UAM↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Air Traffic Management Response to Vertiport Closure

Increasing quantities of urban air mobility operations requires consideration of various contingencies associated with novel operational tempos and airspace management practices. This paper explores a contingency scenario in which a single vertiport closes unexpectedly during high tempo operations. Dynamic re-planning is explored as a function performed both by operators using common operating procedures and through emergency assistance from air traffic control. Implications for airspace capacity, infrastructure requirements, and vehicle energy reserves are discussed.

UAM↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Development of Candidate Airspace Procedures for Urban Air Mobility in the Dallas Area

As the concept of on-demand electric air taxis gains popularity and begins to take shape, many research efforts are underway to address the challenges of integrating this new class of passenger-carrying air vehicles into the already congested U.S. National Airspace System. Through collaborations between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Federal Aviation Administration, and industry, this concept, commonly referred to as Urban Air Mobility (UAM), envisions a safe, reliable, and efficient mode of transportation traversing metropolitan and urban areas. Among the many challenges being tackled, airspace procedures and information requirements are critical areas of research that need to be addressed. In a joint effort between NASA and Joby Aviation, a human-in-the-loop study was conducted at the NASA Ames Research Center to evaluate initial and midterm operations with air traffic controllers and on-board UAM pilots in the Dallas area. This area was chosen due to its complex Class Bravo Airspace that extends to the surface over a relatively large area. To achieve the goals and objectives of the study, multiple preceding efforts were conducted to develop the candidate procedures and information requirements. This paper provides an overview of the operational concept used for the study, the process that was followed, and the findings from the two tabletop meetings and a shakedown activity. The combination of these led to a set of airspace procedures, letters of agreement, and information requirements that were evaluated in the human-inthe-loop study.

Urban Air Mobility↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Training the Powered-Lift Evaluation Pilot

This paper focuses on the preparation and training of evaluation pilots during the second of two research studies: Automation Enabled Pilot studies 1 and 2 (AEP-1 and AEP-2). These studies are intended to assess novel aircraft automation concepts for electric powered aircraft equipped with Indirect Flight Control Systems (IFCS) capable of Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL). The AEP-1 study importantly introduced the concept of future evaluation methods used in the AEP-1 study for eVTOL equipped with IFCS that are agnostic and cut cross both airworthiness and operational requirements. The AEP-2 study utilized an updated Lift Plus Cruise aircraft model and examined pilot interaction with novel procedures and interfaces. Specifically, it explored challenges related to transitioning from forward flight to landing with an industry representative Urban Air Mobility (UAM) approach procedure, establishing baselines for future automation studies.

AAM↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Aviation Cybersecurity Challenges

Extensible Traffic Management (xTM) is the overarching term for traffic management approaches and/or associated services that address the operation of select new entrants within flexibly allocated, designated airspace. xTM will leverage the decentralized UTM model for traffic management, creating cybersecurity challenges that are common and unique.

Cybersecurty↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

System-Wide Error Attribution in Multi-Vehicle Operations: Theoretical Explanation, Implications, and Applications

In multi-vehicle aerial operation contexts, a single or several human operators (m) are responsible for managing multiple uncrewed vehicles (N). This is referred to as the m:N operational paradigm. When automation error occurs during m:N operations, especially if multiple vehicles exhibit automation error, a question is raised: What level of system globality will the error be attributed to? Globality refers to the levels within the conceptual hierarchy of a perceptual object. Significant costs could be incurred if the error is falsely attributed to a higher globality level than it should be (e.g., multiple groups of vehicles as opposed to a single vehicle), and those vehicles are subsequently subject to grounding and evaluation/maintenance. Likewise, it could be problematic if error is falsely attributed to a component (i.e., a lower globality level), resulting in ongoing, unsafe operation of vehicles that should be grounded or evaluated. Thus, to meet required safety standards and facilitate commercial viability, multi-vehicle operators must be capable of appropriately attributing the level of globality of automation error within the system they are responsible for.

Error↗