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NASA NTRS2017

Unmanned Aircraft Systems Detect and Avoid System: End-to-End Verification and Validation Simulation Study of Minimum Operations Performance Standards for Integrating Unmanned Aircraft into the National Airspace System

As Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) make their way to mainstream aviation operations within the National Airspace System (NAS), research efforts are underway to develop a safe and effective environment for their integration into the NAS. Detect and Avoid (DAA) systems are required to account for the lack of "eyes in the sky" due to having no human on-board the aircraft. The technique, results, and lessons learned from a detailed End-to-End Verification and Validation (E2-V2) simulation study of a DAA system representative of RTCA SC-228's proposed Phase I DAA Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS), based on specific test vectors and encounter cases, will be presented in this paper.

Ghatas, Rania W.↗

NASA NTRS2017

Requirements for an Integrated UAS CNS Architecture

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Glenn Research Center (GRC) is investigating revolutionary and advanced universal, reliable, always available, cyber secure and affordable Communication, Navigation, Surveillance (CNS) options for all altitudes of UAS operations. In Spring 2015, NASA issued a Call for Proposals under NASA Research Announcements (NRA) NNH15ZEA001N, Amendment 7 Subtopic 2.4. Boeing was selected to conduct a study with the objective to determine the most promising candidate technologies for Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) air-to-air and air-to-ground data exchange and analyze their suitability in a post-NextGen NAS environment. The overall objectives are to develop UAS CNS requirements and then develop architectures that satisfy the requirements for UAS in both controlled and uncontrolled air space. This contract is funded under NASAs Aeronautics Research Mission Directorates (ARMD) Aviation Operations and Safety Program (AOSP) Safe Autonomous Systems Operations (SASO) project and proposes technologies for the Unmanned Air Systems Traffic Management (UTM) service. Communications, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) requirements must be developed in order to establish a CNS architecture supporting Unmanned Air Systems integration in the National Air Space (UAS in the NAS). These requirements must address cybersecurity, future communications, satellite-based navigation APNT, and scalable surveillance and situational awareness. CNS integration, consolidation and miniaturization requirements are also important to support the explosive growth in small UAS deployment. Air Traffic Management (ATM) must also be accommodated to support critical Command and Control (C2) for Air Traffic Controllers (ATC). This document therefore presents UAS CNS requirements that will guide the architecture.

Templin, Fred↗

NASA NTRS2017

Hyper-Spectral Networking Concept of Operations and Future Air Traffic Management Simulations

The NASA sponsored Hyper-Spectral Communications and Networking for Air Traffic Management (ATM) (HSCNA) project is conducting research to improve the operational efficiency of the future National Airspace System (NAS) through diverse and secure multi-band, multi-mode, and millimeter-wave (mmWave) wireless links. Worldwide growth of air transportation and the coming of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) will increase air traffic density and complexity. Safe coordination of aircraft will require more capable technologies for communications, navigation, and surveillance (CNS). The HSCNA project will provide a foundation for technology and operational concepts to accommodate a significantly greater number of networked aircraft. This paper describes two of the HSCNA projects technical challenges. The first technical challenge is to develop a multi-band networking concept of operations (ConOps) for use in multiple phases of flight and all communication link types. This ConOps will integrate the advanced technologies explored by the HSCNA project and future operational concepts into a harmonized vision of future NAS communications and networking. The second technical challenge discussed is to conduct simulations of future ATM operations using multi-bandmulti-mode networking and technologies. Large-scale simulations will assess the impact, compared to todays system, of the new and integrated networks and technologies under future air traffic demand.

communication link modeling↗

NASA NTRS2017

Evolution of a Simulation Testbed into an Operational Tool

This paper describes the evolution over a 20-year period of the Future ATM (Air Traffic Management) Concepts Evaluation Tool (FACET) from a National Airspace System (NAS) based simulation testbed into an operational tool. FACET was developed as a testbed for assessing futuristic ATM concepts, e.g., automated conflict detection and resolution. NAS Constraint Evaluation and Notification Tool (NASCENT) is an application, within FACET, for alerting airspace users of inefficiencies in flight operations and advising time- and fuel-saving reroutes.It is currently in use at American Airlines Integrated Operations Center in Fort Worth, TX. The concepts assessed,research conducted, and the operational capability developed, along with the NASA support and achievements are presented in this paper.

Sheth, Kapil↗

NASA NTRS2017

The Generic Resolution Advisor and Conflict Evaluator (GRACE) for Unmanned Aircraft Detect-And-Avoid Systems

The paper describes the Generic Resolution Advisor and Conflict Evaluator (GRACE), a novel alerting and guidance algorithm that combines flexibility, robustness, and computational efficiency. GRACE is generic since it was designed without any assumptions regarding temporal or spatial scales, aircraft performance, or its sensor and communication systems. Therefore, GRACE was adopted as a core component of the Java Architecture for Detect-And-Avoid (DAA) Extensibility and Modeling, developed by NASA as a research and modeling tool for Unmanned Aerial Systems Integration in the National Airspace System (NAS). GRACE has been used in a number of real-time and fast-time experiments supporting evolving requirements of DAA research, including parametric studies, NAS-wide simulations, human-in-the-loop experiments, and live flight tests.

Unmanned Aircraft↗

NASA NTRS2017

Development of a High-Fidelity Simulation Environment for Shadow-Mode Assessments of Air Traffic Concepts

This paper will describe the purpose, architecture, and implementation of a gate-to-gate, high-fidelity air traffic simulation environment called the Shadow Mode Assessment using Realistic Technologies for the National Airspace System (SMART-NAS) Test Bed.The overarching purpose of the SMART-NAS Test Bed (SNTB) is to conduct high-fidelity, real-time, human-in-the-loop and automation-in-the-loop simulations of current and proposed future air traffic concepts for the Next Generation Air Transportation System of the United States, called NextGen. SNTB is intended to enable simulations that are currently impractical or impossible for three major areas of NextGen research and development: Concepts across multiple operational domains such as the gate-to-gate trajectory-based operations concept; Concepts related to revolutionary operations such as the seamless and widespread integration of large and small Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) vehicles throughout U.S. airspace; Real-time system-wide safety assurance technologies to allow safe, increasingly autonomous aviation operations. SNTB is primarily accessed through a web browser. A set of secure support services are provided to simplify all aspects of real-time, human-in-the-loop and automation-in-the-loop simulations from design (i.e., prior to execution) through analysis (i.e., after execution). These services include simulation architecture and asset configuration; scenario generation; command, control and monitoring; and analysis support.

human-in-the-loop↗

NASA NTRS2017

Concept of Operations for Integrating Commercial Supersonic Transport Aircraft into the National Airspace System

Several businesses and government agencies, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration are currently working on solving key technological barriers that must be overcome in order to realize the vision of low-boom supersonic flights conducted over land. However, once these challenges are met, the manner in which this class of aircraft is integrated in the National Airspace System may become a potential constraint due to the significant environmental, efficiency, and economic repercussions that their integration may cause. This document was developed to create a path for research and development that exposes the benefits and barriers of seamlessly integrating a class of CSTs into the NAS, while also serving as a Concept of Operations (ConOps) which posits a mid- to far-term solution (2025-2035) concept for best integrating CST into the NAS. Background research regarding historic supersonic operations in the National Airspace System, assumptions about design aspects and equipage of commercial supersonic transport (CST) aircraft, assumptions concerning the operational environment are described in this document. Results of a simulation experiment to investigate the interactions between CST aircraft and modern-day air traffic are disseminated and are used to generate scenarios for CST operations. Finally, technology needs to realize these operational scenarios are discussed.

Underwood, Matthew C.↗

NASA NTRS2018

Using ADOPT Algorithm and Operational Data to Discover Precursors to Aviation Adverse Events

The US National Airspace System (NAS) is making its transition to the NextGen system and assuring safety is one of the top priorities in NextGen. At present, safety is managed reactively (correct after occurrence of an unsafe event). While this strategy works for current operations, it may soon become ineffective for future airspace designs and high density operations. There is a need for proactive management of safety risks by identifying hidden and "unknown" risks and evaluating the impacts on future operations. To this end, NASA Ames has developed data mining algorithms that finds anomalies and precursors (high-risk states) to safety issues in the NAS. In this paper, we describe a recently developed algorithm called ADOPT that analyzes large volumes of data and automatically identifies precursors from real world data. Precursors help in detecting safety risks early so that the operator can mitigate the risk in time. In addition, precursors also help identify causal factors and help predict the safety incident. The ADOPT algorithm scales well to large data sets and to multidimensional time series, reduce analyst time significantly, quantify multiple safety risks giving a holistic view of safety among other benefits. This paper details the algorithm and includes several case studies to demonstrate its application to discover the "known" and "unknown" safety precursors in aviation operation.

aviation safet↗

NASA NTRS2017

NASA Advanced Supercomputing Facility Expansion

The NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division enables advances in high-end computing technologies and in modeling and simulation methods to tackle some of the toughest science and engineering challenges facing NASA today. The name "NAS" has long been associated with leadership and innovation throughout the high-end computing (HEC) community. We play a significant role in shaping HEC standards and paradigms, and provide leadership in the areas of large-scale InfiniBand fabrics, Lustre open-source filesystems, and hyperwall technologies. We provide an integrated high-end computing environment to accelerate NASA missions and make revolutionary advances in science. Pleiades, a petaflop-scale supercomputer, is used by scientists throughout the U.S. to support NASA missions, and is ranked among the most powerful systems in the world. One of our key focus areas is in modeling and simulation to support NASA's real-world engineering applications and make fundamental advances in modeling and simulation methods.

NASA↗

NASA NTRS2018

UAS Research - Who's Doing What?

This presentation includes the UAS-Enabled Market Categories used in Study, as well as the reason for the UAS-NAS NO Chase COA flight. It discusses the transitioning of a UA from different airspaces. UAS Integration is a community wide effort, and the FAA Symposium provides attendees with the opportunity to engage face-to-face with a cross-section of government and industry leaders and innovators about the latest industry developments, regulations, research, and other initiatives to safely integrate UAS into the National Airspace System (NAS).

conference↗

NASA NTRS2016

Analysis of Multi-Flight Common Routes for Traffic Flow Management

When severe convective weather requires rerouting aircraft, FAA traffic managers employ severe weather avoidance plans (e.g., Playbook routes, Coded Departure Routes, etc.) These routes provide pilots with safe paths around weather-affected regions, and provide controllers with predictable, and often well-established flight plans. However, they often introduce large deviations to the nominal flight plans, which may not be necessary as weather conditions change. If and when the imposed traffic management initiatives (TMIs) become stale, updated shorter path flight trajectories may be found en route, providing significant time-savings to the affected flights. Multiple Flight Common Routes (MFCR) is a concept that allows multiple flights that are within a specified proximity or region, to receive updated shorter flight plans in an operationally efficient manner. MFCR is believed to provide benefits to the National Airspace System (NAS) by allowing traffic managers to update several flight plans of en route aircraft simultaneously, reducing operational workload within the TMUs of all affected ARTCCs. This paper will explore some aspects of the MFCR concept by analyzing multiple flights that have been selected for rerouting by the NAS Constraint Evaluation and Notification Tool (NASCENT). Various methods of grouping aircraft with common or similar routes will be presented, along with a comparison of the efficacy of these methods.

dynamic weather routes↗

NASA NTRS2017

Real-Time Prediction of Safety Margins in the National Airspace

Underlying all operations in the National Airspace System (NAS) is the concept of safety. Safety, as defined by acceptable levels of risk, is to be maintained at all times. The real-time safety monitoring (RTSM) framework is under development to provide an automated system to quantify safety in the NAS, estimate the current level of safety, and predict the future evolution of safety and the occurrence of events that pose an increased risk to flights so that these occurrences can be managed strategically rather than mitigated reactively. This paper presents the mathematical framework, the models, and the monitoring and prediction algorithms used to achieve this. RTSM computes safety as expressed through a set of safety margins based on user-defined safety metrics, thresolds, and events. Sources of uncertainty are modeled and propagated through the predictions in order to compute the probabilistic evolution of safety and the probability of events that introduce increased risk to operations. A prototype implementation is discussed and results demonstrating feasibility are presented. The results highlight the kinds of predictions that can be computed and the fidelity that is currently achieved.

national airspace system↗

NASA NTRS2014

A Frequency Analysis Approach for Categorizing Air Traffic Behavior

A method of analyzing National Air Space (NAS) air traffic that uses the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) is presented. The DFT is used to transform time domain traffic count data into the frequency domain where the sources of traffic in air spaces can be identified and characterized more easily. It is shown in simulation that individual traffic flows within Air Route Traffic Control Centers can be distinguished by their periodicity in the DFT plot. Next, three Traffic Management Initiatives (playbook rerouting, metered flows, and Ground Delay Programs) are implemented in simulations and their signature effects on the traffic are identified using the DFT. Finally, historical flight data is studied and the DFT is applied to sector traffic count data. It is found that in many cases, variations in traffic due to rerouting and convective weather disturbances are better highlighted in the frequency domain than in the original time domain data. Initial results of the DFT show it has potential as a tool for measuring and/or predicting NAS behavior for daily tactical planning and control purposes.

fourier transform↗

NASA NTRS2018

Identification of Safety Metrics for Airport Surface Operations

A large fraction of safety incidents occurs on the ground during airport surface operations. Although these incidents are mostly non-fatal with a few exceptions, they are high profile incidents that remain a source of concern for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), major airlines, and other stakeholders of the National Airspace System (NAS). These incidents have historically been mitigated by implementing changes to regulations, policies, and procedures over time. This approach has minimized but not eliminated the risk of occurrences. It is thus important to develop integrated techniques to assess, model, and prevent these incidents by analyzing the risk and likelihood of occurrence and communicating results of the analysis to decision-making personnel who can mitigate and prevent incidents in real time. The research presented in this report builds on prior work of researchers at the NASA Ames Research Center who developed an automated framework, Real-Time Safety Monitoring (RTSM), to enable monitoring and prediction of the safety of the NAS. In the RTSM framework, hazards to flight are translated to safety metrics such as wake vortex encounters or loss of separation, that can be modeled and analyzed offline and also predicted and monitored in real time (online). The intent of this report is to integrate predictable incidents that occur during surface and ground operations into the safety portfolio of the RTSM project by (i) identifying suitable information sources from which ground incidents can be studied, (ii) developing safety metrics correlated with surface operations, and (iii) recommending suitable data sources that can be quantified and used for the computation of pertinent safety metrics.

ground operations↗

NASA NTRS2018

An Interoperability Concept for Detect and Avoid and Collision Avoidance Systems: Results from a Human-In-The-Loop Simulation

The integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into the National Airspace System (NAS) poses a variety of technical challenges to UAS developers and aviation regulators. In response to growing demand for access to civil airspace in the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has produced a roadmap identifying key areas requiring further research and development. One such technical challenge is the development of a "detect and avoid" system (DAA) capable of providing a means of compliance with the "see and avoid" requirement in manned aviation. The purpose of the DAA system is to support the pilot, situated at a ground control station (GCS), in maintaining "DAA well clear" of nearby aircraft through the use of GCS displays and alerts. In addition to its primary function of aiding the pilot in maintaining DAA well clear, the DAA system must also safely interoperate with existing NAS systems and operations, such as the airspace management procedures of air traffic controllers (ATC) and Collision Avoidance (CA) systems currently in use by manned aircraft, namely the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS II). It is anticipated that many UAS architectures will integrate both a DAA system and a TCAS II. It is therefore necessary to explicitly study the integration of DAA and TCAS II alerting structures and maneuver guidance formats to ensure that pilots understand the appropriate type and urgency of their response to the various alerts. This paper presents a concept of interoperability for the two systems. The concept was developed with the goal of avoiding any negative impact on the performance level of TCAS II while retaining a DAA system that still effectively enables pilots to maintain DAA well clear. The interoperability concept described in the paper focuses primarily on facilitating the transition from a late-stage DAA encounter (where a loss of DAA well clear is imminent) to a TCAS II Corrective Resolution Advisory (RA), which requires pilot compliance within five seconds of its issuance. The interoperability concept was presented to 10 participants (6 active UAS pilots and 4 active commercial pilots) in a medium-fidelity, human-in-the-loop simulation designed to stress different aspects of the DAA and TCAS II systems. Pilots' ability to maintain separation, their rate of compliance and response times using the interoperability concept are reported. Results indicated that pilots exhibited comprehension of, and appropriate prioritization within, the DAA-TCAS II combined alert structure. Pilots demonstrated a high rate of compliance with TCAS II RAs and were also seen to respond to corrective RAs within the five second requirement established for manned aircraft. The DAA system presented under test was also shown to be effective in supporting pilots' ability to maintain DAA well clear in the overwhelming majority of cases in which pilots had sufficient time to respond.

Rorie, R. Conrad↗

NASA NTRS2018

An Interoperability Concept for Detect and Avoid and Collision Avoidance Systems: Results from a Human-In-The-Loop Simulation

unmanned aircraft systems↗

NASA NTRS2018

Survey of Methods to Predict Controller Workload for Real-Time Monitoring of Airspace Safety

The Real Time Safety Monitoring (RTSM) approach allows for assessment and prediction of the safety margin in the National Airspace System (NAS) to help preempt incidents and accidents, rather than having to reactively mitigate them. In RTSM, the NAS is modeled using state variables, and safety metrics are defined in terms of these state variables. The safety metrics have been classified as weather-related, airspace-related, and human-related. Many of the formulated human-related safety metrics need an estimate of the controller workload for their computation. However, this computation is not trivial. Hence, in this report, we perform a literature survey to identify the different factors that enable the computation of controller workload and categorize these factors. Next, we describe studies undertaken to determine a minimal set of factors that pro- vide a correct assessment of controller workload. Lastly, we survey approaches for evaluating how well the selected factors correlate with the controllers' subjective assessment of their workload. Based on this survey, we present factors beneficial to computing and predicting controller workload in real time, and discuss the status of data sources necessary for these computations.

National Airspace System↗

NASA NTRS2018

Multi-UAS HITL: Primary Results & Automation Workshop Summaries

This presentation covers the primary results from a recently completed human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulation conducted as part of the UAS (Unmanned Aircraft System) integration into the NAS (National Airspace System) project. The HITL examined the impact of multiple (simultaneous) UAS control while performing a demanding mission task and managing scripted conflicts. The scripted conflicts were designed to trigger the detect-and-avoid (DAA) system. This was the first time the DAA system as designed as part of the UAS-NAS project has been applied to multi-UAS control. The second part of the presentation briefly summarizes the takeaways from two workshops held on human-automation interaction considerations for UAS integration. NASA co-hosted and participated in both workshops.

unmanned aircraft systems↗