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NASA NTRS2017

Real Time Safety Monitoring: Concept for Supporting Safe Flight Operations

A number of organizations are working on processes, procedures, regulations, and technologies to maintain or improve the safety of the National Airspace System (NAS). In this paper, we describe a Real Time Safety Monitoring (RTSM) system that benefits from these efforts to define a set of safety metrics that are automatically monitored in real-time. In addition to providing information about current potentially adverse conditions to a variety of users, from those who need a broad overview of a day's flight operations to those who need to decide on a control tactic to employ in the next five minutes, the RTSM system predicts conditions within a specified prediction horizon. Its intelligent interface alerts the user, presenting the information as appropriate considering the current context and circumstances. We illustrate the system concept with five conceptual use cases, describing which safety metrics may be of the most interest to five user groups and suggesting a multi-modal display format. We posit that having access to information about adverse conditions in time to make efficient preemptive decisions without sacrificing safety will improve the already high level of safety and aid in the expansion planned for the NAS under the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen).

safety↗
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 occurrence of safety incidents. 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 work presented in this paper builds on a previously developed architecture for safety, 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 paper 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.

safety↗
NASA NTRS2016

Human Factors Guidelines for Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) Remote Pilot Stations (RPS): Guidelines - Version 1.1

This document contains a list of human factors guidelines for remote pilot stations (RPS) arranged within an organizing structure. The guidelines are intended for the remote pilot stations (RPSs) of remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) that are capable of operating beyond visual line-of-sight in all airspace classes of the United States National Airspace System (NAS). Numerous human factors guidelines and standards for technological systems have been published by standards agencies and regulatory authorities. In compiling this document, the intent was not to reproduce or re-state existing human factors material. Instead, this document focuses on the unique issues of civilian RPAS, and contains guidelines specific to this sector. As a result, it should be seen as a supplement to existing aviation human factors standards and guidance material. Two constraints were used to focus the scope of this document. First, the assumptions contained in the FAA (2013a) UAS roadmap were used to define the responsibilities that will be assigned to the pilot of a RPAS operating beyond visual line-of-sight in the NAS. This in turn, helped to define the tasks that the remote pilot must perform via the RPS, and thereby the required features and characteristics of the RPS. Second, the points of difference between RPAS and conventional aviation were used to further focus the guidelines on the considerations that make piloting a RPA significantly different to piloting a conventional aircraft. Five broad categories of guidelines are identified. These are (1) performance-based descriptions of pilot tasks that must be accomplished via the RPS, (2) information content of displays, (3) descriptions of control inputs, (4) properties of the interface, and (5) high-level design considerations. Some of the guidelines in this document have been adapted from existing RPAS human factors material from several sources, including RTCA publications and Standardization Agreements (STANAGs) published by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

unmanned↗
NASA NTRS2017

The Effects of Severity of Losses of Well Clear on Minimum Operations Performance Standards End-To-End Verification and Validation Simulation Study for Integrating Unmanned Aircraft Systems into the National Airspace System Using Detect and Avoid Systems

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 Special Committee(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 NTRS2018

Reliable and Secure Surveillance, Communications and Navigation (RSCAN) for Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) in Controlled Airspace

The aviation industry faces a rapidly-emerging need for integrating Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) into the national airspace (NAS). This trend will present challenging questions for the safe operation of UAS in controlled and uncontrolled airspaces based on new Communications, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) technologies. For example, can wireless communications data links provide the necessary capacity for accommodating ever increasing numbers of UAS worldwide? Does the communications network provide ample Internet Protocol (IP) address space to allow Air Traffic Control (ATC) to securely address each UAS? Can navigation and surveillance approaches assure safe route planning and safe separation of vehicles even in crowded skies?Under NASA contract NNA16BD84C, Boeing is developing an integrated CNS architecture to enable UAS operations in the NAS. Revolutionary and advanced CNS alternatives are needed to support UAS operations at all altitudes and in all airspaces, including both controlled and uncontrolled. These CNS alternatives must be reliable, redundant, always available, cyber-secure, and affordable for all types of vehicles including small UAS to large transport category aircraft. Our approach considers CNS requirements that address the range of UAS missions where they will be most beneficial and cost-effective.A cybersecure future UAS CNS architecture is needed to support the NASA vision for an Unmanned Air Traffic Management (UTM) system in uncontrolled airspace and a cooperative operation of manned and unmanned aircraft in the controlled global Air Traffic Management (ATM) system. The architecture must, therefore, support always-available and cyber secure operations. This paper presents UAS CNS architecture concepts for large UAS operating in the ATM system in controlled airspace. Future companion works will consider small UAS operating in the UTM system in uncontrolled airspace.

Ponchak, Denise S.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Multi UAS Demo System Example Video

This presentation covers the primary results from a recently completed human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulation conducted as part of the UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) 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.

Rorie, Robert C.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Simulation Technology at NASA

NASA Ames Research Center is home to several high-fidelity research flight and air-traffic control simulation facilities which, together with an experienced workforce, produce high-quality research data and findings that have proven to be applicable in the real world. These assets include the Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS), Crew Vehicle Systems Research Facility (CVSRF), Future Flight Central (FFC) air traffic control tower simulator, and several air-traffic control (ATC) simulators. The VMS combines a high-fidelity simulation capability with an adaptable simulation environment, enabling customization for numerous human-in-the-loop research applications. The distinctive feature of the VMS is its unparalleled large amplitude, high-fidelity motion capability. In over 30 years of continuous operation, the VMS has contributed significantly to the body of knowledge in a range of disciplines directly benefiting several aerospace programs and flight safety, including the design and development of flight control systems for the Joint Strike Fighter, Space Shuttle Orbiter, and rotorcraft. It continues to be used for researching new vehicle configurations, vehicle control and safety, transfer-of-training, etc., by NASA, other government agencies, and Industry.The CVSRF includes two motion-based flight simulators: a Boeing 747-400 full flight simulator and the reconfigurable Advanced Concepts Flight Simulator (ACFS). These simulators are primarily used to research air-traffic management concepts and procedures, advanced navigation and avionics concepts, and cockpit human factors. FFC is a full-sized control tower simulator with a 360-degree external field-of-view display system and reconfigurable system architecture. FFC and the ATC simulators are used for testing air-traffic management automation and decision support tools and demonstrate their feasibility in a realistic environment prior to technology transfer for implementation in the National Airspace System (NAS).To support integrated simulations and flight-tests for NASA's Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the National Airspace System (NAS) Project, NASA developed a distributed test environment incorporating Live, Virtual, Constructive, (LVC) concepts. Development of the software enabling the LVC is conducted primarily at the Distributed Simulation Research Lab (DSRL) at NASA Ames. The LVC components provide the core infrastructure supporting simulation of UAS operations by integrating live and virtual aircraft in a realistic air traffic environment. This provides the ability to conduct tests more efficiently by promoting the use of existing distributed assets. The LVC infrastructure was used in several human-in-the-loop simulations to evaluate acceptance of Detect and Avoid (DAA) advisories used by UAS pilots to maintain well clear of other virtual traffic and to negotiate maneuvers with air traffic control. It is currently being used to support testing of self-separation algorithms between unmanned and manned aircraft in live flight. Further simulations with more comprehensive air traffic scenarios mixing live and virtual aircraft is planned.In the current fiscal environment, maintaining and upgrading these high-fidelity simulation assets and retaining the skilled workforce necessary to meet future research needs is the primary non-technical challenge.

CVSRF↗
NASA NTRS2017

Evaluation of Integrated Demand Management Looking into Strategic & Tactical Flow Management

The motivation behind Integrated Demand Management (IDM) research is to explore possible improvements to United States National Airspace System (NAS) performance that could be realized through procedural integration of strategic traffic flow management capabilities, such as the Collaborative Trajectory Options Program (CTOP), and tactical capabilities, such as Time Based Flow Management (TBFM). An initial IDM concept for clear weather operations was developed and evaluated for potential benefits, including efficiency, delay reduction, predictability and throughput, and to identify any major issues that might represent a showstopper for a fielded application. Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) arrival operations provided a use case for concept development. EWR uses miles-in-trail (MIT) metering to regulate demand into TBFM during high volume operations, and short-haul flights are often penalized with excessive, last-minute ground delays when the overhead stream is saturated. IDM addresses this problem by replacing MIT conditioning with CTOP to better manage the demand delivery to the TBFM entry points. A quasi-real time high-fidelity simulation that would normally involve participants was conducted using heuristic-based procedures that mimicked operators behaviors instead. Five total conditions were compared: two baseline conditions with MIT delivery to TBFM entry points using two different TBFM settings; and three IDM conditions: one with airborne speed control using an Required Time of Arrival (RTA) capability, a second without RTA, and a third with no wind forecast errors. Results suggest that the IDM concept can deliver traffic more efficiently by shifting the delays from airborne to ground for both RTA and non-RTA conditions, while maintaining a target throughput rate. The results also suggest that with good predictability of airport capacity, excessive TBFM ground delay can be minimized by applying more strategic CTOP delay, increasing predictability for the airline operators. Overall, the results indicate that the implementation of an IDM concept under clear weather conditions can improve NAS system performance. Future IDM research aims to expand the concept to address demandcapacity imbalance d severe weather.

Time-Based Flow Management (TBFM)↗
NASA NTRS2015

Message Latency Characterization of a Distributed Live, Virtual, Constructive Simulation Environment

A distributed test environment incorporating Live, Virtual, Constructive, (LVC) concepts was developed to execute standalone and integrated simulations and flight-tests that support unmanned aircraft research for NASA’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the National Airspace System (NAS) Project. The LVC components form the core infrastructure that supports simulation of UAS operations by integrating live and virtual aircraft in a realistic air traffic environment. This LVC infrastructure enables efficient testing by leveraging the use of existing distributed assets. The LVC concepts used for the UAS in the NAS project include live aircraft, flight simulators, and virtual air traffic control assets operating at facilities distributed across multiple NASA Centers. With a distributed network, however, there is a concern that message latency could impact the realism of a simulation and its data. The latencies associated with sending data among these distributed facilities were, therefore, measured to ensure that they fall within acceptable parameters. Several live and virtual test assets were integrated into the LVC infrastructure including NASA Armstrong’s Ikhana MQ-9 unmanned aircraft, NASA Glenn’s S3-B manned aircraft, and the B747 flight simulator at NASA Ames. Average latencies from 100 to 150 milliseconds were observed between the LVC System running at NASA Ames and each of the participating NASA Centers under a light-to-moderate (fifty aircraft) traffic sample.

Murphy, James R.↗
NASA NTRS2019

A Comparison of Two Terminal Area Detect and Avoid Well Clear Definitions

Technical requirements are currently under development for a detect and avoid system (DAA) that would support the operation of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) within the National Airspace System (NAS). Such a system would aid UAS operators in maintaining sufficient separation, or "well clear", from other aircraft in their vicinity. The first set of technical standards for a UAS DAA system (referred to as "Phase 1" requirements) was limited to UAS operations transiting through Class D, E, and G airspace to, or from, Class A (or special-use) airspace. Explicitly out of scope of the Phase 1 requirements was the operation of UAS within terminal airspace in the NAS. Fern, Rorie, Roberts and Monk (2018) explored the application of a Phase 1 DAA system within Class D terminal airspace in a human-in-the-loop simulation. The results of the study demonstrated a poor fit of the Phase 1 DAA well clear (DWC) definition to these terminal operations. The original DWC definition was designed for the en-route environment and could not account for the complex, tightly-choreographed nature of traffic typically found near an airport. The interaction of the en-route DWC definition and the terminal area traffic led to excessive DAA alerting against safely-separated traffic. The frequent alerting quickly degraded pilots' ability to discriminate between encounters where a maneuver was or was not necessary. This resulted in slower response times, higher rates of losses of DAA well clear, and more severe losses of DAA well clear than had been observed in previous DAA research (e.g., Rorie et al., 2017). The current paper reports on a follow-on study to Fern et al. (2018) that tested two DWC definitions designed to accommodate standard terminal area operating procedures, such as traffic in the downwind leg of a VFR traffic pattern while the UAS is on final. The two definitions utilized identical horizontal and vertical thresholds but differed in whether or not Tau (a function that takes into account the closure rate of two aircraft) was included as a part of the DWC hazard zone. The "Tau" DWC candidate definition nominally extended the DWC hazard zone by 15 seconds in the direction of the intruder aircraft, while the "No Tau" DWC candidate definition did not extend the DWC hazard zone. The results of this follow-on study indicated that both candidate definitions improved pilot and DAA system performance relative to Fern et al (2018). Pilot response times and rates of losses of DWC returned to levels comparable to earlier research in the en-route environment. Several important differences between the two DWC candidate definitions, however, are also discussed.

Terminal Area↗
NASA NTRS2015

Characteristics of a Well Clear Definition and Alerting Criteria for Encounters Between UAS and Manned Aircraft in Class E Airspace

Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) will be required to equip with a detect-and-avoid (DAA) system in order to satisfy the federal aviation regulations to remain well clear of other aircraft. For a DAA system to satisfy the requirement to stay well clear of other airborne traffic, a quantitative definition of well clear needs to be defined and evaluated. This study investigates the implications of UAS using proposed well clear definitions as a separation standard for conducting operations in the National Airspace System (NAS). The first analysis considers three well clear definitions and presents the relative state conditions of intruder aircraft as they encroach upon the well clear boundary. The second analysis focuses on the definition of the alerting criteria needed to inform the UAS operator of a potential loss of well clear. All analyses are conducted in a NAS-wide fast-time simulation environment using UAS aircraft models, proposed UAS missions, and historical air defense radar data to populate the background traffic operating under visual flight rules. The results presented in this study inform the safety case, requirements development, and the operational environment for DAA minimum operational performance standards.

Safety↗
NASA NTRS2019

A Detect and Avoid System in the Context of Multiple-Unmanned Aircraft Systems Operations

NASA's Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration into the National Airspace System (UAS in the NAS) project examines the technical barriers associated with the operation of UAS in civil airspace. For UAS, the removal of the pilot from onboard the aircraft has eliminated the ability of the ground-based pilot in command (PIC) to use out-the-window visual information to make judgements about a potential threat of a loss of well clear with another aircraft. NASA's Phase 1 research supported the development of a Detect and Avoid (DAA) system that supports the ground-based pilot's ability to detect potential traffic conflicts and determine a resolution maneuver, but existing display/alerting requirements did not account for multiple UAS control (1:N). Demands for increased scalability of UAS in the NAS operations are expected to create a need for simultaneous control of UAs, and thus, a new DAA HMI design will likely be necessary. Previous research, however, has found performance degradations as the number of vehicles under operator control has increased. The purpose of the current human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulation was to examine the viability of 1:N operations with the Phase 1 DAA alerting and guidance. Sixteen UAS pilots flew three scenarios with varying number of UAs under their control (1:1, 1:3, 1:5). In addition to their supervisory and sensor mission responsibilities, pilots were to utilize the DAA system to remain DAA well clear (DWC) during scripted conflicts of mixed severity. Measured response times, separation performance, mission task data, and subjective feedback were collected to assess how the multi-UAS control configuration impacted pilots' ability to maintain DAA well clear and perform the mission tasks. Overall, the DAA system proved surprisingly adaptive to multi-UAS control for preventing losses of DAA well clear (LoDWC). The findings suggest that, while multi-UAS operators are able to maintain safe separation (DWC) from other traffic, their ability to efficiently perform missions drastically decreases with their number of controlled vehicles. Pilot feedback indicated that, for this context, the use of automation support tools for completing and managing mission tasks would be appropriate and desired, especially for ensuring efficient use of assets. Finally, human-machine interface (HMI) design considerations for multi-UAS operations are discussed.

Monk, Kevin J.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Departure Approval Request Compliance Effects on Overhead Stream Insertion

Integrated Arrival-Departure-Surface (IADS) air traffic management relies on information sharing and integration between automation systems for efficiency, predictability, and throughput improvements throughout the National Airspace System (NAS). The NASA Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 (ATD-2) project supports this effort by integrating SWIM (System Wide Information Management) information and evaluating and refining potential TFDM (Terminal Flight Data Manager) functionality in a surface traffic management system fielded at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport (CLT). Among the IADS areas under study during ATD-2 is the use of electronically negotiated departure times for efficiently inserting flights into overhead traffic streams. Stream-insertion accuracy is important for reducing excessive vectoring that negatively impacts the NAS by increasing controller workload along with aircraft fuel burn and emissions. Departure-time approval requests (APREQs) provide center-approved departure times to allow for smooth stream insertion. In this presentation, TBFM (Time-Based Flow Management) and ATD-2 flight summary data are used to empirically show that APREQ compliance leads to improved stream insertion.

Overhead-Stream Insertion↗
NASA NTRS2019

In-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance (ISSA) Concept of Operations

Emerging operations involving Urban Air Mobility (UAM) poses a challenge to safety assurance and accessibility to the NAS. In particular, the public has a low tolerance for risk in aviation and the current NAS tends to be labor-intensive with limited ability to scale up for UAM. In response to this landscape, NASA is collaborating with industry to define an In-time Aviation Safety Management System (IASMS) Concept of Operations (ConOps) for a scalable UAM along with a service-oriented architecture. This architecture would better focus safety investments for technological solutions that overcome safety related barriers for emerging operations. By working with industry, consensus can be reached on desirable system traits that are based on integration of data and leverage increasingly autonomous and automated systems. These complex systems can identify anomalies, precursors, and trends that together enable more proactive management of operational risks.

Ellis, Kyle↗
NASA NTRS2016

RACE: Building Airspace Simulations Faster and Better with Actors

Large, distributed aerospace simulations traditionally have been the domain of customized, closed designs, using statically compiled code based on specialized messaging systems such as DDS and HLA. While this can be suitable for one-off systems or specialized in-house product lines, it increases development costs and lowers extensibility. We propose to use contemporary internet software technology to solve this problem.Our Runtime for Airspace Concept Evaluation (RACE) architecture was born out of the need to rapidly develop and evaluate what-if scenarios that involve the whole National Airspace System (NAS), live NAS data feeds such as the FAA's System Wide Information Management (SWIM) servers, and existing flight simulators. It had to run on off-the-shelf hardware, be open sourced, and support visualization components up to multiple synchronized large screen geo viewers used in situation rooms. Most of all, it had to be extensible - being a viable platform for the development of future simulation components.

Mehlitz, Peter↗
NASA NTRS2019

Low Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) Experiments 1 & 2 Flight Test Series 6 VIP Day

This presentation provides an overview of two recently completed human-in-the-loop simulations, conducted as part of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration in the National Airspace System (NAS) Project. These studies investigated the effects of shorter RADAR surveillance ranges on DAA system performance. They were designed to serve as a validation of the fast-time simulation work performed by other groups working on the UAS-NAS project. They were also intended to establish a baseline for the Flight Test 6 Full Mission configuration flights. Low SWaP HITL 1 examined system performance with two candidate non-cooperative DAA well clear (DWC) definitions with a RADAR declaration range of 3.5nm. Low SWaP HITL 2 looked at DAA system performance with four different RADAR declaration ranges (1.5, 2.0, 2.5, & 3.0nm) with a non-cooperative DWC definition of 450ft vertical separation and 2200ft horizontal separation. The results of each study and the implications for FT6 are discussed.

Rorie, Conrad↗
NASA NTRS2019

The Evolution of NASA’s High-End Computing Capabilities

For over 35 years, the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division at Ames Research Center has housed and managed the U.S. space agency’s largest supercomputing assets. Focused on high-end computing technologies, efficient operations, and user success, the NAS Division has worked with industry to deploy a series of highly successful systems that enable scientific and engineering achievements across NASA. The complementary role of the High-End Computing Capability (HECC) project is evolving to meet NASA’s future challenges in returning to the Moon as a pathway to Mars, while continuing exciting research in aeronautics, space exploration, and Earth science.

Thigpen, William↗
NASA NTRS2020

Predicting Gate Conflicts using NASA ATD-2 Fused Data Sources

The modern day National Airspace System (NAS) is powered by System Wide Information Management (SWIM) which is a real-time digital data sharing infrastructure that provides a high fidelity view of the lifecycle of a flight. The newly available data within the SWIM feeds can be leveraged to help drive efficiencies in the NAS. In this talk, we investigate the gate conflict prediction problem as a concrete use case which could help drive efficiencies. We begin with a high level description of NASA's Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 which is built upon the real-time SWIM feeds and produces the data used in our investigation. We model gate conflicts as a regression problem and describe the iterative process of model building, model validation, and evaluation used to assess the efficacy of our approach.

Coupe, William J.↗