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At least 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2018

A Data-Driven Analysis of a Tactical Surface Scheduler

NASA's Airspace Technology Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) integrates arrival, departure, and surface operations to extend integrated traffic sequencing all the way from the gate to the overhead stream and back again for multi-airport, metroplex environments. A key concept of ATD-2 centers on surface scheduling that allows aircraft to taxi, climb, and insert within the overhead stream with minimal interruptions. A core principle is to allow aircraft to absorb delay at the gate prior to engine start in order to reduce overall fuel burn and emissions. To achieve these goals, it is necessary for the scheduler to properly balance the demand at the runway with the available capacity while also predicting accurate takeoff times. This paper provides a data-driven analysis of the runway demand capacity balancing and measures the accuracy of schedules that are generated while running in a live operational environment at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport. We found that using minimum-time wake vortex separation constraints to define runway capacity resulted in scheduling departure operations at a slightly higher rate than the runway was operating and we discovered a surprising relationship between the runway rate and the accuracy of the schedules.

Tactical Surface Scheduler↗
NASA NTRS2019

Collaborative Seamless Manager for Airspace Resources and Traffic

In today's NAS, airlines conduct pre-departure flight planning with limited information about traffic congestion. Then, as events evolve (pre-departure, on the surface, or inflight) and are impacted by congestion, limited options for changing flight plans are offered to the airlines, and, in some cases, flight plans are changed by air traffic managers on behalf of the airlines. For the airlines, this produces flight plan uncertainty and possible disruption to their business plans. The Collaborative Seamless Manager of Airspace Resources and Traffic (CSMART) is a tool being developed for the 2045 Next Gen System that will enhance the airlines' ability to flight plan, both pre-departure and during flight. CSMART achieves this, using the UTM architecture approach, by connecting via the internet airlines with other airlines and airlines with FAA agents. Flight plans, including digital, discrete planned trajectories with tolerances, are passed through the connection. Planned trajectories are used to create probabilistic predictions of when and where congestion will occur. Pre-departure, airline agents will use the predictions to collaboratively and seamlessly create flight plans that avoid congestion or go through it, depending on business objectives. In cases, where demand exceeds capacity and priorities need to be set, airline agents will have the ability to negotiate with each other to set them. Moreover, if flights are impacted by congestion during flight, CSMART will allow airlines more real-time decision making options for changing flight plans. This seminar presents the general CSMART concept and tool and research needed to develop it.

Windhorst, Robert D.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Evaluation of Mixed-Mode Data-Link Communications for NextGen 4DT and Equivalent Visual Surface Operations

By 2025, U.S. air traffic is predicted to increase 3-fold and may strain the current air traffic management system, which may not be able to accommodate this growth. In response to this challenge, a revolutionary new concept has been proposed for U.S. aviation operations, termed the Next Generation Air Transportation System or NextGen. Many key capabilities are being identified to enable NextGen, including the use of data-link communications. Because NextGen represents a radically different approach to air traffic management and requires a dramatic shift in the tasks, roles, and responsibilities for the flight deck, there are numerous research issues and challenges that must be overcome to ensure a safe, sustainable air transportation system. Flight deck display and crew-vehicle interaction concepts are being developed that proactively investigate and overcome potential technology and safety barriers that might otherwise constrain the full realization of NextGen. The paper describes simulation research examining data-link communications during 4DT and equivalent visual surface operations.

Prinzel, Lawrence J., III↗
NASA NTRS2014

Functional Analysis for an Integrated Capability of Arrival/Departure/Surface Management with Tactical Runway Management

The runway is a critical resource of any air transport system. It is used for arrivals, departures, and for taxiing aircraft and is universally acknowledged as a constraining factor to capacity for both surface and airspace operations. It follows that investigation of the effective use of runways, both in terms of selection and assignment as well as the timing and sequencing of the traffic is paramount to the efficient traffic flows. Both the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and NASA have developed concepts and tools to improve atomic aspects of coordinated arrival/departure/surface management operations and runway configuration management. In December 2012, NASA entered into a Collaborative Agreement with DLR. Four collaborative work areas were identified, one of which is called "Runway Management." As part of collaborative research in the "Runway Management" area, which is conducted with the DLR Institute of Flight Guidance, located in Braunschweig, the goal is to develop an integrated system comprised of the three DLR tools - arrival, departure, and surface management (collectively referred to as A/D/S-MAN) - and NASA's tactical runway configuration management (TRCM) tool. To achieve this goal, it is critical to prepare a concept of operations (ConOps) detailing how the NASA runway management and DLR arrival, departure, and surface management tools will function together to the benefit of each. To assist with the preparation of the ConOps, the integrated NASA and DLR tools are assessed through a functional analysis method described in this report. The report first provides the highlevel operational environments for air traffic management (ATM) in Germany and in the U.S., and the descriptions of the DLR's A/D/S-MAN and NASA's TRCM tools at the level of details necessary to compliment the purpose of the study. Functional analyses of each tool and a completed functional analysis of an integrated system design are presented next in the report. Future efforts to fully develop the ConOps will include: developing scenarios to fully test environmental, procedural, and data availability assumptions; executing the analysis by a walk-through of the integrated system using these scenarios; defining the appropriate role of operators in terms of their monitoring requirements and decision authority; executing the analysis by a walk-through of the integrated system with operator involvement; characterizing the environmental, system data requirements, and operator role assumptions for the ConOps.

Phojanamongkolkij, Nipa↗
NASA NTRS2001

Tomorrows' Air Transportation System Breakout Series Report

The purpose of this presentation is to discuss tomorrow's air transportation system. Section of this presentation includes: chair comments; other general comments; surface congestion alleviation; runway productivity; enhanced arrival/departure tools; integrated airspace decision support tools; national traffic flow management, runway independent operations; ATM TFM weather; and terminal weather.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2009

Data-Link and Surface Map Traffic Intent Displays for NextGen 4DT and Equivalent Visual Surface Operations

By 2025, U.S. air traffic is predicted to increase 3-fold and may strain the current air traffic management system, which may not be able to accommodate this growth. In response to this challenge, a consortium of industry, academia and government agencies have proposed a revolutionary new concept for U.S. aviation operations, termed the Next Generation Air Transportation System or "NextGen". Many key capabilities are being identified to enable NextGen, including the concept of "net-centric" operations whereby each aircraft and air services provider shares information to allow real-time adaptability to ever-changing factors such as weather, traffic, flight trajectories, and security. Data-link is likely to be the primary source of communication in NextGen. Because NextGen represents a radically different approach to air traffic management and requires a dramatic shift in the tasks, roles, and responsibilities for the flight deck, there are numerous research issues and challenges that must be overcome to ensure a safe, sustainable air transportation system. Flight deck display and crew-vehicle interaction concepts are being developed that proactively investigate and overcome potential technology and safety barriers that might otherwise constrain the full realization of NextGen.

Shelton, Kevin J.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Identifying Key Issues and Potential Solutions for Integrated Arrival, Departure, Surface Operations by Surveying Stakeholder Preferences

NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) collaborates with the FAA and industry to provide concepts and technologies that enhance the transition to the next-generation air-traffic management system (NextGen). To facilitate this collaboration, ARMD has a series of Airspace Technology Demonstration (ATD) sub-projects that develop, demonstrate, and transitions NASA technologies and concepts for implementation in the National Airspace System (NAS). The second of these sub-projects, ATD-2, is focused on the potential benefits to NAS stakeholders of integrated arrival, departure, surface (IADS) operations. To determine the project objectives and assess the benefits of a potential solution, NASA surveyed NAS stakeholders to understand the existing issues in arrival, departure, and surface operations, and the perceived benefits of better integrating these operations. NASA surveyed a broad cross-section of stakeholders representing the airlines, airports, air-navigation service providers, and industry providers of NAS tools. The survey indicated that improving the predictability of flight times (schedules) could improve efficiency in arrival, departure, and surface operations. Stakeholders also mentioned the need for better strategic and tactical information on traffic constraints as well as better information sharing and a coupled collaborative planning process that allows stakeholders to coordinate IADS operations. To assess the impact of a potential solution, NASA sketched an initial departure scheduling concept and assessed its viability by surveying a select group of stakeholders for a second time. The objective of the departure scheduler was to enable flights to move continuously from gate to cruise with minimal interruption in a busy metroplex airspace environment using strategic and tactical scheduling enhanced by collaborative planning between airlines and service providers. The stakeholders agreed that this departure concept could improve schedule predictability and suggested several key attributes that were necessary to make the concept successful. The goals and objectives of the planned ATD-2 sub-project will incorporate the results of this stakeholder feedback.

integrated arrival/departure/surface operations↗
NASA NTRS2019

Ramp Traffic Console (RTC) Lessons Learned

This presentation provides lessons learned for use of ramp traffic control (RTC) and ramp manager traffic console (RMTC) features of the ATD-2 (Airspace Technology Demonstration 2) Integrated Arrival, Departure, and Surface (IADS) system in an operational environment.

Jung, Yoon↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

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

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

Airspace Technology Demonstration 2↗
NASA NTRS2020

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

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

Bonny K Parke↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Predicting Airport Runway Configurations for Decision-Support Using Supervised Learning

One of the most challenging tasks for air traffic controllers is runway configuration management (RCM). It deals with the optimal selection of runways to operate on (for arrivals and departures) based on traffic, surface wind speed, wind direction, other environmental variables, noise constraints, and several other airport-specific factors. It affects the efficiency of the National Airspace System (NAS) and both surface and airspace operations can benefit from better understanding future runway configurations. In this paper, we present a comprehensive implementation of predictive models for runway configuration estimation from large volumes of historical data. Specifically, operational data from two full years (2018 and 2019) is collected, analyzed, and fused together to build the data product used in this work. The data set differs from prior work in the field in terms of its scope, resolution, and variety of factors collected and considered. Meteorological data is collected from two different sources – current weather conditions from METAR (Meteorological Terminal Aviation Routine Weather Report) and forecast weather conditions from Localized Aviation MOS Program (LAMP). Operational data from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Aviation System Performance Metrics (ASPM) related to scheduled and actual number of arrivals and departures, average taxi times, etc. are collected. NASA’s Sherlock Data Warehouse is used to identify critical information such as go-arounds, and other events that might impact RCM decision-making. All data is collected and aggregated over 15-minute intervals throughout the two years. This provides a resolution like the timescales that might be necessary for runway configuration management decision-making. A variety of supervised learning algorithms are tested including Support Vector Machine, Random Forest, Gradient Boosting, etc. including tuning of the model hyperparameters. The modeling process is applied and presented on two representative U.S. airports – Charlotte Douglas International Airport (KCLT) and Denver International Airport (KDEN). The two airports present different levels of complexity in terms of the total number of configurations used and provide a balanced perspective on the generalizability of the developed approach to other airports in the NAS. Initial results are promising (F1 score of 0.91 at KCLT and 0.83 at KDEN) for data in the test set. The final paper will contain a comprehensive comparison between different models and model building strategies as well as further refined results. Most important predictors for each airport will be identified along with a discussion and recommendations on adapting the framework to other scenarios.

Tejas G Puranik↗
NASA NTRS2006

Characterization of Days Based On Analysis of National Airspace System Performance Metrics

Days of operations in the National Airspace System can be described in term of traffic demand, runway conditions, equipment outages, and surface and enroute weather conditions. These causes manifest themselves in terms of departure delays, arrival delays, enroute delays and traffic flow management delays, Traffic flow management initiatives such as, ground stops, ground delay programs, miles-in-trail restrictions, rerouting and airborne holding are imposed to balance the air traffic demand with respect to the available capacity, In order to maintain operational efficiency of the National Airspace System, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) maintains delay sad other statistics in the Air Traffic Operations Network (OPSNET) and the Aviation System Performance Metrics (ASPM) databases. OPSNET data includes reportable delays of fifteen minutes ox more experienced by Instrument Flight Rule (IFR) flights. Numbers of aircraft affected by departure delays, enroute delays, arrival delays and traffic flow delays are recorded in the OPSNET data. ASPM data consist of number of actual departures, number of canceled departures, percentage of on time departures, percentage of on time gate arrivals, taxi-out delays. taxi-in delays, gate delays, arrival delays and block delays. Surface conditions at the major U.S. airports are classified in terms of Instrument Meteorological Condition (IMC) and Visual Meteorological Condition (VMC) as a function of the time of the day in the ASPM data. The main objective of this paper is to use OPSNET and ASPM data to classify the days in the datasets into few distinct groups, where each group is separated from the other groups in terms of a distance metric. The motivations for classifying the days are two-fold, 1) to enable selection of days of traffic with particular operational characteristics for concept evaluation using system-wide simulation systems such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Airspace Concepts Evaluation Tool (ACES) and 2) to enable evaluation of a given day with respect to the characteristics of the classified groups. The first part of the paper is devoted to the analysis of major trends seen in the OPSNET and ASPM data. The second part of the paper is devoted to describing features or measures derived from the OPSNET and ASPM data that are suitable for characterizing days, and the classification algorithm used for grouping the days. Finally, the method for evaluating the characteristics of a given day with respect to the properties of the groups is described.

Chatterji, Gano B.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Characterization of Tactical Departure Scheduling in the National Airspace System

This paper discusses and analyzes current day utilization and performance of the tactical departure scheduling process in the National Airspace System (NAS) to understand the benefits in improving this process. The analysis used operational air traffic data from over 1,082,000 flights during the month of January, 2011. Specific metrics included the frequency of tactical departure scheduling, site specific variances in the technology's utilization, departure time prediction compliance used in the tactical scheduling process and the performance with which the current system can predict the airborne slot that aircraft are being scheduled into from the airport surface. Operational data analysis described in this paper indicates significant room for improvement exists in the current system primarily in the area of reduced departure time prediction uncertainty. Results indicate that a significant number of tactically scheduled aircraft did not meet their scheduled departure slot due to departure time uncertainty. In addition to missed slots, the operational data analysis identified increased controller workload associated with tactical departures which were subject to traffic management manual re-scheduling or controller swaps. An analysis of achievable levels of departure time prediction accuracy as obtained by a new integrated surface and tactical scheduling tool is provided to assess the benefit it may provide as a solution to the identified shortfalls. A list of NAS facilities which are likely to receive the greatest benefit from the integrated surface and tactical scheduling technology are provided.

Capps, Alan↗
NASA NTRS2012

Airport Traffic Conflict Detection and Resolution Algorithm Evaluation

A conflict detection and resolution (CD&R) concept for the terminal maneuvering area (TMA) was evaluated in a fast-time batch simulation study at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center. The CD&R concept is being designed to enhance surface situation awareness and provide cockpit alerts of potential conflicts during runway, taxi, and low altitude air-to-air operations. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the performance of aircraft-based CD&R algorithms in the TMA, as a function of surveillance accuracy. This paper gives an overview of the CD&R concept, simulation study, and results. The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) concept for the year 2025 and beyond envisions the movement of large numbers of people and goods in a safe, efficient, and reliable manner [1]. NextGen will remove many of the constraints in the current air transportation system, support a wider range of operations, and provide an overall system capacity up to three times that of current operating levels. Emerging NextGen operational concepts [2], such as four-dimensional trajectory based airborne and surface operations, equivalent visual operations, and super density arrival and departure operations, require a different approach to air traffic management and as a result, a dramatic shift in the tasks, roles, and responsibilities for the flight deck and air traffic control (ATC) to ensure a safe, sustainable air transportation system.

Jones, Denise R.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Surface Map Traffic Intent Displays and Net-Centric Data-link Communications for NextGen

By 2025, U.S. air traffic is predicted to increase three fold and may strain the current air traffic management system, which may not be able to accommodate this growth. In response to this challenge, a revolutionary new concept has been proposed for U.S. aviation operations, termed the Next Generation Air Transportation System or "NextGen". Many key capabilities are being identified to enable NextGen, including the use of data-link communications. Because NextGen represents a radically different approach to air traffic management and requires a dramatic shift in the tasks, roles, and responsibilities for the flight deck, there are numerous research issues and challenges that must be overcome to ensure a safe, sustainable air transportation system. Flight deck display and crew-vehicle interaction concepts are being developed that proactively investigate and overcome potential technology and safety barriers that might otherwise constrain the full realization of NextGen. The paper describes simulation research, conducted at National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center, examining data-link communications and traffic intent data during envisioned four-dimensional trajectory (4DT)-based and equivalent visual (EV) surface operations. Overall, the results suggest that controller pilot data-link communications (CPDLC) with the use of mandatory pilot read-back of all clearances significantly enhanced situation awareness for 4DT and EV surface operations. The depiction of graphical traffic state and intent information on the surface map display further enhanced off-nominal detection and pilot qualitative reports of safety and awareness.

Shelton, Kevin J.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Modeling and Simulation of an Integrated Gate Turnaround Management Concept

An Integrated Gate Turnaround Management (IGTM) prototype was developed at NASA Ames Simulation Laboratories (SimLabs) using Dallas Ft. Worth International Airport (DFW) to demonstrate the IGTM concepts feasibility and benefits. The simulation architecture includes: the IGTM controller, an Airline Operations Control (AOC) application, Big DataAnalytics Input (BAI) application, a terminal traffic simulation or known as NASA-developed Surface Operation Simulator and Scheduler (SOSS), and a Database Server. ActiveMQ, a Java messaging service, was used to emulate the System Wide Information Management (SWIM) data network messaging. This paper describes the modeling and simulation of the IGTM concept, and illustrates selected use cases to demonstrate the feasibility and benefits of the IGTM concept for optimizing gate turnaround operations.

gate turnaround management↗