Multi-Vehicle Systems and Air Traffic Control Commons^™

Cti White Paper, Tim Brady, Gregory Mcguirk

Publications

The FAA Air Traffic Collegiate Training Initiative (AT-CTI) Program has 36 partner institutions across the United States which offer a variety of accredited academic degrees and actively promote a multicultural and diverse collegiate environment.

White Paper On Tuition Based Ab Initio Training Programs For Air Traffic Controllers, Tim Brady, Gregory Mcguirk

Publications

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is proposing an evaluation to transform the legacy method for hiring and training air traffic controllers. This evaluation will examine a transition to a prospective employee-funded, tuition-based model, while reinvesting savings to create a state-of-the-art air traffic training center at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City.

The Impact Of Training And Technology On The Future Of Aviation, Jennifer Oberg

Graduate Student Works

The comprehensive exam proposal is intended to address the core competency requirements for the degree of Master of Aeronautical Science. In addition, the proposal will address the competency requirements for the Aviation Education Specialization. In partial fulfillment of these requirements, the proposal will examine human factors as they pertain specifically to the arena of unmanned flight, the impact computer based training and web based training advances have and will continue to have on the aviation community, the technological, social, environmental, and political aspects of the air cargo industry as they pertain to the industry’s survival, the ability of Next Generation …

Keeping The Skies Safe, Massood Towhidnejad, Andrew J. Kornecki

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - Daytona Beach

Professors Massood Towhidnejad and Andrew Kornecki shine a light on how their lab is helping government and the aviation industry to enhance the safety and security of software-intensive systems.

A Decision Making Framework With Modflow-Fmp2 Via Optimization: Determining Trade-Offs In Crop Selection, K R. Fowler, E W. Jenkins, C Ostrove, J C. Chispell, M W. Farthing, M Parno

US Army Corps of Engineers

Farmers in regions experiencing water stress or drought conditions can struggle to balance their crop portfolios. Periods of low precipitation often lead to increased, unsustainable reliance on groundwatersupplied irrigation. As a result, regional water management agencies place limits on the amount of water which can be obtained from groundwater, requiring farmers to reduce acreage for more water-intensive crops or remove them from the portfolio entirely. Real-time decisions must be made by the farmer to ensure viability of their farming operation and reduce the impacts associated with limited water resources. Evolutionary algorithms, coupled with accurate, flexible, realistic simulation tools, are ideal …

Interaction Model Of Functions In The National Airspace System, Nathan F. Koerschner, Steven J. Landry

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The National Airspace System (NAS) is comprehensively described by five functions derived from big-picture goals: (1) conflict detection and resolution, (2) controlling aircraft states, (3) traffic flow management, (4) controlling passenger states, and (5) controlling company resources. It can be reasonably assumed that these functions interact in some way; this interaction is currently unknown. A model of the entire NAS would be helpful in discovering these interactions, yet no such comprehensive model exists. To address this problem an agent-based state-based model was created in MATLAB. To date, only functions (1) and (2) were implemented. Running the model shows that there …

The Multi-Tier Mission Architecture And A Different Approach To Entry, Descent And Landing, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

Planetary missions are generally very well planned out. Where the spacecraft will be deployed, what it will do there and in what order are generally determined before launch. While some allowance is made for greater depth exploration of scientifically interesting items identified during the investigation, a successful mission is (generally) one that doesn’t deviate significantly from its planning. When sending an initial mission to an unsurveyed planet or moon, however, this approach is not suitable. Current space technology provides the capability to send a combined survey and lander mission (instead of conducting an initial survey mission and following it up …

Enabling Interplanetary Small Spacecraft Science Missions With Model Based Data Analysis, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

Small spacecraft operating outside of Earth orbit are significantly constrained by the communica- tions link available to them. This is particularly true for stand-alone craft that must rely on their own antenna and transmission systems (for which gain and available power generation are limited by form factor); it is also applicable to ‘hitchhiker’-style missions which may be able to utilize (quite likely very limited amounts of) time on the primary spacecraft’s communications equip- ment for long-haul transmission.

This poster presents the adaptation of the Model-Based Transmission Reduction (MBTR) frame- work’s Model-Based Data Analysis (MBDA) component for use on an interplanetary …

Uav Formation Flight Utilizing A Low Cost, Open Source Configuration, Christian W. Lopez

Master's Theses

The control of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in a swarm or cooperative team scenario has been a topic of great interest for well over a decade, growing steadily with the advancements in UAV technologies. In the academic community, a majority of the studies conducted rely on simulation to test developed control strategies, with only a few institutions known to have nurtured the infrastructure required to propel multiple UAV control studies beyond simulation and into experimental testing. With the Cal Poly UAV FLOC Project, such an infrastructure was created, paving the way for future experimentation with multiple UAV control systems. …

Desktop Warfare: Robotic Collaboration For Persistent Surveillance, Situational Awareness And Combat Operations, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

Robotic sensing and weapons platforms can be controlled from a desktop workstation on the other side of the planet from where combat is occurring. This minimizes the potential for injury to soldiers and increases operational productivity. Significant work has been undertaken and is ongoing related to the autonomous control of battlefield sensing and warfighting systems. While many aspects of these operations can be performed autonomously, in some cases it is necessary (due to technical limitations) or desirable (due to legal or political implications) to involve humans in the low-level decision making. This paper reviews a number of specific applications where …

Pseudolite Architecture And Performance Analysis For The Faa's Nextgen Airspace, Joseph A . Czabaranek

Theses and Dissertations

By 2025 the FAA plans to have fully implemented its NextGen Airspace design. NextGen takes advantage of modern positioning technologies as well as automation, data sharing, and display technologies that will allow more efficient use of our ever busier National Airspace (NAS). A key element of NextGen is the transition from surveillance RADAR providing aircraft separation and navigation to the use of the GPS and Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B). ADS-B couples the precision of the GPS with networked ground and airborne receivers to provide precise situational awareness to pilots and controllers. The result is increased safety, capacity, and access …

Effects Of Stereoscopic 3d Digital Radar Displays On Air Traffic Controller Performance, Jason G. Russi

Theses and Dissertations

Air traffic controllers are responsible for directing air traffic based upon decisions made from traffic activity depicted on 2Dimensional (2D) radar displays. Controllers must identify aircraft and detect potential conflicts while simultaneously developing and executing plans of action to ensure safe separation is maintained. With a nearly 100% increase in traffic expected within the next decade (FAA, 2012a), controllers' abilities to rapidly interpret spacing and maintain awareness for longer durations with increased workload will become increasingly imperative to safety. The current display design spatially depicts an aircraft's position relative to the controller's airspace as well as speed, altitude, and direction …

Aerial Networking For The Implementation Of Cooperative Control On Small Unmanned Aerial Systems, Scott A . Songer

Theses and Dissertations

The employment of Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS) for reconnaissance and surveillance missions is a vital capability of the United States military. Cooperative control algorithms for SUAS can enable tactical multi-vehicle configurations for communications extension, intelligent navigation, and a multitude of other applications. Past research at AFIT has designed and simulated a cooperative rover-relay algorithm for extended communications and has investigated its implementation through various modem configurations. This research explores aerial networking options for implementing cooperative control and applies them to an actual SUAS. Using Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) hardware, a system was designed and flight tested to implement the rover-relay …

A Human Proximity Operations System Test Case Validation Approach, Justin Huber, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

A Human Proximity Operations System (HPOS) poses numerous risks in a real world environment. These risks range from mundane tasks such as avoiding walls and fixed obstacles to the critical need to keep people and processes safe in the context of the HPOS’s situation-specific decision making. Validating the performance of an HPOS, which must operate in a real-world environment, is an ill posed problem due to the complexity that is introduced by erratic (non-computer) actors. In order to prove the HPOS’s usefulness, test cases must be generated to simulate possible actions of these actors, so the HPOS can be shown …

Fault Tree Analysis For Safety/Security Verification In Aviation Software, Andrew J. Kornecki, Mingye Liu

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - Daytona Beach

The Next Generation Air Traffic Management system (NextGen) is a blueprint of the future National Airspace System. Supporting NextGen is a nation-wide Aviation Simulation Network (ASN), which allows integration of a variety of real-time simulations to facilitate development and validation of the NextGen software by simulating a wide range of operational scenarios. The ASN system is an environment, including both simulated and human-in-the-loop real-life components (pilots and air traffic controllers).Real Time Distributed Simulation (RTDS) developed at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, a suite of applications providing low and medium fidelity en-route simulation capabilities, is one of the simulations contributing to the ASN. …

Development Of A Master Of Software Assurance Reference Curriculum, Andrew J. Kornecki, James Mcdonald, Julia H. Allen, Mark Ardis, Nancy Mead, Richard Linger, Thomas B. Hilburn

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - Daytona Beach

The Next Generation Air Traffic Management system (NextGen) is a blueprint of the future National Airspace System. Supporting NextGen is a nation-wide Aviation Simulation Network (ASN), which allows integration of a variety of real-time simulations to facilitate development and validation of the NextGen software by simulating a wide range of operational scenarios. The ASN system is an environment, including both simulated and human-in-the-loop real-life components (pilots and air traffic controllers).Real Time Distributed Simulation (RTDS) developed at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, a suite of applications providing low and medium fidelity en-route simulation capabilities, is one of the simulations contributing to the ASN. …

The Potential Costs To The Dod Of Not Preparing For The Nextgen Nas Overhaul: Lessons Learned From Rvsm, Casey Richardson

Graduate Student Works

In order to facilitate a significant overhaul of the civilian National Airspace System (NAS), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has partnered with many federal agencies, such as the departments of Transportation (DOT), Defense (DoD), Homeland Security (DHS), and Commerce (DOC) and the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) through a consolidated Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) that was established by Congress in 2003 in the VISION 100 – Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act (JPDO, 2012). The JPDO has proposed replacing the old NAS structure of primarily ground-based navigation with robust satellite-enabled air traffic procedures and to supplement ground-based air …

Multi-Tier Exploration Concept Demonstration Mission, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

A multi-tier, multi-craft mission architecture has been proposed but, despite its apparent promise, limited use and testing of the architecture has been conducted. This paper proposes and details a mission concept and its implementation for testing this architecture in the terrestrial environment. It is expected that this testing will allow significant refinement of the proposed architecture as well as providing data on its suitability for use in both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial applications. Logistical and technical challenges with this testing are discussed.

Sun-Synchronous Orbit Slot Architecture Analysis And Development, Eric Watson

Master's Theses

Space debris growth and an influx in space traffic will create a need for increased space traffic management. Due to orbital population density and likely future growth, the implementation of a slot architecture to Sun-synchronous orbit is considered in order to mitigate conjunctions among active satellites. This paper furthers work done in Sun-synchronous orbit slot architecture design and focuses on two main aspects. First, an in-depth relative motion analysis of satellites with respect to their assigned slots is presented. Then, a method for developing a slot architecture from a specific set of user defined inputs is derived.

Joint Metering And Conflict Resolution In Air Traffic Control, Jerome Le Ny, George J. Pappas

George J. Pappas

This paper describes a novel optimization-based approach to conflict resolution in air traffic control, based on geometric programming. The main advantage of the approach is that Geometric Programs (GPs) can also capture various metering directives issued by the traffic flow management level, in contrast to most recent methods focusing purely on aircraft separation issues. GPs can also account for some of the nonlinearities present in the formulations of conflict resolution problems, while incurring only a small penalty in computation time with respect to the fastest linear programming based approaches. Additional integer variables can be introduced to improve the quality of …

Joint Metering And Conflict Resolution In Air Traffic Control, Jerome Le Ny, George J. Pappas

George J. Pappas

This paper describes a novel optimization-based approach to conflict resolution in air traffic control, based on geometric programming. The main advantage of the approach is that Geometric Programs (GPs) can also capture various metering directives issued by the traffic flow management level, in contrast to most recent methods focusing purely on aircraft separation issues. GPs can also account for some of the nonlinearities present in the formulations of conflict resolution problems, while incurring only a small penalty in computation time with respect to the fastest linear programming based approaches. Additional integer variables can be introduced to improve the quality of …

Joint Metering And Conflict Resolution In Air Traffic Control, Jerome Le Ny, George J. Pappas

George J. Pappas

This paper describes a novel optimization-based approach to conflict resolution in air traffic control, based on geometric programming. The main advantage of the approach is that Geometric Programs (GPs) can also capture various metering directives issued by the traffic flow management level, in contrast to most recent methods focusing purely on aircraft separation issues. GPs can also account for some of the nonlinearities present in the formulations of conflict resolution problems, while incurring only a small penalty in computation time with respect to the fastest linear programming based approaches. Additional integer variables can be introduced to improve the quality of …

Generation Of Four Dimensional Grid Of Probabilistic Hazards For Use By Decision Support Tools, Ian A. Wilson

Publications

A new method and system for generating probabilities of objective values of hazards as a fine granularity grid in four dimensions (three spatial dimensions plus time) to be used by decision support and visualization tools. Utilizing the pro­posed system, proxies for hazard data received at different times and in different formats may be used as input data to a grid of intelligent software agents which generate a four dimensional matrix of probabilities of objective values of hazards. The method allows for proxies and/or subjective information on hazards that may arrive asynchronously and with coarse temporal and spatial accuracy to be …

Libra The Airborne Launch-Pad, Lucas Schoukroun, Amandine Delahaye

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Integration Of Unmanned Aerial Systems In Class E Airspace: The Effect On Air Traffic Controller Workload, Jeeja S. Vengal

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

As technology rapidly advances and our imagination is no longer fantasy but instead reality, the aviation community needs to concentrate on the harsh truth of airspace safety. In the situation of integrating unmanned aerial systems (UASs) into the National airspace, UASs outside of terminal areas would generally be permitted to fly their preferred routes, and self-separate, with minimal intervention from air traffic control. From an air traffic control perspective, the integration could raise a number of human performance problems including workload extremes and passive-monitoring demands. One fundamental requirement for operation in the National Air Space is to preserve the safety …

Flying Uav’S In Iraq, Stephen Rayleigh

ERAU Prescott Aviation History Program

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or UAV’s, are a growing reality and an important new weapon for today’s military. Hear what it was like to fly the RQ-7B “Shadow” UAV during Operation Iraqi Freedom from Stephen Rayleigh who spent a year in Iraq and has more than 1,000 hours experience flying them.

A Midsummer Night’S Dream (With Flying Robots), Robin Murphy, Dylan Shell, Amy Guerin, Brittany Duncan, Benjamin Fine, Kevin Pratt, Takis Zourntos

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

Seven flying robot “fairies” joined human actors in the Texas A&M production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The production was a collaboration between the departments of Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Theater Arts. The collaboration was motivated by two assertions. First, that the performing arts have principles for creating believable agents that will transfer to robots. Second, the theater is a natural testbed for evaluating the response of untrained human groups (both actors and the audience) to robots interacting with humans in shared spaces, i.e., were believable agents created? The production used two types …

Real-Time On-Board Object Tracking For Cooperative Flight Control, Ajay Kumar Mandava, Emma Regentova, Henry Selvaraj

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Research

One of possible cooperative Situations for flights could be a scenario when the decision on a new path is taken by A Certain fleet member, who is called the leader. The update on the new path is Transmitted to the fleet members via communication That can be noisy. An optical sensor can be used as a back-up for re-estimating the path parameters based on visual information. For A Certain topology, the issue can be solved by continuous tracking of the leader of the fleet in the video sequence and re-adjusting parameters of the flight, accordingly. To solve such a problem …

The Effect Of Pilot And Air Traffic Control Experiences & Automation Management Strategies On Uas Mission Task Performance, Christopher J. Reynolds

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

Unmanned aircraft are relied on now more than ever to save lives and support the troops in the recent Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The demands for UAS capabilities are rapidly increasing in the civilian sector. However, UAS operations will not be carried out in the NAS until safety concerns are alleviated. Among these concerns is determining the appropriate level of automation in conjunction with a suitable pilot who exhibits the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities to safely operate these systems.

This research examined two levels of automation: Management by Consent (MBC) and Management by Exception (MBE). User …

A Flight Simulation Study Of The Simultaneous Non-Interfering Aircraft Approach, Brian H. Reel

Master's Theses

Using a new implementation of a NASA flight simulation of the Quiet Short-Haul Research Aircraft, autopilots were designed to be capable of flying both straight in (ILS) approaches, and circling (SNI) approaches. A standard glideslope coupler was sufficient for most conditions, but a standard Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) based localizer tracker was not sufficient for maintaining a lateral track on the SNI course. To track the SNI course, a feed-forward system, using GPS steering provided much better results.

NASA and the FAA embrace the concept of a Simultaneous, Non-Interfering (SNI) approach as a way to increase airport throughput while reducing the noise …