Multi-Vehicle Systems and Air Traffic Control Commons^™

Task 10: Research An Alternative Instructional Design Model, Steven Hampton, Jan G. Neal, Luis A. Ramirez, Dustin R. Talkington, Jma Solutions, Inc.

Publications

Under authority of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Center of Excellence (COE) Technical Training Human Performance (TTHP) Task 10 research team has prepared a comprehensive technical report and an executive summary for the Air Traffic Organization (ATO) concerning the instructional development (ID) of occupational education and training for Air Traffic (AT) controllers and Technical Operations (TO) technicians. Research included:

• Front-end analysis of available FAA courses and government furnished information (GFI), including course-development documentation and associated guidance, policies, and regulations.

• Structured and semi-structured data-gathering techniques in cooperation with Instructional Systems Specialists (ISS), ISS Managers, and Requirements personnel.

• …

Utm, Atm, Stm… Slices Of The Sky?, Ruth E. Stilwell

Space Traffic Management Conference

UTM, ATM, STM… slices of the sky?

This paper will examine the functional differences between Unmanned Aircraft Traffic Management Systems, Air Traffic Management Systems, and Space Traffic Management. Understanding both the similarities between the systems and the different functional requirements of each concept is critical in the discussion and development of STM. While there are many commonalities in each area, it is important to understand how the different environments affect the ability to develop policies, procedure and technologies to manage the vehicles operating in the distinct environment. Both technical and legal frameworks will be discussed.

Building a conceptual framework for …

Autonomous Uav Battery Swapping, Reed Jacobsen, Nikolai Ruhe, Nathan Dornback

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

One of the main hindrances of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology are power constraints. One way to alleviate some power constraints would be for two UAVs to exchange batteries while both are in flight. Autonomous mid-air battery swapping will expand the scope of UAV technology by allowing for indefinite flight times and longer missions. A single board computer will control each UAV’s flight software to respond to inputs to align with each other mid-flight. When the two UAVs have joined, mechanical components will exchange a depleted battery on the worker UAV for a freshly charged battery that belongs to the …

Real Time And High Fidelity Quadcopter Tracking System, Tyler Mckay Hall

Computer Engineering

This project was conceived as a desired to have an affordable, flexible and physically compact tracking system for high accuracy spatial and orientation tracking. Specifically, this implementation is focused on providing a low cost motion capture system for future research. It is a tool to enable the further creation of systems that would require the use of accurate placement of landing pads, payload acquires and delivery. This system will provide the quadcopter platform a coordinate system that can be used in addition to GPS.

Field research with quadcopter manufacturers, photographers, agriculture and research organizations were contact and interviewed for information …

United States Drone Laws, Jacob Crittenden

Student Works

The purpose of this Directed Study was to investigate and compile the drone laws that exist within the United States, both on the federal level and for each individual state. The federal laws are directed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) under laws that pertain to “Unmanned Aircraft Systems” (UAS) and are relatively new. Most states have further regulations on UAS that they have passed. Most of these laws are in place to protect public safety and privacy, but some also prohibit certain locations of flight and certain modifications that might be made to the platform. State laws that limit …

The Study On Shanghai International Air Transportation Hub, Diandian Li

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Stereoscopic 3-D Presentation For Air Traffic Control Digital Radar Displays, Jason G. Russi, Brent T. Langhals, Michael E. Miller, Eric L. Heft

AFIT Patents

An apparatus and method of presenting air traffic data to an air traffic controller are provided. Air traffic data including a two dimensional spatial location and altitude for a plurality of aircraft is received. A disparity value is determined based on the altitude for each aircraft of the plurality of aircraft. Left and right eye images are generated of the plurality of aircraft where at least one of the left and right eye images is based on the determined disparity value. The left and right eye images are simultaneously displayed to the air traffic controller on a display. The simultaneously …

Adopting Unmanned Flight Operations Into Controlled Airspace, Jennah C. Perry, Johnny Young, Jacqueline Luedtke, Benjamin Cook, Holly Hughes, Allison M. Little, Kyle Wilkerson

Publications

Unmanned aircraft activity is becoming more common within the National Airspace System (NAS) and is expected to dominate the NAS in the near future. Specific procedures for adopting unmanned aircraft into the National Airspace System (NAS).

A variation of the Military Grid Reference System was developed and digitally overlaid onto the radar display. To incorporate this grid system, a customized flight plan database was created for the storage of operator submitted flight plans. Instead of verbal communication, a computer chat system is used for communication because of the low altitude operations in the field.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has …

Utilizing Guided Simulation In Conjunction With Digital Learning Tools In Air Traffic Control Training To Enhance Learning At The Collegiate Level, Allison Little, Benjamin Cook, Holly Hughes, Kyle Wilkerson

Discovery Day - Prescott

Students in an air traffic control program are required to learn and apply advance knowledge and skills in a limited time frame. All students learn at different rates as well as through different learning styles. Swivl is a video capture tool designed to enhance student learning by allowing students to refer back to their individual classroom lab training session videos via an online portal. Swivl is being utilized in two ATC lab courses. During this research, two technological shortcomings were discovered: (1) Swivl lacks the ability to capture audio from the COA’s existing communication software and (2) Swivl cannot focus …

Integrating Unmanned Aircraft Operations Into The National Airspace System, Benjamin Cook, Holly Hughes, Kyle Wilkerson, Allison Little

Discovery Day - Prescott

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) are expected to dominate the National Airspace System (NAS) in the near future. One particular barrier preventing the integration of unmanned aircraft into the NAS is the lack of standardized procedures for distinguishing and communicating with remote UAS operators. In preparation for adopting unmanned flight operations into a complex control system, it is important to identify solutions to effectively control UAS in the NAS. To achieve simultaneous safe manned and unmanned aircraft operations in the NAS, the Joint UAS and ATC Team (JUAT) at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) are developing a system that could be used …

Integrating Unmanned Aircraft Operations Into The National Airspace System, Benjamin Cook, Holly Hughes, Allison Little, Kyle Wilkerson, Jennah C. Perry, Johnny Young, Jacqueline Luedtke

Publications

Commercial unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are expected to dominate the National Airspace System (NAS) in the years to come. One particular barrier preventing integration of UAS into the NAS is the lack of standardized procedures for separating aircraft and communicating with ATC. In preparation for adopting unmanned flight operations into a complex control system, it is important to identify solutions to effectively control UAS in the NAS.

The Joint UAS and ATC Team (JUAT) group has designed several simulated ATC scenarios in order to determine effective solutions for integration. Through the use of digitized radar display overlays that replicate the …

Image And Information Fusion Experiments With A Software-Defined Multi-Spectral Imaging System For Aviation And Marine Sensor Networks, Sam B. Siewert, Matthew Demi Vis, Ryan Claus, Ramnarayan Krishnamurthy, Surjith B. Singh, Akshay K. Singh, Shivasankar Gunasekaran

Publications

The availability of Internet, line-of-sight and satellite identification and surveillance information as well as low-power, low-cost embedded systems-on-a-chip and a wide range of visible to long-wave infrared cameras prompted Embry Riddle Aeronautical University to collaborate with the University of Alaska Arctic Domain Awareness Center (ADAC) in summer 2016 to prototype a camera system we call the SDMSI (Software-Defined Multi-spectral Imager). The concept for the camera system from the start has been to build a sensor node that is drop-in-place for simple roof, marine, pole-mount, or buoy-mounts. After several years of component testing, the integrated SDMSI is now being tested, first …

Spaceways: Airspace In Outer Space, Scott Haeffelin

Space Traffic Management Conference

Forecasted future demand in space travel is driving the need for the development of space traffic management. Currently, orbital space traffic is mostly unregulated with internationally agreed upon best practices and self-interest driving space operators to avoid collisions with other spacecraft. This paper explores the future of space travel by presenting a concept of creating “airspace in space” or spaceways to manage the ever growing volumes of space traffic. Spaceways are analogous to airspace for aircraft with the goal of increasing levels of safety and reducing probabilities of collision. These goals can be achieved by creating traffic rules, defining valuable …

Air Traffic Impact Analysis Design For A Suborbital Point-To-Point Passenger Transport Concept, Tanja Luchkova, Sven Kaltenhaeuser, Frank Morlang

Space Traffic Management Conference

Space flight activities are growing on an international level, thereby creating an evident need for a safe and efficient integration of space vehicle operations into the air traffic system. For concepts like very high-speed intercontinental passenger transport via suborbital point-2-point flights, as it is proposed by the DLR SpaceLiner, this integration issue is becoming especially relevant. As part of a case study approach to analyse the effects of space vehicle operations on air traffic and to evaluate mitigation strategies and optimized ATM integration, a traffic impact analysis has been prepared and conducted for the SpaceLiner return trajectory towards a European …

A Hybrid Tabu/Scatter Search Algorithm For Simulation-Based Optimization Of Multi-Objective Runway Operations Scheduling, Bulent Soykan

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

As air traffic continues to increase, air traffic flow management is becoming more challenging to effectively and efficiently utilize airport capacity without compromising safety, environmental and economic requirements. Since runways are often the primary limiting factor in airport capacity, runway operations scheduling emerge as an important problem to be solved to alleviate flight delays and air traffic congestion while reducing unnecessary fuel consumption and negative environmental impacts. However, even a moderately sized real-life runway operations scheduling problem tends to be too complex to be solved by analytical methods, where all mathematical models for this problem belong to the complexity class …

Safte-Vat Functionality Effects On Flight Instructors' Situation Awareness And Instrument Student Pilots' Performance During Ftd Training, Rafael E. Abreu Vega

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

SAFTE-VAT is a virtual air traffic control systems that adds the capability to integrate automated air traffic control functionality and generate semiautonomous and autonomous air traffic to the Frasca 172S level 6 plus FTD to improve behavioral fidelity and to facilitate flight instructors the capacity to focus more on instructing student pilots instead of role-playing ATC duties. While SAFTE-VAT may offer a more realistic ATC interaction experience onboard the FTD that may result in a positive transfer of training increase, the effects on flight instructors’ situation awareness and overall student pilot performance are uncertain. In this small study, flight instructors …

Software Defined Multi-Spectral Imaging For Arctic Sensor Networks, Sam B. Siewert, Matthew Demi Vis, Ryan Claus, Vivek Angoth, Karthikeyan Mani, Kenrick Mock, Surjith B. Singh, Saurav Srivistava, Chris Wagner

Publications

Availability of off-the-shelf infrared sensors combined with high definition visible cameras has made possible the construction of a Software Defined Multi-Spectral Imager (SDMSI) combining long-wave, near-infrared and visible imaging. The SDMSI requires a real-time embedded processor to fuse images and to create real-time depth maps for opportunistic uplink in sensor networks. Researchers at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University working with University of Alaska Anchorage at the Arctic Domain Awareness Center and the University of Colorado Boulder have built several versions of a low-cost drop-in-place SDMSI to test alternatives for power efficient image fusion. The SDMSI is intended for use in field …

Geolocation Of Rf Emitters Using A Low-Cost Uav-Based Approach, Michael A. Magers

Theses and Dissertations

The proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in both military and civilian settings has prompted great interest in finding new and innovative ways to utilize these tools. One such application is to locate ground-based radio emitters from a UAV platform. The goal of this research is to study the feasibility of a low-cost (on the order of $1000) UAV geolocation platform. To accomplish this goal, a series of both real-world flight testing and computer simulated scenarios were conducted. Simulations for different sensor uncertainties and approach path scenarios such as loiter and button hook patterns were investigated. Results showed that a …

Toward Automated Aerial Refueling: Relative Navigation With Structure From Motion, Kevin W. Colson

Theses and Dissertations

The USAF's use of UAS has expanded from reconnaissance to hunter/killer missions. As the UAS mission further expands into aerial combat, better performance and larger payloads will have a negative correlation with range and loiter times. Additionally, the Air Force Future Operating Concept calls for \formations of uninhabited refueling aircraft...[that] enable refueling operations partway inside threat areas." However, a lack of accurate relative positioning information prevents the ability to safely maintain close formation flight and contact between a tanker and a UAS. The inclusion of cutting edge vision systems on present refueling platforms may provide the information necessary to support …

Use Of A Small Unmanned Aerial System For The Sr-530 Mudslide Incident Near Oso, Washington, Robin Murphy, Brittany Duncan, Tyler Collins, Justin Kendrick, Patrick Lohman, Tamara Palmer, Frank Sanborn

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

The Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue deployed three commercially available small unmanned aerial systems (SUASs)—an AirRobot AR100B quadrotor, an Insitu Scan Eagle, and a PrecisionHawk Lancaster—to the 2014 SR-530 Washington State mudslides. The purpose of the flights was to allow geologists and hydrologists to assess the eminent risk of loss of life to responders from further slides and flooding, as well as to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the event. The AirRobot AR100B in conjunction with PrecisionHawk postprocessing software created two-dimensional (2D) and 3D reconstructions of the inaccessible “moonscape” region of the slide and provided engineers with a …

Design And Implementation Of A Unified Command And Control Architecture For Multiple Cooperative Unmanned Vehicles Utilizing Commercial Off The Shelf Components, Jeremy Gray

Theses and Dissertations

Small unmanned systems provide great utility to military applications due to their portable and expendable design. These systems are, however, costly to develop, produce, and maintain, making it desirable to integrate available commercial off the shelf (COTS) components. This research investigates the integration of COTS components through the development of a modular unified command and control (C2) architecture for heterogeneous and homogeneous vehicle teams to accomplish formation flocking and communication relay scenarios. A vehicle agnostic architecture was developed to be applied across different vehicle platforms, different vehicle combination, and different cooperative missions. COTS components consisting primarily of open source hardware …

Sub-Orbital Spaceflight – An Addition To Our Multi-Modal Transportation System, Scott Haeffelin

Space Traffic Management Conference

The number of commercial spaceflights will be increasing by orders of magnitude over the next several decades. The current volume of space traffic can be managed on a case-by-case basis and there is little impact to the National Airspace System (NAS). This will change as more spaceports become operational, commercial sub-orbital flight companies begin serving their customers and as the cost of these flights begin to decrease. Current regulatory paths seek to allow the flexibility in the regulations for this industry to flourish while also maintaining a high standard of safety. There are, however, many nearsighted and old fashioned assumptions …

Space Data Integrator (Sdi) And Space Program Integrated Data And Estimated Risk (Spider): Proof-Of-Concept Software Solution For Integrating Launch And Reentry Vehicles Into The National Airspace System (Nas), Devin D. Dickens

Space Traffic Management Conference

The Space Data Integrator (SDI) Project is the initial step to satisfy the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) strategic initiative to integrate commercial space launch and reentry vehicles into the National Airspace System. The project addresses the needs for greater situational awareness and monitoring, and increased response capability during non-nominal and catastrophic incidents during space operations.

The initial phase of this project leverages current FAA systems, and provide an initial demonstration of capability that will provide for state data from a commercial reentry vehicle to be ingested into a the FAA Traffic Flow Management System, and displayed on Traffic Situation Displays. …

Adaptive Automation Design And Implementation, Jason M. Bindewald

Theses and Dissertations

Automations allow us to reduce the need for humans in certain environments, such as auto-pilot features on unmanned aerial vehicles. However, some situations still require human intervention. Adaptive automation is a research field that enables computer systems to adjust the amount of automation by taking over tasks from or giving tasks back to the user. This research develops processes and insights for adaptive automation designers to take theoretical adaptive automation ideas and develop them into real-world adaptive automation system. These allow developers to design better automation systems that recognize the limits of computers systems, enabling better designs for systems in …

The Cognition Of Multiaircraft Control (Mac): Cognitive Ability Predictors, Working Memory, Interference, And Attention Control In Radio Communication, Kelly M. Amaddio

Theses and Dissertations

As the number of U.S. Air Force missions requiring UAVs has rapidly increased without commensurate increases in manpower, systems which permit a single operator to supervise and control multiple, highly-automated aircraft are being considered. The operator of such a system may be required to monitor and respond to voice communications for multiple UAVs, each of which can have aircraft specific call signs. The need to monitor this array of call signs may impose excessive requirements on constrained operator attention, working memory, and cognitive processing. The current research investigates the cognitive load (number of aircraft call signs) an individual can handle …

Thinking Rather Than Panicking About The Current Drone Threat, Tom Foley, Tyrone Groh

Aviation / Aeronautics / Aerospace International Research Conference

Originally titled "UAS Threats in Sport Venues," the authors opted to expand their focus to better to all threats from UASs, and to encourage better preparation for and responses to such threats. Foley and Groh discuss different strategies.

Optimal Collision Avoidance Trajectories For Unmanned/Remotely Piloted Aircraft, Nathan E. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

The post-911 environment has punctuated the force-multiplying capabilities that Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) provides combatant commanders at all echelons on the battlefield. Not only have unmanned aircraft systems made near-revolutionary impacts on the battlefield, their utility and proliferation in law enforcement, homeland security, humanitarian operations, and commercial applications have likewise increased at a rapid rate. As such, under the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, the United States Congress tasked the FAA to provide for the safe integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system (NAS) as soon as practicable, but not later …

Faa Letter In Response To White House Letter Regarding Faa Changes To Air Traffic Control Specialist Hiring Process, Tim Brady, Gregory Mcguirk

Publications

On July 18, 2014, you submitted a letter to President Obama regarding the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) recent changes to the Air Traffic Control Specialist (ATCS) hiring process. You expressed concern with the FAA's decision to implement a single all sources hiring strategy and, as a result, you feel that it has disadvantaged graduates who successfully completed the Air Traffic Collegiate Training Initiative (AT-CTI) program, such as xxx. You also expressed concern with the implementation of the Biographical Assessment. Your letter was forwarded by the White House to our agency to address your concerns.

Optimal Control Of Fully Routed Air Traffic In The Presence Of Uncertainty And Kinodynamic Constraints, Christopher D. Arendt

Theses and Dissertations

A method is presented to extend current graph-based Air Traffic Management optimization frameworks. In general, Air Traffic Management is the process of guiding a finite set of aircraft, each along its pre-determined path within some local airspace, subject to various physical, policy, procedural and operational restrictions. This research addresses several limitations of current graph-based Air Traffic Management optimization methods by incorporating techniques to account for stochastic effects, physical inertia and variable arrival sequencing. In addition, this research provides insight into the performance of multiple methods for approximating non-differentiable air traffic constraints, and incorporates these methods into a generalized weighted-sum representation …

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.