Team resource management in European Air Traffic Control

Within the European Air Traffic Control Harmonisation and Integration Programme the Human Factors projects concentrate on the development of a harmonised and integrated Human Factors methodology for current and future Air Traffic Management conforming to best practice and principles in the areas of human cognition, behaviour, capabilities and performance. The main objective of this work is to develop and apply human factors principles and methods for the best use of human performance and advanced technology.     

基于Multi—Agent的空中交通流量仿真研究

针对传统空中交通流量仿真过程中灵活性和智能性的不足，将分布式人工智能Multi—Agent的理论和方法应用到空中交通流量管理领域中，提出了基于Muhi-Agent的空中交通流量仿真方法。介绍了空中流量管理的体系结构和流量管理的具体措施，详细设计了与流量仿真相关的重要Agent，包括航班Agent、航路Agent、机场终端区Agent和区域流量管理Agent等，探讨了各Agent的内部运行机制和在流量管理中的职能，构建了基于Multi．Agent的空中交通流量仿真子系统的整体框架．为实际空中交通流量管理系统的建设提供重要的指导和拳者。     

Airports: an integral part of the air traffic management system

The airports system, as a whole, forms a continuum with the airspace. So, the airports must be considered as an integral part of the Air Traffic Management System, and due to the current air traffic growth, their evolution requires special attention. This is the reason why the European Commission is conducting an airport related research programme.     

Aeronautical information and meteorological data-link services

Aeronautical Information and Meteorological Management is a key component of the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) global Air Traffic Management (ATM) operational concept. This global ATM concept is central to the Joint Planning and Development Office's (JPDO) Next Generation Air Transportation System (NGATS), and underlies Europe's Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) initiative. The availability of timely, accurate, and relevant aeronautical and meteorological information in the cockpit is critical for safe conduct of flight and forms the basis for Air Traffic Management (ATM) decision-making. The data-link of aeronautical and meteorological information will facilitate the creation of a common picture of the airspace situation for all flight crews, air traffic controllers, and airline operations personnel. Change notifications, timely warnings and alerts of threats to safe and efficient flight conduct will be enabled by these services. The ultimate goal is to provide access to on-line, real-time, quality information, and weather services to any aviation user, anytime, anywhere. In this framework, we present operational services and environment of the Aeronautical Information Management (AIM) and Meteorological (MET) data-link services envisaged to be implemented over the next decade in both Europe and the USA. It reflects concepts and system performance requirements currently developed by a joint EUROCAE (WG-76) / RTCA (SC-206) Committee. The envisaged AIM data-link services are presented: aeronautical updates both in textual and graphical fore, synchronization of aeronautical data between on-board and ground systems (exchange of permanent aeronautical data regardless of AIRAC cycles). The MET data-link services are also developed: weather planning, near-term, and reactive decision services.     

New ATC requirements phasing in preparation for the C-17 GATM/NAV safety functions to meet civil requirements

For the next 10 years new worldwide communication, navigation, and surveillance (CNS) requirements are being incrementally imposed upon commercial aircraft avionics, and upon the Air Traffic Control community, by the Aviation Administrations of most nations, including the FAA and the JAA. These requirements are the result of a decade of study by the United Nations' International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to improve aviation safety and efficiency. In 2001, the USAF mandated compliance to the CNS requirements for its military aircraft, which is called Navigation Safety/Global Air Traffic Management (NS/GATM) by the USAF. By complying with these requirements, the C-17 will maintain its ability to fly internationally without CNS restrictions, such as requiring special handling. The Phase I study reported herein is the first phase of a three-phase study effort that will result in the C-17 achieving NS/GATM compliance for a specific set of NS/CNS requirements.     

ATM: general description of the processes and influencing factors

The purpose of this article is to provide the reader with a broad understanding of the Air Traffic Management system and of the various interconnecting issues involved. Such understanding of what is the ATM system, its purpose, processes and influencing factors is, indeed, essential if we want to analyse the problems of today and the type of solutions that will need to be developed and implemented today and in the future to meet the challenges of a safe and efficient handling of air traffic in the European sky.     

Current research projects on airport surface movement guidance and control systems

Improvements in Air Traffic Management are required and aim at reduction and avoidance of inefficiencies, delays and safety risks. A frame concept under the term A-SMGCS (Advanced Surface Movement Guidance and Control System) has been accepted world-wide in order to avoid an airport bottleneck. Three projects are described in brief: the DLR internal project TARMAC and the European Commission sponsored projects DEFAMM and BETA.     

Civil unmanned aircraft system operation in national airspace: A survey from Air Navigation Service Provider perspective

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs) have advanced technologically and surged exponentially over recent years. Currently, due to safety concerns, most civil operations of UAS are conducted in low-level uncontrolled area or in segregated controlled airspace. As the industry progresses, both operational and technological capabilities have matured to the point where UASs are expected to gain greater freedom of access to both controlled and uncontrolled airspace. Extensive technical and regulatory surveys have been conducted to enable the expanded operations. However, most surveys are derived from the perspective of UAS own operating mechanism and barely consider interactions of their non-segregated activities with the Air Traffic Management (ATM) system. Hence, to fill the gap, this paper presents a survey conducted from the perspective of Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP), which serves to accommodate these new entrants to the overall national airspace while continuing flight safety and efficiency. The primary objectives of this paper are to: (A) describe what typical ANSP-supplied UAS Traffic Management (UTM) architecture is required to facilitate all types of civil UAS operations; (B) identify three major ANSP considerations on how UAS can be accommodated safely in civil airspace; (C) outline future directions and challenges related with UAS operations for the ANSP.     

Free flight is in the future: large-scale controller pilot data link communications emulation testbed

NASA's Glenn Research Center (GRC) is responsible for the Advanced Communications for Air Traffic Management (AC/ATM) Project, a sub-element task of the Advanced Air Transportation Technologies (AATT) Project of the NASA Airspace Systems Program. The AC/ATM Project is developing new communications technologies and tools that will enable Free Flight, an operating mode in which pilots will have the freedom to select their path and speed in real-time. The goal of the AC/ATM Project is to enable a communications infrastructure providing the capacity, efficiency, and flexibility necessary to realize benefits arising from the future mature Free Flight environment. A key infrastructure element is the Aeronautical Telecommunications Network (ATN) that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is in the process of fielding.     

Air traffic implementation in the Asia-Pacific region

With the 21st century just around the corner, demands for air transport in the Asia and Pacific regions will increase further. Taking into account the opening of new airports and expansion of existing ones, such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Shangai and Kimpo, it is estimated that the North Pacific traffic volumes will be 1.7 times greater by the year 2000 compared to that of 1992, and 2.9 times greater by the year 2010. In dealing with such traffic in that region use of the new Communications Navigation Surveillance Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) through Multi-Function Transport Satellite (MTSAT) system is indispensable     

Air traffic management

This year, a considerable part of the Aeronautics Days conference programme was devoted to air transportation, which is reflected in these Proceedings through the sections on Safety, Environmental Impact and Air Traffic Management. Cooperative work on the problems of air traffic management is a crucial component of research effort in Europe and in particular is a key element of the research strategy at the Eurocontrol Experimental Centre. The research papers in this section of the Proceedings, introduced below, give some ideas of the issues facing ATM research in Europe.     

AVENUE: a platform for testing new concepts,the building block of a european ATM system

Faced with the urgent need to facilitate the next generation of Air Traffic Management systems and to alleviate the insufficient interoperability of its components, standardisation and validation activities have to be promoted. The AVENUE project brings to the public domain a set of interfaces and an ATC data dictionary defined by consensus of all stake-holders. The project goes on to prove the correctness of an architecture for open validation platforms with a first instance based at the Eurocontrol Experimental Centre which was built with existing ATC components provided by key European ATC players. This will constitute a solid basis for validation activities in the European Commission 5th Framework Programme and in other R&D programmes.     

单扇区管制移交间隔管理模型和算法研究

针对区域管制移交间隔管理问题进行研究,通过分析当前的流量管理模型和算法,提出单个扇区管制移交间隔管理模型。在研究中,引入间隔矩阵概念,以指定时段内的延误控制为目标,分析扇区容量和管制移交高度层选择等限制因素,建立数学模型,并通过间隔增量矩阵的使用来优化算法。算例中采用在国内某区域管制范围内的繁忙时段数据进行了分析和验证。     

马尔科夫链模型在空管自动化系统可靠性分析中的应用

空中交通管理的主要任务是保证航空器间隔,确保空中交通的安全高效运行。空管系统与旅客生命及航空公司的经济利益息息相关这种特殊性决定了系统必须有相当高的保障,须做到及早发现及早处理问题。目前,国内主要考虑软件对空管自动化系统的影响,采用模糊数学、灰色系统理论、加权算法等对其软件可靠性进行评估。为了做到及早发现及早处理问题,提出采用马尔科夫链模型对空管自动化系统软件s1,s2,s3三个状态进行预测和验证,取得了较好的结果。     

The Business Case for System-Wide Information Management

In today's National Airspace System (NAS), when an application requires information from another application, a custom application-to-application interface is built. This results in an increasingly complex system, where applications are tightly coupled and expensive to develop and maintain. System-Wide Information Management (SWIM) addresses these shortfalls by implementing a shared infrastructure for managing NAS information. SWIM is based on a service-oriented architecture, a fast growing trend in information technology. It will help the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) meet the information-sharing needs of the Next Generation Air Traffic System (NGATS) and the federal government's E-government Initiative. SWIM will reduce the cost, complexity, and cycle time for building new applications and help the FAA implement SWIM-enabled applications that increase FAA and user productivity.     

ATM and FIS data link services

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) currently has under development data link services for Air Traffic Management (ATM), Flight Information Service (FIS), and communications, navigation, and surveillance (CNS). These services will be provided over the Aeronautical Telecommunications Network (ATN), a worldwide data network intended to provide data communications connectivity among mobile aircraft, airlines, and civil aviation authorities. The ATM and FIS services currently under development are part of an evolutionary process that will begin, for the most part, with duplication of voice services. In the future, services will facilitate a common source of data for pilots, controllers, and flight planners, as well as computer-to-computer communications between ground based and airborne automation systems. These future services will provide benefits such as the use of optimum aircraft tracks and flight profiles     

Space-based SSR constellation for global air traffic control

Advanced surveillance and communications are the main functions needed for an efficient Air Traffic Control/Management (ATC/ATM). In order to perform them over the entire Earth, a novel architecture is described and evaluated. It supplies the surveillance and data link capabilities of advanced Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR) Mode S world-wide by means of a constellation of medium orbit satellites carrying SSR Mode S interrogators with phased-array antennas; no new equipment is required on-board aircraft, because the standard transponders are used. The rationale for the study, the system geometry, the link budget computation, the accuracy requirements as well as the subsequent design of the payload and of the optimized constellations needed for global coverage with high location accuracy are described. Moreover, details are given about the design of the spacecraft and of the main units of the space segment. The encouraging results of this overall system study pave the way to a demonstration based on simulators and ground prototypes of the critical parts     

The future functionalities of the flight management system

The availability of new Communication, Navigation and Surveillance technologies provides the basis to move towards advanced Air Traffic Management (ATM) concepts. Some of these concepts will impact the airborne Flight Management System (FMS) by introducing new functions with different flight time horizons. In this discussion, two main flight time horizon are defined:The tactical flight time horizon is between 30s and 10mn ahead of the aircraft current position. Airborne separation from traffic, terrain and adverse weather will be introduced in this time horizon as a tactical function.The strategic flight time horizon is more than 10mn ahead of the aircraft current position. Weather datafusion, enroute inflight replanning assistance and air-ground trajectory negotiation will be introduced in this time horizon as strategic functions.The organisation of the associated future flight management system can be synthesised in the scheme (figure 1). The data to be displayed to the pilot for his flight awareness are functions of the flight phase, the type of airspace and of the type of situation encountered.Globally these data can be shared as functions of their flight time horizons, and their topic, as it is described in the table below. In the cells are indicated the flight objects that these data address.SEXTANT as a major avionics manufacturer is leading research and development activities in the area of ATM related airborne flight management functions. Their existing or expected findings are described in this article.     

雷达导航总站综合信息管理系统的设计与实现

以民航东北空管局雷达导航总站的综合信息管理为背景,介绍了一种计算机网络综合信息管理系统的设计与实现,阐明了系统网络拓扑结构、网络开发环境、系统功能及系统特点,为民航空管导航系统综合信息的正规化、科学化管理提供了可以借鉴的经验。     

Stable two-sided matching of slot allocation in airport collaborative decision making by top trading cycles mechanism

The problem of capacity shortage in some airports needs to be dealt with sustainable solutions including a more efficient use of the existing runway slots at the airports. The Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) is an important approach applied to Air Traffic Management (ATM) to achieve this efficient use of the slots allocation. Using the Matching approach for two-sided markets of Game theory, the Top Trading Cycle CDM (TTC-CDM) algorithm developed in this research is an extension of the CDM approach aggregating the Ground Delay Program (GDP) of the air sector. The paper compared the developed TTC-CDM model to the existing models such as the conventional Compression algorithm in CDM, the Trade Cycle algorithm and the Deferred Acceptance CDM (DA-CDM) model to evaluate the performance of the proposed model. Through a case study, the results show the effective application of TTC-CDM model to slot allocation in ATM and also presents the advantage of considering the preferences of airport managers beside ATC controllers and airlines in the decision processing.