A survey of safety separation management and collision avoidance approaches of civil UAS operating in integration national airspace system

Recent years have witnessed a booming of the industry of civil Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). As an emerging industry, the UAS industry has been attracting great attention from governments of all countries and the aviation industry. UAS are highly digitalized, informationized, and intelligent; therefore, their integration into the national airspace system has become an important trend in the development of civil aviation. However, the complexity of UAS operation poses great challenges to the traditional aviation regulatory system and technical means. How to prevent collisions between UASs and between UAS and manned aircraft to achieve safe and efficient operation in the integrated operating airspace has become a common challenge for industry and academia around the world. In recent years, the international community has carried out a great amount of work and experiments in the air traffic management of UAS and some of the key technologies. This paper attempts to make a review of the UAS separation management and key technologies in collision avoidance in the integrated airspace, mainly focusing on the current situation of UAS Traffic Management (UTM), safety separation standards, detection system, collision risk prediction, collision avoidance, safety risk assessment, etc., as well as an analysis of the bottlenecks that the current researches encountered and their development trends, so as to provide some insights and references for further research in this regard. Finally, this paper makes a further summary of some of the research highlights and challenges.     

Realising the concept: more autonomous - aircraft in the future ATM system

The More Autonomous - Aircraft In the future Air Traffic Management System aims to realise key elements of the new Air Traffic Management concept as a critical step towards increasing the capacity of European airspace and reducing air transport delays.     

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.     

The Future of UAS: Standards, Regulations, and Operational Experiences [Workshop Report]

The outcomes of "the future of UAS: standards, regulations and operational experiences" workshop, held on the 7 -8 December 2006, in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The goal of the workshop was to identify recent international activities in the unmanned airborne systems (UAS) airspace integration problem. The workshop attracted a broad cross-section of the UAS community, including: airspace and safety regulators, developers, operators, and researchers. The three themes of discussion were: progress in the development of standards and regulations; lessons learnt from recent operations; and advances in new technologies. This summarises the activities of the workshop and explores the important outcomes and trends as perceived by these authors.     

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.     

无人机系统适航标准剪裁案例分析

无人机系统的使用日益广泛,因此将无人机系统并入到现有的空域管理系统中显得尤为迫切。在技术层面,无人机系统有一系列独特的适航特点。因此,应重点发展针对无人机系统的适航标准与验证。研究了有人驾驶飞行器的适航标准(CS-23),及其通过剪裁后成为专门适用于无人机系统的适航标准(STANAG4671),这将促进无人机系统的技术更加标准化,并有利于国内无人机系统民用适航标准的发展。     

Department of Transportation Air Traffic Control Advisory Committee, 1968-1969

The Department of Transportation Air Traffic Control Advisory Committee concentrated on control of aircraft through the airspace, from takeoff to landing. Emphasis was placed on major terminal areas and on the denser portions of the enroute airspace where the need for efficient use of scarce resources (principally runways and terminal airspace) and the danger of mid-air collisions make sophisticated air traffic control mandatory if safety is to be assured without sacrifice of capacity. Airports were included in the study insofar as they strongly interact with air traffic control, and then, primarily, the committee's concern was with efficient use of runways. No work was done on airport access. Considerable effort was placed on the subject of noise reduction which may be critical to community acceptance of high-capacity airports.     

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.     

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.     

未来城市空中交通管理研究综述

随着垂直起降（VTOL）航空器快速发展,城市空中交通（UAM）的概念逐渐引发了人们的关注。城市空中交通作为一种新型交通运输模式,将给未来城市发展带来无尽的活力。然而,现有空中交通管理系统不能满足未来城市空中交通按需运行的发展要求,必须针对城市空中交通运行特点,构建未来城市空中交通管理体系。首先,从城市空中交通发展概况与发展历程,简要概述了城市空中交通的由来、兴起与发展前景;其次,设计了城市空中交通管理的运行概念,并结合中国空管的现状特点,提出了中国未来城市空中交通管理体系架构;然后,分别从空域规划、流量控制、交通服务与基础设施建设等方面系统论述城市空中交通管理的研究现状。最后,结合未来城市空中交通发展需求,提出了城市空中交通管理所面临的问题挑战,给出了中国城市空中交通管理的发展建议,以期为城市空中交通管理深入研究与快速发展提供参考借鉴。     

Multiple air route crossing waypoints optimization via artificial potential field method

Air route crossing waypoint optimization is one of the effective ways to improve airspace utilization, capacity and resilience in dealing with air traffic congestion and delay. However, research is lacking on the optimization of multiple Crossing Waypoints (CWPs) in the fragmented airspace separated by Prohibited, Restricted and Dangerous areas (PRDs). To tackle this issue, this paper proposes an Artificial Potential Field (APF) model considering attractive forces produced by the optimal routes and repulsive forces generated by obstacles. An optimization framework based on the APF model is proposed to optimize the different airspace topologies varying the number of CWPs, air route segments and PRDs. Based on the framework, an adaptive method is developed to dynamically control the optimization process in minimizing the total air route cost. The proposed model is applied to a busy controlled airspace. And the obtained results show that after optimization the safety-related indicators: conflict number and controller workload reduced by 7.75% and 6.51% respectively. As for the cost-effectiveness indicators: total route length, total air route cost and non-linear coefficient, declined by 1.74%, 3.13% and 1.70% respectively. While the predictability indicator, total flight delay, saw a notable reduction by 7.96%. The proposed framework and methodology can also provide an insight in the understanding of the optimization to other network systems.     

Comparison of alternative route selection strategies based on simulation optimization

Air traffic flow management (ATFM) is a collaborative process between the airspace provider and the airspace users. The result of the collaboration should be an outcome that maxi-mizes the utility of the system without excessively penalizing any of the agents. This paper develops a discrete-event simulation model which consists of aggregate departure/arrival airports, flight routes, and sectors for evaluating the alternative collaborative route selection strategy. Given the different perspectives from air traffic control center (ACC) and airlines, eight performance-metrics and five alternative route selection strategies represent the past, current and proposed air traffic flow management operations that were evaluated. The Monte Carlo method combined with the Optimal Computing Budget Allocation (OCBA) simulation optimization technique is employed to assess the performance of different strategies. A case study of the upper air routes in central and southern China shows that the proposed model can be readily implemented to simulate different kinds of air traffic flow management strategies and predict the effect of changes on the airspace sys-tem. It also shows that the proposed alternative collaborative route selection strategy is an effective way in alleviating the en-route traffic congestion.     

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。     

空管扇区开放计算机辅助决策模型及算法

从空中交通管制需要出发,管制空域常被划分成一些扇区,每个管制扇区由一组管制员负责。当空域情况、交通特性一定时,管制自动化中的一个问题是如何确定扇区开放的形式和数量使得既满足空管服务要求,又在管制员的可承受工作强度之内,且占用资源最少。针对上述问题,本文提出了基于排队论的计算机辅助决策模型和算法,并通过实例给予了验证说明。     

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     

Air route network optimization in fragmented airspace based on cellular automata

Air route network optimization,one of the essential parts of the airspace planning,is an effective way to optimize airspace resources,increase airspace capacity,and alleviate air traffic con gestion.However,little has been done on the optimization of air route network in the fragmented airspace caused by prohibited,restricted,and dangerous areas (PRDs).In this paper,an air route network optimization model is developed with the total operational cost as the objective function while airspace restriction,air route network capacity,and non-straight-line factors (NSLF) are taken as major constraints.A square grid cellular space,Moore neighbors,a fixed boundary,together with a set of rules for solving the route network optimization model are designed based on cellular automata.The empirical traffic of airports with the largest traffic volume in each of the 9 flight information regions in mainland China is collected as the origin-destination (OD) air port pair demands.Based on traffic patterns,the model generates 35 air routes which successfully avoids 144 PRDs.Compared with the current air route network structure,the number of nodes decreases by 41.67％,while the total length of flight segments and air routes drop by 32.03％ and 5.82％ respectively.The NSLF decreases by 5.82％ with changes in the total length of the air route network.More importantly,the total operational cost of the whole network decreases by 6.22％.The computational results show the potential benefits of the model and the advantage of the algorithm.Optimization of air route network can significantly reduce operational cost while ensuring operation safety.     

An evolutionary computational framework for capacity-safety trade-off in an air transportation network

Airspace safety and airport capacity are two key challenges to sustain the growth in Air Transportation. In this paper, we model the Air Transportation Network as two sub-networks of airspace and airports, such that the safety and capacity of the overall Air Transportation network emerge from the interaction between the two. We propose a safety-capacity trade-off approach,using a computational framework, where the two networks can inter-act and the trade-off between capacity and safety in an Air Transport Network can be established. The framework comprise of an evolutionary computation based air traffic scenario generation using a flow capacity estimation module(for capacity), Collision risk estimation module(for safety) and an air traffic simulation module(for evaluation). The proposed methodology to evolve air traffic scenarios such that it minimizes collision risk for given capacity estimation was tested on two different air transport network topologies(random and small-world) with the same number of airports. Experimental results indicate that though airspace collision risk increases almost linearly with the increasing flow(flow intensity) in the corresponding airport network, the critical flow depend on the underlying network configuration. It was also found that, in general, the capacity upper bound depends not only on the connectivity among airports and their individual performances but also the configuration of waypoints and mid-air interactions among conflicts. Results also show that airport network can accommodate more traffic in terms of capacity but the corresponding airspace network cannot accommodate the resulting traffic flow due to the bounds on collision risk.     

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.     

空管人因失效概率的THERP-CREAM预测方法

管制员的人为差错是导致航空器空中相撞的主要诱因,对空管人因失效概率进行有效预测是一个难题。为此,提出一种基于人误率预测技术（THERP）与认知可靠性和失误率分析模型CREAM）的组合空管人因失效概率预测方法,基于THERP 技术二叉树模型构建事故发展基本脉络,再基于CREAM 方法对各个人误行为触发概率进行修正,从而得出更为准确的概率预测结果。通过相似事故的对比分析,结果表明：本文提出的预测方法可识别关键性的事故影响因子,以便制定有针对性的管控措施,从而为研究预测空管人因失效概率提供了一种有效的分析手段。     

Measuring air traffic complexity based on small samples

Air traffic complexity is an objective metric for evaluating the operational condition of the airspace.It has several applications,such as airspace design and traffic flow management.Therefore,identifying a reliable method to accurately measure traffic complexity is important.Considering that many factors correlate with traffic complexity in complicated nonlinear ways,researchers have proposed several complexity evaluation methods based on machine learning models which were trained with large samples.However,the high cost of sample collection usually results in limited training set.In this paper,an ensemble learning model is proposed for measuring air traffic complexity within a sector based on small samples.To exploit the classification information within each factor,multiple diverse factor subsets (FSSs) are generated under guidance from factor noise and independence analysis.Then,a base complexity evaluator is built corresponding to each FSS.The final complexity evaluation result is obtained by integrating all results from the base evaluators.Experimental studies using real-world air traffic operation data demonstrate the advantages of our model for small-sample-based traffic complexity evaluation over other stateof-the-art methods.