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During the last years, Europe and USA have made efforts to integrate Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in a non-segregated controlled airspace, aiming at their civilian use. So far, there has been no consensus on the criteria to be adopted by the community to, at least, keep the minimum safety levels as those already attained by international aviation. In this scenario, commercial aircrafts â€" with an increasing amount of passengers - and UAVs could be sharing the same airspace. There are a lot of concerns about the current navigation, control and surveillance system capacity as well as about the ability of analyzing and monitoring the resilience of the operating environment of the organizations and Authority Control to handle some dangerous situations caused by possible collisions between these aircraft. Based on this scenario, a research about UAV in Controlled Air Space is presented. The proposal is modeling UAV based on the Multiagent paradigm. Several scenarios and results are presented and discussed herein. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper studies the means with which the avionics manufacturers define the aeronautical data quality requirements. All participants in an aeronautical data chain must ensure that data quality requirements are correctly established for the data's intended usage. The paper discusses how avionics manufacturers define required assurance level, accuracy, resolution, format and other characters for the aeronautical data that would be used in the avionics, so that the appropriate airworthiness regulation could be met. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes the development of an robotic helicopter for monitoring pollution and habitat in natural reserves. The particular environment under investigation is Tijuana River Estuary (TRE) south of the city of San Diego on the US-Mexico border. The ecology of TRE is briefly reviewed and the motivation for using an robotic helicopter is discussed. Next the application of aerial imaging to natural reserves is mentioned. An overview of the helicopter and its autonomy is given. The autonomous flight and capturing of images tagged with GPS and attitude are described. A method is presented to correct (rectify) aerial images that are distorted due to helicopter rolling and pitching leading to non-vertical photography. Flight test results are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has grown in military and civilian areas of application. Several industries (automotive, military, factories, space, etc.) use robots for dangerous and repetitive tasks. This paper is dedicated to a special type of aerial platforms, the quadricopter. This platform has been highlighted by having unique characteristics in flight and construction, for example, hovering flight, vertical takeoff and landing, high maneuverability, low speed flight, and simple mechanics. This work proposes a tool for simulation and visualization of an aerial air-type quadricopter robots, using the flight simulator X-Plane 9, Matlab and Simulink. The aircraft under study is control the so-called ITA-001, developed by the quadricopter study group the Aeronautical Institute of Technology -- ITA. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents an approach for the multiagent navigation and conflict resolution problem, that considers the issue of performance. We present a decentralized predictive navigation scheme that combines the Decentralized Navigation Functions methodology with the Model Predictive Control (MPC) framework while preserving the former's collision avoidance and convergence guarantees. Aircrafts, flying at constant altitude, are modeled as unicycles. Performance criteria are encoded in a cost functional. Due to decentralization, each agent does not take into account the decisions of others in the control law calculation, resulting in performance discrepancies. Therefore, we employ event-triggered executions in our scheme. The improved performance is demonstrated through simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

it presents a method of AADL reliability analysis and assessment for embedded systems in this paper. The system reliability is not only relies on system architecture, but also relates to dynamic behavior of system model. Based on behavior model, it generates error model automatically which has been widely used in reliability modeling and analysis, and this reflects the association between error happening and component behavior. At last, a case study is introduced to demonstrate the performance of the approach. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Collision avoidance of UAV is an important function required from pilots and traffic controller as it intends to fly in the airspace of manned aircraft. It is implemented into Smart UAV which the flight test for automatic take-off, conversion and mission flight was conducted successfully last year. Prior to flight test for collision avoidance, the hardware-in-the-loop simulation (HILS) test is conducted in order to verify system operation and avoidance algorithm. Intruders are simulated through virtual aircraft models on the ground and transmitted to digital flight control computer (DFCC). The detection and avoidance algorithm is implemented to the operational flight program (OFP) in DFCC. This paper gives the description for the configuration of collision avoidance system, HILS system and the result for the simulation test in the case of multiple intruders. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates terrain referenced navigation (TRN) system integrated with inertial navigation system (INS). TRN system estimates navigation information of an aircraft by using a terrain elevation database and radar altimeter measurements. We derive 15-state strapdown INS error kinematics equations to design fusion algorithm. A point mass filter (PMF) based on Bayesian estimation is applied to the terrain navigation and the output is yields by a minimum mean square error (MMSE) method. The output of the terrain navigation is integrated with the position of the INS by Kalman filter and the estimated INS error is feedback to the INS. Simulations are constructed to evaluate the proposed method and the results show that the navigation accuracy of the aircraft is improved through the TRN/INS integration technique. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle can be referred to as UAV. This design implements a system that based on DSP to measure altitude, airspeed and attitude of UAV. The system uses DSP as the controller and operator, and uses two MS5534C and a URF03-TTL232 to measure the altitude and airspeed of UAV. To measure attitude, we need three accelerometers and three gyroscopes. SCI serial port can be used to read data from the module. This design collects the data of these sensors by query method, and uses quaternion algorithm to calculate the attitude of UAV. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The attitude control of unmanned helicopter needs accurate acceleration, velocity and attitude information. The error induced by using low cost and low precision inertial component which widely used in the strapdown inertial navigation system cannot be neglected. In order to reduce the effect of the error, the navigation equation of unmanned helicopter is established by using quaternion method and the filtering problem of the GPS/INS navigation system is investigated based on the extended kalman filter theory. The last numerical simulation demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed design, and the design satisfies the engineering accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes message distribution in a strapdown inertial navigation system of an on-board aircraft electronic system using a CAN bus, complying with the CANaerospace protocol. The emphasis is put on transmission of individual messages in the avionic systems in precisely defined time. For this purpose a time-triggered approach of communication via the CAN bus was chosen. This paper also suggests a communication schedule for particular bit rates, the number of transmitted messages and transmitted message periods. The system communication behaviour is then verified by practical tests on a system with an inertial measurement unit. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Focusing on the problem of autonomous flight for a small unmanned helicopter in GPS-denied environments, this paper proposes a navigation system which combines monocular visual and inertial measurements. The homography based visual odometry, as well as the inertial measurement from an IMU, can estimate the motion of a small unmanned helicopter. An extended Kalman filter is used to fuse the estimations of both visual and inertial sensors to provide the available navigation data. Finally, the effectiveness of this system is verified by real experiments. The Vision/IMU navigation has almost the same performance as the traditional GPS/IMU navigation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a new approach of an integrated distributed monitoring system for an autonomous unmanned helicopter. The navigation mission consists of reaching areas of interest on a path composed of specific waypoints. The task of such a monitoring system is to determine whether the helicopter behaves as intended in order to detect faults in the mission execution early and to enable a re-planning of the mission or a failure recovery in due time. This is a very important issue for autonomous systems as they have to cope not only with ordinary subsystems failures, but also with unexpected situations which make the mission goals unattainable. The approach uses a special combination of Petri Nets and Monte Carlo Methods (particle filter) and integrates different layers of the system architecture such as control actions (path-planning, low-level control), environment perception (vision-based recognition of landmarks), state observation (estimation of speed, position, attitude) and decision making (mission planning and re-planning) in a unified model. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The civil aviation of the future should be ecological, economical, and safe. The citizens in metropolises have on the one hand the requirement to travel efficiently between airports near the city. On the other hand they do not want to suffer from noise and emission of aircraft starting and landing at airports close to cities. Consequently, the future aircraft should harmonize these needs. In order to fulfil these requirements, new concepts for departure and approach procedures are mandatory. Curved approaches are one solution since critical regions can be omitted. These complex manoeuvres can only be carried out with the help of satellite navigation systems. One major challenge of curved approaches is the changing obstruction of satellite signals due to shadowing effects by the aircraft itself during curved approaches. Existing GPS landing systems suffer therefore degraded performance in terms of continuity, availability, integrity, and accuracy during curved approaches, especially with higher roll angles and at high and low latitudes. To avoid this problem and to meet the requirements of integrity, accuracy, continuity, and availability for future GNSS landing systems, the concept of the so called "virtual receiver" has been developed in the framework of the research project "Bürgernahes Flugzeug" (Metropolitan Aircraft). The main idea is to avoid obstructions by combining GNSS observations of few antennas, optimally installed on the aircraft and computing one common aircraft position solution. This paper presents the concept of the virtual receiver. The benefits in terms of precision, reliability and accuracy are evaluated based on the analysis of real data from a test flight with the research aircraft D-IBUF, a Dornier 128–6 from the Institut of Flight Guidance (TU Braunschweig). It will be shown, that virtual receiver outperforms a single antenna solution concerning the precision (DOP-values are reduced by 30%), reliability (MDBs are reduced by 10 % on average) and vertical accuracy (the 95 % error bound is reduced by 14%). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Navigation database (NDB) capacity (memory size) has always been an issue in aircraft Flight Management Computers (FMC). And, that issue is a concern for Performance-based Navigation (PBN) Implementation as so many new next generation (NextGen) procedures are being developed and many FMCs no longer have the capacity for additions to their NDBs. For the near-term, the problem will just keep getting worse for aircraft with FMCs limited by capacity due to the growth in the number of coded procedures and waypoints to store and limitations in the storage size. Anecdotal evidence finds navigation database suppliers estimating that worldwide procedure production will increase database size approximately 3% to 8% annually for the forseable future.1 In many cases, the airlines must already strictly tailor the available sets of procedures in their databases according to geographic areas to meet current FMC memory capacity constraints. Fortunately, the trend for the mid-term and far-term is that the projected growth rate will not be such an issue given the actual and “potential” additional memory expansion of new FMCs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Two axes investigated by the GNSS Evolutionary Architecture Study Panel (GEAS) as part of the evaluation of future GNSS-based architectures include Dual Frequency Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) and Advanced Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (ARAIM) algorithm. With the release of the GEAS panel reports and the flight test results, avionics manufacturers were contracted to study where and what would be key challenges to integrate this technology into certifiable avionics. This paper presents a selection of Thales findings from the following perspectives: operation and system design, technical implementation, certification process and standardization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Significant efforts are underway to modernise global air traffic management systems. This will result in a level of connectivity between different systems that has never before been achieved, creating a ‘system of systems’ that requires a very high level of dependability. To achieve this dependability, security must be designed-in rather than relying on hardening of systems post implementation. This is also expected to minimise the costs of security. The European ATM modernisation programme, SESAR, has been taking a systems engineering approach to ensure that R&D is rapidly transferred to industrialisation and then deployment. This approach has been applied to security, organised around ‘operational focus areas’ that represent discrete operational improvements. In such a complex programme, traditional risk analysis and mitigation was thought to be limited when attempting a system wide coherence for security. Hence the SESAR programme is adopting a ‘security case’ approach, drawing on lessons learned in safety cases, validation & verification of ATM R&D, and aligned to the system engineering approach. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Frequent cross strait flights have made Taipei Terminal Control Area (TCA) into flow congestion and conflict threat. A flow monitor is proposed to provide the predicted sequence of inbound and outbound aircraft with minimum separation in the intersected 10 NM airport circles in Taipei TCA. The flight data processor (FDP) data from system analysis record (SAR) are applied to estimate the time of metering fix until landing. Air traffic control (ATC) indicates vectoring aircraft according to predict sequence by executing ground holding and speed adjustment to avoid airborne holding or conflict. Based on daily schedules and their FDP, flow monitor is designed to forecast the future 60 minutes of inbound flights and to ease possible congestion within 30 minutes in Taipei TCA. Dynamic rescheduling is applied to change delay flights in flow queuing periodically. A case study is simulated to focus on current flow condition. The flow monitor can be used in approach control region and can efficiently reduce the probability of congestion in the busy TCA. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Successful implementation of NextGen will require a critical mass of aircraft to be equipped with a range of avionics in the areas of communication, navigation, and surveillance. The equipage process has faced impediments that have slowed equipage rates below targets. It is believed that a package of financial and operational incentives can help accelerate the equipage process by incentivizing and facilitating the use of NextGen equipage. This paper focuses on Traffic Flow Management (TFM) Operational Incentives (OPIs) that can be implemented in the near-term. These incentives can help accelerate the equipage process by providing short-term benefits to early adopters until the full benefits of equipage materialize in the far term. Also, implementing equipage-aware Traffic Management Initiatives (TMIs) can enable near-term implementation of equipage-dependent concepts in a mixed-equipage environment. This, in turn, can reduce the airlines' uncertainty with respect to equipage return on investment. In this paper we conduct a high-level quantitative analysis to gain insight into the ramifications of TFM OPIs under a range of equipage levels. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The ambulance service, the rapidity and the usefulness of the HEMS are rated highly, and it is also effective in reducing regional medical service differences which have occurred in recent years. The captain flies without using visual assistance to keep some distance between the helicopter and clouds or obstacles. Under the present conditions, the CS and the captain of HEMS contact each other and select the safest flight path. With the increase in future requests, conducting safe and effective navigation is a challenge of the CS. However, the CS is sent from an airline in rotation so it is difficult to say that all CSs conduct their duties with profound knowledge and experience about the detailed weather and land forms in the navigation area. In addition, a reasonable amount of time is needed to standardize their knowledge and experience. Consequently in our research, we focused on the understanding and assessment of the situation and the process of the decision-making and then analyzed them. We also interviewed the CS directly, and proposed to develop a system which can make up for the differences in the knowledge and experience of individual CSs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is very important to reduce the possibility of spatial disorientation because spatial disorientation is a major cause of aircraft crashes. In this research, we assess the effect of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) on spatial cognitive function by measuring physiological signals, including brain waves measured by electroencephalography (EEG). Through physiological signals such as brain waves, we can objectively understand a subject's cognitive state. Moreover, we use virtual reality technology to build 3D scenery that provides navigation clues in an environment with no visual reference frame. Using the virtual environment, we confirm that TENS lessens spatial disorientation. Across subjects and sessions, the parietal component of brain activity exhibited baseline elevation predominantly in the theta (4–7 Hz) and alpha (8–12 Hz) band as the subjects navigated. This study also found that subjects performed better after TENS in terms of behavioral and EEG data. The results facilitate understanding of the cognitive function of maintaining spatial orientation and development of a device for assisting pilots and reducing the occurrence of spatial disorientation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Changes in Air Traffic Management, exemplified by the NextGen and SESAR projects, intend to achieve ATM systems with a higher capacity and also higher efficiency, through more direct routing. At the same time, air traffic safety should continue to increase. An important step in this process can be the partial or full transfer of responsibility for separation to the flight deck, using Airborne Separation Assurance Systems (ASAS). In previous work, our group has developed flight deck displays that enable pilots to perform the task of self-separation through the visualization of conflicts on the displays. In various tests with these displays, pilots successfully performed the task of self-separation, using only the implicit coordination based on conflict geometry as presented on the display. In order to further investigate the emergent features of the use of such displays, a set of rules was created to mimic the behavior observed in the experiments. Using this simulation, a Monte Carlo experiment was run, in which the properties of encounters between two aircraft were further investigated. The simulations results indicate that the implicit coordination used in our set-up is not always successful. Furthermore, instructions for solving the conflict that emphasize quick resolution can be detrimental to safety. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, a visual odometry system that has been developed to help solve the navigation problem on a UAV is presented. This system is part of the vision-based positioning system that will be used on a new UAV currently in development at Cranfield University. Using images captured from a single camera, the ego-motion of the aircraft is estimated and the relative position is updated every time a new frame is processed. To understand how this is achieved, each of the steps in the implemented visual odometry algorithm is explained in detail, taking a look to the techniques that make it possible. In addition, a failure detection system based on the corner tracking error has also been added to the algorithm to make the system more robust and able to automatically deactivate in poor conditions. Following the description of the visual odometry system, its performance is evaluated using terrain images from Google Earth (GE) and also from a real aerial footage captured on board a Curtis Pitts aircraft. The influence on the error of several factors such as the altitude, the flight speed, the terrain type and the number of corners to be tracked is studied and explained in detail. Finally, the future work to integrate the visual odometry system with a geolocation system to produce the vision-based positioning system of the Aegis UAV is briefly outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With the continued growth in Air Traffic, researchers are investigating innovative ways to increase airspace capacity while maintaining safety. A key safety indicator for an airspace is its Collision Risk estimate, which is compared against a Target Level of Safety (TLS) to provide a quantitative basis for judging the safety of operations in an airspace. However this quantitative value does not give an insight into the overall collision risk picture for an airspace, and how the risk changes given the interaction of a multitude of factors such as sector/traffic characteristics and controllers actions for flow management. In this paper, we propose an evolutionary framework with multi-objective optimization to evolve collision risk of air traffic scenarios. We attempt to identify, through evolutionary mechanism, the flight events resulting from Air Traffic Controller's actions that can lead to higher collision risks, thereby identifying the contributing factors or the events leading to collision risk. Computational experiments were conducted in an hi-fidelity air traffic simulation environment with collision risk model. Results indicate that “risk-free” traffic scenarios having collision risk below TLS can become “risk-prone” by few flight events, with Climb and Turn maneuvers, specifically during entering and exiting a sector, contributing significantly to increased collision risk. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the field of navigation, two system depends for the navigation is Inertial Navigation System (INS) and Global Positioning System (GPS). INS is an autonomous, standalone system which is available in the aircraft which gives the latitude, longitude and altitude position of the aircraft by the accelerometer and gyroscope measurements. GPS is used to provide accurate position information for the navigation. Both the system having its own drawbacks like bias error and drift error of accelerometer and gyroscope and satellite clock errors and multipath reflection errors of GPS. In order to overcome its drawback, both the systems are integrated to provide reliable navigation solution. Typically Kalman Filter (KF) is used to integrate the system. In recent years, AI (Artificial Intelligence) based systems are used for the same. In this paper, the hybrid approach of using Input delayed Dynamic Neural Network (IDNN) and KF is introduced for GPS/INS integration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Based on successful results obtained from a laboratory prototype and real-world experiments, this paper discusses an innovative technique for providing small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with 360 degree field of view sense and avoid capability. The proposed approach allows an aircraft equipped with appropriate acoustic sensors and processing to detect and accurately track other aircraft, manned or unmanned, in their proximity, determine whether or not they pose a threat, and, if necessary, take appropriate autonomous, quick-reaction measures to avoid them. The prototype is based on reliable, low-cost hardware that is platform independent, omni-directional, passive and draws little power. The technology is equally effective in day and night time conditions and also offers the prospect of retrofit to manned aircraft to provide them with a similar capacity to detect and avoid UAVs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We develop the framework of decentralised Navigation Functions for the case of multiple agents of arbitrary shapes and sensing areas around them moving in N-dimensional space. Unlike previous approaches utilising the Navigation Functions methodology, the construction here does not rely on diffeomorphisms, thus reducing the computational cost of the algorithm. The resulting potential field is absolutely locally computable and can be easily adapted to decentralised aircraft conflict resolution, as shown in the paper. Simulation results of multi-aircraft conflict resolution are included to support the efficacy of the complete control scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since the concept of complexity science was introduced into the field of air traffic management (ATM), a large number of scholars have conducted related complexity research. However, the researchers have long been anxious to define the complexity which is still vague and difficult to unify. But there is a lack of systematic research on the complex traffic formation mechanism in the field of ATM. If typical traffic phenomena could be comprehensively analyzed and the formation cause of complex situation of the air traffic could be clarified, then the study on the complexity in the field of ATM will gain great benefit. Therefore, models are built by choosing three traffic phenomena such as queuing, flight conflict avoidance and asymmetric situation information distribution. Then the paper analyzes the mechanism of the formation of complex traffic situation, mines the impact factor of the complex traffic situation, aiming at the common law of forming a complex traffic situation so as to further study the complexity of the air traffic management. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Most unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are, at present, designed for military purposes and very few civil applications have been developed mainly because the lack of a regulation basis concerning their certification, airworthiness and operations. UAS operations have always been solutions highly dependent on the mission to be accomplished and on the scenario of flight. The generalized development of UAS applications is still limited by the absence of systems that support the development of the actual operations. Most current UAS solutions, if not remotely piloted, rely on waypoint based flight control system for their navigation and are unable to coordinate the aircraft flight with payload and mission operation. In this paper, an architecture for providing automation in UAS application is presented. This architecture is part of a UAS-specific distributed service-oriented architecture designed to enable easy reconfiguration and deployment of UAS in a wide range of scenarios without (or very little) additional system development. Flight, payload and mission service coordination, service interfaces and message interactions between services are discussed in this paper. Finally, a preliminary prototype of these services has been implemented to validate the purpose architecture specification. Additionally, a helicopter-based UAS is being developed to test in real scenarios the automation capabilities provided by the USAL architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a framework for transitioning Air Traffic Management (ATM) functions to cloud computing, for cost savings, and gains in performance and efficiency. With the established framework, initial analysis was carried out for NAS automation systems. The analysis revealed that it is technically feasible to transition most of the ATM functions to the cloud computing environment, with benefits significant to both the system owner and NAS end users. A study of recent development in the field also revealed that, while challenges exist, with the proper alignment of technical and investment decisions, transitioning of ATM functions to the cloud computing environment can be achieved much faster, and that it is already happening. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The differences in performance of various manufacturers' Flight Management Systems (FMSs) and their associated Flight Management Computers (FMCs) have the potential for significant impact on the air traffic control system and as such need to be examined and reexamined. While Performance-Based Navigation (PBN), Area Navigation (RNAV) and Required Navigation Performance (RNP) procedures and routes are designed according to criteria contained in Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) orders, FMC manufacturers build their systems in accordance with Minimum Aviation System Performance Standards (MASPS) and Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) for area navigation systems, Technical Standard Orders (TSOs) and Advisory Circulars (ACs). With the exception of some minor differences, it has been shown in previous research on this subject that the resulting performance of the aircraft FMC will generally meet the procedure design requirements identified in the FAA criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Voice communication is a pillar of air traffic management throughout all phases of flight - but nowhere is it as important as during surface operations. Finding space on the frequency to communicate can often times be challenge, especially when operations become irregular during weather events or peak push-times. Ground frequencies can become saturated with controllers providing taxi and clearance instructions to pilots and vehicles. To alleviate saturation, ANSPs have turned to more efficient ways to communicate route and clearance information to aircraft. Many airports around the world are using data link as a means to provide route and clearance instructions to the cockpit without using voice communications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Existing FAA regulations, policy and guidance do not specifically address cyber security requirements for aircraft networks and systems. This could result in security related certification criteria that are not standardized and harmonized between domestic and international regulatory agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) is the on-going European research program aiming at designing and validating a reformation of the Air Traffic Management system. In order to maximize the benefits of Single European Sky it is very important that the innovation involves the largest amount of the Airspace users. For this reason SESAR research program involves also military airspace users. Dedicated Work Packages are working in order to investigate and solve the civil-military interoperability problem. The need for interoperability is due to the potentially different avionic architectures and functionalities which often concern civil (e.g. Main-line and Regional categories) and military aircraft (e.g. Transport-type and Fighter-type). The WP's are working together so that in the future military avionics could be able to implement selected functionalities (i.e. Initial 4D and ASPA S&M) defined in the Single European Sky context. The aim of the paper is to present results of the work performed for solving the civil-military interoperability problem. SESAR context is described as far as Initial 4D and ASPA S&M functionalities are concerned. A reference airspace use of military aircraft is presented and related Communication, Navigation and Surveillance requirements are highlighted. The approach and the proposed solution to the interoperability problem are then presented. The assumption at the base of the work is that the best solution to the interoperability problem is not a retrofit solution but a solution based on the upgrade of existing avionic equipments. The reason is that an upgrade solution could be more attractive in terms of costs for military end users. The aim of the paper is to present results of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Closely Spaced Parallel Runways (CSPRs) with centerlines separated by 700 to 2500 feet (ft) are used for simultaneous arrivals when visual separation can be provided by flight crews. Such operations typically provide arrival rates of roughly 60 aircraft per hour. When visual approaches cannot be conducted significant reductions in capacity and increased delays occur. An initial Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B) based Paired Approach (PA) procedure has been conceptualized to reclaim up to 90% of this lost capacity potentially down to Category I (CAT I) approach minima. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Next generation flight management systems require the compliance of temporal and spatial constraints on navigation performance. The problem of generating fuel-efficient trajectories for aircrafts that comply with the required navigation performance is approached from an optimal control framework. By deriving the necessary conditions for optimality, nominal optimal control signals can be generated in a computationally efficient manner. These control signals can be used to generate nominal trajectories for an aircraft model. Using the nominal control and nominal trajectory, a feedforward-feedback control scheme can be implemented to robustify the system's response in the presence of uncertainty and disturbances to still achieve the required navigation performance. The feasibility of the approach is demonstrated through simulation and Monte Carlo runs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With the increasing of the traffic of the civil aircrafts, the broadband aeronautical communications are required. Different from the narrow-band system, the broadband system for Air-to-Ground (A/G) communications bases on the broadband non-continuous spectrum located in VHF and L band, which are traditionally occupied by radar systems, such as Distant Measurement Equipment (DME) etc. Therefore, it is naturally to try to manage the broadband A/G communications link with the capability for navigation, which can gradually replace the DME and cover its function. In this paper, with the broadband A/G link in spectrum holes, namely Multi-Input and Multi-Output Non-Continuous Interferometry Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (MIMO-NCI-OFDM) system, the efficient navigation scheme is proposed with TDOA algorithms. Moreover, the specific Kalman filtering algorithm is employed for improving the accuracy. The simulation for the performance on Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and Cramer-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB) confirm the validity and efficiency of the proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Thinking that the future aircraft tends to be as a flying robot where a flight plan is the main goal to achieve. The aircraft navigation requires many operations to be performed by several and different aircraft equipment. In this paper, the navigation process has been organized as Intelligent reference model, it is functionally distributed through nodes of a multi levels hierarchy, the root node of the hierarchy determines the flight plane and sends the corresponding required flight states to the nodes in the next level which receive the required states and perform further processing producing corresponding sub goals to the next level and so on until the leave nodes represents the actuators and sensors. The sensing parameters are read at the leave nodes and sent after processing or directly to the higher levels as required. Separate real time communication networks are used in the hierarchy, each network connect one node in a level with the nodes in the next level which have functional relation to that node. Simulation of the hierarchical nodes is implemented using multi computers system to verify the function of each node and the required data messages between them. The real time constrains in the real time communication networks and the haul system are evaluated for worthy navigation system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigated the relative acceptance of different avionics implementations that present Flightdeck Interval Management (FIM) speeds and speed deviations to commercial pilots, and for indications of conditions that require action. Results indicate a clear preference for an Avionics condition where target speed information was provided in the primary flight display, relevant traffic information was provided in the navigational display, IM clearance information and conformance information was provided in the Multi-function Control Display Unit (MCDU), and the engine-indicating and crew-alerting system (EICAS) display showed conformance deviation alerts; and a condition in which all this information was presented only in an Electronic Flight Bag (EFB)-like display (with extended functionality) implemented under the side window for both pilots. Other Avionics conditions tested were less desirable. These were conditions in which the EFB was mounted aft of, and below the side window - with and without an auxiliary display that repeated speed target and conformance information in the primary field of view. Results also indicate a preference for aural indications to direct attention to new speed targets, as a reminder to enter these when not done in a timely manner, and to convey when the aircraft has deviated significantly from the calculated FIM speed profile. The aural indications, thresholds for reminders and conformance indications used in this study were found to be appropriate. In general FIM, as implemented in this study, was perceived as having no deleterious effect on workload or crew coordination; and, under some conditions, was reported to have improved situation awareness of arrival speeds and general conditions during approach and descent. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

NASA has developed the Terminal Sequencing and Spacing (TSS) system, a suite of advanced arrival management technologies combining time-based scheduling and controller precision spacing tools. TSS is a ground-based controller automation tool that facilitates sequencing and merging arrivals that have both current standard ATC routes and terminal Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) routes, especially during highly congested demand periods. In collaboration with the FAA and MITRE's Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD), TSS system performance was evaluated in human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulations with currently active controllers as participants. Traffic scenarios had mixed Area Navigation (RNAV) and Required Navigation Performance (RNP) equipage, where the more advanced RNP-equipped aircraft had preferential treatment with a shorter approach option. Simulation results indicate the TSS system achieved benefits by enabling PBN, while maintaining high throughput rates-10% above baseline demand levels. Flight path predictability improved, where path deviation was reduced by 2 NM on average and variance in the downwind leg length was 75% less. Arrivals flew more fuel-efficient descents for longer, spending an average of 39 seconds less in step-down level altitude segments. Self-reported controller workload was reduced, with statistically significant differences at the p<0.01 level. The RNP-equipped arrivals were also able to more frequently capitalize on the benefits of being “Best-Equipped, Best-Served” (BEBS), where less vectoring was needed and nearly all RNP approaches were conducted without interruption. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 2012, NASA and FAA jointly conducted a human-in-the-loop air traffic simulation to evaluate the utility of the Terminal Area Precision Scheduling and Spacing (TAPSS) system for supporting Performance-Based Navigation arrival operations during periods of congestion at a mid-sized airport. The TAPSS system is a trajectory-based strategic planning and tactical control tool that was developed to efficiently manage arrivals. For this study, the TAPSS system was enhanced to handle Required Navigation Performance arrivals. A baseline case, where none of the TAPSS system's advisories were provided, was run along with two different configurations of the TAPSS system with differing sets of controller advisory tools. The engineering data indicate that the TAPSS system has a potential to enable efficient Performance-Based Navigation arrival operations. The participating controllers found the TAPSS system's advisories useful. When controllers were given the full set of TAPSS advisory tools, 90% of Required Navigation Performance arrivals stayed on-path as compared to 87% in the baseline case, the average extra track distance of Area Navigation arrivals decreased by 36%, and the average number of controller voice communications decreased by 13%. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An autonomous, adaptive navigation system, tightly coupled with the overall mission management system, can provide unmanned systems with the capability to autonomously change and execute mission plans. Legislative issues, the difficulty to meet the extremely high reliability requirements of an autonomous collision avoidance function and the associated development and certification challenges can all be reasons to limit the authority of such an adaptive system by involving/requiring a human operator at the decision making level. The role of the human operator is to make decisions during situations in which significant changes in the navigation plan are needed to accomplish the mission. Such a concept of operation imposes specific challenges that must be addressed during the design of the systems that support the operator with this supervisory task. The paper starts with addressing the commonality in the associated challenges between nautical and aeronautical platforms and between manned and unmanned systems. It will be illustrated how during the past 60 years, research in both the nautical and the aeronautical domain has addressed aspects of these challenges and how developments in the area of sensors, processors and display capabilities increased the possibilities to both increase system autonomy and keep the human operator involved with the required authority. Following this background, it will be discussed how components of a system designed to support a UAS pilot with the separation assurance task have been re-used in the realization of a prototype operator support system for an unmanned vessel, the CSHIELD platform. Results of an initial simulation-based evaluation are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents an approach to derive requirements for an avionics architecture that provides onboard sense-and-avoid and autonomous emergency forced landing capabilities to a UAS. The approach is based on two design paradigms that (1) derive requirements analyzing the common functionality between these two functions to then derive requirements for sensors, computing capability, interfaces, etc. (2) consider the risk and safety mitigation associated with these functions to derive certification requirements for the system design. We propose to use the Aircraft Certification Matrix (ACM) approach to tailor the system Development Assurance Levels (DAL) and architecture requirements in accordance with acceptable risk criteria. This architecture is developed under the name “Flight Guardian”. Flight Guardian is an avionics architecture that integrates common sensory elements that are essential components of any UAS that is required to be dependable. The Flight Guardian concept is also applicable to conventionally piloted aircraft, where it will serve to reduce cockpit workload. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes an idea of one approach to small aircraft safety increasing. The project was founded as reaction on numbers of small simple-engine aircraft accidents in the Czech Republic and their usual reason — human factor. Pilots and schools in the Czech Republic recently started to use glass cockpits which can be used also in other way than pure EFIS. Glass cockpit system could be extended by appropriate safety software modules. Software modules can be used in critical situations for flight analysis and giving appropriate advices to the pilot. Under this project was developed simple module navigating pilot to landing site when engine fails. Paper describes first version of EFIS with mentioned modules and also summarizes idea of designing system including testing approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

DME/DME and Passive Wide Area Multilateration (P-WAM) are two proposed FAA's Alternative Position, Navigation, and Timing (APNT) architectures that provide navigation and surveillance capability to National Air Space during a GNSS outage. Although Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) and Multilateration (MLAT) system operate in a very different way, they use the same frequency band and can share the same antenna, which allows for one system integrating DME and MLAT electronics. Similarly, Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) can be integrated with DME and MLAT. This DME/MLAT/ADS-B integrated system in one cabinet can be used to simultaneously provide DME and MLAT service for navigation and ADS-B for surveillance. With this dual navigation service capability of the integrated system, it is possible to develop a hybrid APNT architecture enabling both of DME/DME and P-WAM) service as a back-up of GNSS. The important advantage of the hybrid architecture is that the impacts on the avionics of General Aviation users and commercial jet airliners would be minimal by requiring only software and additional input/output connections. This paper describes the methodology and results for the feasibility study of the hybrid architecture and investigates the required ground station layout of the hybrid architecture that meets the anticipated APNT navigation and surveillance performance requirements by evaluating selected areas of the continental U.S. The required ground network will be determined through an optimization process called Coverage Analysis Method [1, 2] and be compared with the respective required ground networks for DME/DME and P-WAM based architectures to evaluate the additional number of ground stations needed in the hybrid architecture. In addition, the capacity of the DME/MLAT/ADS-B integrated systems in the hybrid architecture will be evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents an overview of the CNS / ATM (Communication, Navigation, Surveillance / Air Traffic Management) concept as introduced in the early nineties based on ICAO recommendations. Special emphasis is given to the different VHF Data Link (VDL) technologies. The VDL technologies can be used to support air traffic services, such as Automatic Dependent Surveillance (ADS), Controller Pilot Data Link Communication (CPDLC), and Data Link Flight Information Services (DFIS). For reference, the paper also presents the CNS systems currently used in Colombia to provide air navigation services. This allows analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of the introduction of the CNS/ATM concept. For comparison between the current system and the proposed CNS/ATM concept, it is important to take into account the special geographic and air-traffic conditions of the country. Finally, this paper reports about the first implementation of data link communications in Colombia. At El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá city the Departure Clearance (DCL) service has been introduced as first communication service based on data link. This is the first step of CNS/ATM introduction within the Air Navigation Plan of the Colombian Special Administrative Unit of Civil Aviation (UAEAC) the Colombian aviation authority. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In-Trail Procedures (ITP) is an application of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) that allows aircraft to change flight levels in areas where current non-radar separation standards would prevent desirable altitude changes. The ITP avionics receive ADS-B Out position reports from aircraft at intermediate flight levels that could be blocking the desired climb or descent maneuver. The most recent standard for ADS-B broadcast is RTCA/DO-260B [1]. This is also known as Version 2. Equipage is mandated by 2020 in the US for the same aircraft that carry transponders. Equipage is mandated in Europe by 2015 for forward fit aircraft and by 2017 for retrofit aircraft. Standards have been developed for the ADS-B data accuracy requirements for ITP [2, 3]. The standards are straightforward to apply to aircraft equipped with transponders certified to DO-260B [1]. The standards are less straightforward to apply for aircraft equipped with transponders certified to the earlier standards of ADS-B, which are known as Version 0 or Version 1 [4, 5]. This paper shows that crosschecking ADS-B data with Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) data is an effective mitigation technique for uncertain ADS-B horizontal position accuracy and integrity for legacy Version 0 and Version 1 ADS-B transponders. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Future Aircraft Surveillance Applications System (ASAS) such as conflict detection, final approach and runway occupancy, and airport surface situational awareness methods will benefit from the introduction of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B). An alternative ADS-B implementation, which transmits raw measurements from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) instead of aircraft state vectors in the current implementation, was proposed in a previous paper to improve surveillance performance. Advantages of this implementation include 1) increased observability, 2) independence of datum reference, 3) the availability of an intrinsic duality indicator through the estimator's covariance matrix, 4) a guaranteed incorporation of existing correlations in the estimator, 5) optimal weighting of the measurements, and 6) the ability to perform data screening and other integrity methods. This paper summarizes the proposed methodology, discusses the initial flight test results of this alternative ADS-B implementation, and analyzes the performance of this method as a function of various system parameters such as bandwidth and update rate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Area navigation (RNAV) and required navigation performance (RNP) are key components of performance-based navigation (PBN). Instrument procedures that use RNAV and RNP can have more flexible and precise paths than conventional routes that are defined using ground-based navigation aids. As a result, RNAV and RNP routes can enhance operational safety, efficiency, and access. At the United States Department of Transportation Volpe Center, we are identifying and documenting human factors issues associated with implementing PBN instrument procedures for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This effort supports the FAA's transition to the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) by providing recommendations to promote easier and more reliable use of PBN instrument procedures. In this paper, we explain why human factors research is needed and provide examples of research issues. For example, new procedures may result in increased visual complexity of charts, which in turn could increase pilot workload and the potential for error. We are also conducting analyses and experiments to understand and improve the usability of aeronautical charts for PBN instrument procedures. Our work in this area is summarized in this paper. More information can be found at www.volpe.dot.gov/coi/hfrsa/ahf/ip/library.html. The website has links to our latest research products. It also supports other human factors research teams by listing and summarizing publicly available reports on related topics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, an alternative to Global Navigation System (GPS) based navigation in the terminal airspace is proposed to improve the resilience of our nation's Next-Generation air transportation system (NextGen) against man-made and natural threats to the GPS. GPS is a critical element of the future aviation infrastructure and interruptions of GPS service are known to have measurable impacts on NextGen procedures in use today. We propose that, by modifying airports' multilateration surveillance systems to broadcast new navigation signals, seamless operation during GPS outages is possible. In this new concept, synchronized MLAT transceivers broadcast pseudo-randomly staggered messages so that onboard avionics can estimate an aircraft's position from the Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) between messages received from multiple pairs of MLAT transceivers. Also, MLAT transceivers are modified to reply to TCAS interrogations or spontaneously respond to MODE-S Downlink messages allowing aircraft to measure the round-trip delay for range calculation. Using either multiple TDOAs, multiple ranges, or a combination of both from either a single airport or multiple airports, onboard avionics are able to calculate ownship position for navigation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]