NARSIM Simulations on Virtual Block Control and Separation Bubbles

During the last two weeks NLR successfully carried out simulations on Virtual Block Control and the use of Separation Bubbles for Taxiway Conflict Alerting under low visibility conditions. The project was carried out by AT-One, the ATM research alliance between the Dutch and German Aerospace Research Institutes NLR and DLR, for Eurocontrol, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation.
The objective of the project was to evaluate operational improvements that would support air traffic controllers in more efficiently and more safely handling airport ground traffic when visibility conditions are so bad that pilots cannot avoid collisions by looking outside the cockpit (VIS-3). Furthermore, it was assumed that there were no additional means in the cockpit that would increase pilot situational awareness, such as moving map displays.
In an earlier workshop with controllers from several European airports it was concluded that a concept for Virtual Block Control in combination with a safety net for separation (Separation Bubbles) would most probably be the most effective improvement for ground control under the specified conditions.
In order to evaluate the new tools and the associated operational procedures, the NARSIM Tower simulation environment of NLR was equipped with prototype virtual stop bars on a ground traffic radar display and appropriate alerting services for stop bar and separation violations. Rotterdam Airport (EHRD) was chosen as the geographic location as it was considered to have an ideal layout for evaluating all operational challenges when using the new tools. Above that the Rotterdam set-up was already successfully used for controller training.



Two teams of controllers (from Rotterdam and Stockholm) took part in the evaluation sessions that assessed operational procedures and, in a later stage, traffic throughput together with automation trust, impact on mental workload, situational awareness, and general system usability. Results will be reported to Eurocontrol in a final report at the end of this year. It is expected that Eurocontrol will publish that report in early 2009.

EMMA2 Airport Simulations (Milan)

In July 2008 real-time simulations for a safety assessment of the Milan Malpensa tower controller working environment were carried out with the NARSIM-Tower validation platform at NLR Amsterdam as part of the EMMA project.

The objective of the simulations was to obtain results that support a safety assessment of the Italian prototype A-SMGCS components developed within the project timeframe.



The following analysis methods were applied during the experiments:
- Observation and Improved Operational Expert Elicitation
- Insertion of Hazards in the Simulations
- Measurement of Parameters for Risk Uncertainty Reduction

Results of the real-time experiments will become available as part of the EMMA2 Validation Analysis Report at the beginning of 2009.

Skybrary

During this year's ATC Global exhibition Eurocontrol presented a new website called Skybrary. This website is an initiative of Eurocontrol, ICAO and the Flight Safety Foundation. It is supposed to become the most important point of reference when it comes to aviation safety knowledge.



Skybrary is set up as a wiki site allowing registered users to contribute to its contents. Apart from being a library of safety related terms the website currently provides three portals addressing different safety aspects. These portals try to categorise information for different purposes and different audiences. The main portal looks at operational issues and is a good reference for research in the aviation safety field in general. Two other portals focus on enhancing safety (e.g. through safety management and technology) and safety regulation.

While much of the information presented on the Skybrary website might already be available on the net, it is hoped that this effort will help in consolidating the knowledge under a single roof. From the point of view of R&D this is certainly met with approval and in the long run research results, especially in the category of operations and safety enhancing technology and methodologies, should find their way into this base of information.

ATC Global

This year the major European event in air traffic control known as ATC Maastricht moved to Amsterdam's RAI and consequently changed its name to ATC Global. With the exhibition area being almost twice as large as the one in Maastricht's MECC also the number of visitors seemed to have increased.

Some of the stands were quite impressive regarding the effort spent to give demonstrations of the latest developments in ATM technology. However, from a research point of view not much innovative tools and facilities were shown. Of course, there were highlights again from companies like Saab, AviBit , SELEX or Frequentis. They showed quite interesting tower control tools, such as Electronic Flight Strips (EFS) and Departure Managers (DMAN). Innovative developments, however, such as route planning and conformance monitoring were mostly not on public display yet, as some of these tools are either still in stages of development or not mature enough to be sold. And selling still is one of the major drivers of this exhibition.

AT-One presented themselves as one of the leading research alliances in Europe and caught much attention with their hourly demonstration of ASAS flights. These flights were carried out by two flight simulators, one from NLR and one from DLR, approaching Prague airport. Another great feature of the AT-One stand was the flexible NARSIM-Tower simulator which was displayed in a small, moveable version, however, with all the functionality of its larger brother at the NLR premises.

Although I might have missed some of the items at display in Amsterdam this year, as time was limited, there was a demonstration at the Eurocontrol stand that caught my attention: Skybrary. I will dedicate another post to this new aviation safety wiki site soon.

Requirements Engineering

Just at the start of the new year NLR finished a study for Eurocontrol investigating the role of requirements within the different life cycle phases of ATM operational concept validation as described by the European Operational Concept Validation Methodology (E-OCVM).

A survey of relevant standards (IEEE, ESA-ECSS, EUROCAE) and terminology related to operational concept validation and requirements engineering was performed. This survey resulted in a strategy for the development of requirements along the E-OCVM life cycle composed of three major processes called requirements elicitation or capture process, requirements analysis or specification process, and requirements management process.

The study describes the requirements strategy in detail and refers to the relevant standards that can be used as guidelines for the processes. An analysis of actors and their roles within the validation process emphasised the role of a central manager overseeing the development processes that lead to a gradual refinement of the requirements. Finally, the study analysed three European R&D projects regarding their requirements engineering processes and compared their approaches with the suggested strategy.

Thus, if you have lost your way in the underbrush of ATM standards and requirements documents, this study might be interesting reading material.

The report was published as NLR report CR-2007-702 and is publicly available.

What is the E-OCVM?

E-OCVM stands for the European Operational Concept Validation Methodology and is a framework that has been developed in 2004 by Eurocontrol in collaboration with several R&D partners including the ATM & Airports Department of NLR. Generally, the E-OCVM is based on the methodological approach described by the Master European Validation Plan (MAEVA) project in its Validation Guideline Handbook (VGH).

The MAEVA VGH suggests a five-step approach to validation that was originally defined in the Eurocontrol Development of EATCHIP/EATMP Validation Methodologies (DEVAM) project. As refined and expanded, these five steps form the core of the VGH. In order to address each of the steps at the appropriate level and for the appropriate audience, the VGH contains three parts, each describing the steps at different levels of detail. Despite the general acceptance of the VGH within the ATM community, several adaptations of the framework were proposed within European R&D initiatives (especially the Gate-to-Gate and C‑ATM projects) concentrating on the initial approach to validation activities and the related life cycle of the concept or technology to be validated.

Eurocontrol together with the Co-operative Approach to Air Traffic Services (CAATS) project team (responsible for co-ordinating validation approaches within the current European Commission Framework Programme) consolidated all change proposals in the first edition of the E-OCVM, which has become the mandatory methodological framework for concept validation within the European ATM community.

The E-OCVM addresses validation at the highest two levels of the MAEVA stepped approach, and additionally introduces a concept life cycle model as well as a so-called case-based approach. The latter integrates validation exercise results into key cases that directly address stakeholder issues about ATM performance and behaviours. More information can be found at the Eurocontrol Validation Forum website.

Barcelona

The inspiring city of Gaudi: a vibrant, self-centred metropolis right on the Mediterranean Sea. This week the European-US ATM R&D conference was held in the direct neighbourhood of las Ramblas, Barcelona's amusement strip crowded day and night with its endless streams of tourists.

The conference featured many interesting ATM research results. These came from the areas of Innovative Research, Performance Management, Safety, Airport Management, Airspace Management, Human Factors, Environment, Air-Ground Integration, Network Management, and the new category of Finance and Deployment.

In the concluding session it was noted that much of what was presented concerned research on already existing concepts and technologies, which could be a sign of rather market-driven R&D. Nevertheless, about a third of the papers looked at innovative ideas generated on the basis of the needs of SESAR and NextGen, the European-US future air transportation system initiatives calling for major changes in the current ATM system to cope with future demand.

Plenary discussions following the concluding remarks of Eurocontrol and the FAA discussed the reasons for the current focus of ATM research on more market-driven topics and whether a more integrated approach between the US and Europe was possible despite the somewhat different kind of innovation needs in both regions of the world. Certainly, knowledge and awareness of what has been done in recent years on both sides of the Atlantic was considered desirable. The conference helped to promote the issue, however, this was not really reflected in the papers. Therefore, future research activities should also highlight common achievements, also for the sake of harmonising the approaches for solving the imminent problems in air traffic congestion in both systems.

The paper on Resolution Advisory Downlink that was written by Stan Drozdowski and Doris Dehn from Eurocontrol together with Bernd Lorenz and myself won the best paper award in the ATM safety conference track. The best conference paper award was attributed to a paper on an analysis method for new ATM concepts being applied to a multi-sector planner in US airspace. It was written by Kevin Corker, Paul Lee, and Tom Prevot from San Jose State University together with Diana Liang from the FAA.

What is A-SMGCS?

A-SMGCS stands for Advanced Surface Movement Guidance and Control Systems and is a modular system with the aim to maintain the declared surface movement rate at an airport under all weather conditions within the aerodrome visibility operational level while maintaining the required level of safety.

Eurocontrol defined four different implementation levels (I to IV) for such a system and separated system functionality into the four categories surveillance, control, routing, and guidance. Implementation is expected to follow a stepwise approach addressing each of these categories in more or less the order above.

Currently the European Commission funded projects EMMA and EMMA2 look into the details of possible implementations at three different airports for A-SMGCS levels I/II and III/IV respectively. The airports involved are Prague, Milan-Malpensa, and Toulouse. Additionally, there are surveillance measurement campaigns at Paris Charles-de-Gaulle Airport.

NLR is part of both projects and also carries out additional work for Eurocontrol investigating advanced procedures for the use of A-SMGCS Level I (airport surveillance enhanced by multilateration) during low visibility conditions.

Do you believe in wake vortices?

The first project that caught my attention this year is called CREDOS: Crosswind-reduced Separations for Departure Operations. CREDOS is part of the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Commission and aims at increasing airport capacity by reducing current separation minima while maintaining safety levels.

ICAO separation standards for landing and take-off were implemented in the 1970s to protect an aircraft from the wake turbulence of a preceding aircraft. In recent years, research has shown that the transport and persistence of wake vortices are highly dependent on meteorological conditions, so that in many cases the standards are over-conservative. By developing a full understanding of wake vortex behaviour in all weather categories separations could be reduced under certain suitable conditions. CREDOS will focus on crosswind conditions during departure operations and will study the feasibility of the approach to reduce departure separations.

The results of measurement campaigns at Frankfurt (EDDF) and St. Louis (KSTL) airport will be used for developing models of wake vortex behaviour. Risk assessment will determine both likelihood and severity of hazards in order to determine safe separations under various crosswind conditions. Building on this work an operational concept for crosswind departures will be developed and validated.

Eurocontrol is the project leader of a consortium of eleven research partners. NLR is part of the project team and will be involved in all research activities. Obviously, validation of the operational concept will be one of the major items for our ATM & Airports team and will result in human-in-the-loop real-time simulations. In these simulations an assessment of the HMI, controller working procedures and the controller workload will be made.

Pedestrians Xing

Globalisation and marketing often lead to changes in names, flavours and philosophies, and this is not only true for candy bars. What I am referring to is the change from OpenBC to XING, one of the leading business networking communities on the web. Fotunately, in this case, changes were both subtle and for the better. Furthermore, I was surprised that it was even much easier to find old class mates, which is possibly due to the fact that XING originated in Germany and is very popular among the German business community. Becoming a member is easy and as long as you do not require the top-most level of search functionality it is also for free. Before I start making too much noise for something that I do not earn a single Euro with (although XING is out on the stock market) I better leave it at this.

Shortcut

When I started my work in the fields of air traffic management and safety several years ago, one of the most intriguing facts was that this area of research had come up with a language of its own.

Welcome to the world of ATM abbreviations!

At that time it took me a while to find a conclusive list of acronyms and abbreviations somewhere on the internet. When I finally found something it wasn't really an exhaustive list and it didn't include many of the acronyms I heard around me. So, eventually I decided to make a list of my own, adding to it whatever I could find in the research papers piling up on my desk (including the standard office culture abbreviations such as KISS, SMART, TBD, and NA).

Apart from a link to the ATM abbreviations list, which sometimes includes links to related webpages, I'll also add some links to important glossary documents in the permanent link section of this weblog. Furthermore, I'll add a link to a webpage with ATM-related links that I maintain and that is also worth having a look at.

Well, TTYL...

Still more networking...

Found another networking community recently:

• LinkedIn

This site looks a bit more playful. Yet, it works quite well and I actually know several people who are already members of that community.

Again I added my own profile to see how it works:

• My profile on LinkedIn

Let's see if I can build up a professional network from here...
I honestly hope that the next post on this blog will be more interesting.

Networking

Found two great networking community sites this week:

• OpenBC for general business contacts and
• Academici for more knowledge and research related topics

I think these sites offer two basic advantages, namely creating a network of contacts (due to easy search capabilities) and publishing personal profiles for both business and academic purposes.

I added my own profiles to see how it works and it doesn't look so bad:

• My profile on OpenBC
• My profile on Academici

Hope this gets me started in that blogging world.

I'll add some more business related posts soon...