Autonomous Operations Planner: A Flexible Platform for Research in Flight-Deck Support for Airborne Self-Separation

Karr, David A.; Vivona, Robert A.; Roscoe, David A.; DePascale, Stephen M.; Wing, David J.

doi:10.2514/6.2012-5417

Cited by 26 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…These applications came from existing and proposed FAA development programs, from the final report of the ADS-B IN Aviation Rulemaking Committee, 5 from NASA's research on advanced air traffic services, Air Traffic Management (ATM), and separation technology concepts, 6,7,8 and subsequent determination of "function allocation" alternatives which led to identification of logical combinations and extensions of these concepts. Each concept and application was vetted for its positive attributes -efficiency, flexibility, and return-on-investment, and its potential negative aspects of cost and difficulty in achieving implementation.…”

Section: Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Vision and Roadmap for Increasing User Autonomy in Flight Operations in the National Airspace

Cotton

Hilb

Koczo

et al. 2016

16th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference

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The purpose of Air Transportation is to move people and cargo safely, efficiently and swiftly to their destinations. The companies and individuals who use aircraft for this purpose, the airspace users, desire to operate their aircraft according to a dynamically optimized business trajectory for their specific mission and operational business model. In current operations, the dynamic optimization of business trajectories is limited by constraints built into operations in the National Airspace System (NAS) for reasons of safety and operational needs of the air navigation service providers. NASA has been developing and testing means to overcome many of these constraints and permit operations to be conducted closer to the airspace user's changing business trajectory as conditions unfold before and during the flight. A roadmap of logical steps progressing toward increased user autonomy is proposed, beginning with NASA's Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests (TASAR) concept that enables flight crews to make informed, deconflicted flight-optimization requests to air traffic control. These steps include the use of data communications for route change requests and approvals, integration with time-based arrival flow management processes under development by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), increased user authority for defining and modifying downstream, strategic portions of the trajectory, and ultimately application of self-separation. This progression takes advantage of existing FAA NextGen programs and RTCA standards development, and it is designed to minimize the number of hardware upgrades required of airspace users to take advantage of these advanced capabilities to achieve dynamically optimized business trajectories in NAS operations. The roadmap is designed to provide operational benefits to first adopters so that investment decisions do not depend upon a large segment of the user community becoming equipped before benefits can be realized. The issues of equipment certification and operational approval of new procedures are addressed in a way that minimizes their impact on the transition by deferring a change in the assignment of separation responsibility until a large body of operational data is available to support the safety case for this change in the last roadmap step. This paper will relate the roadmap steps to ongoing activities to clarify the economics-based transition to these technologies for operational use.sers of the National Airspace System (NAS) -airlines, general aviation, unmanned vehicles, and military -all have specific objectives for their respective operations that vary widely in purpose, but each benefits from the degree of operational autonomy they are permitted in the performance of their individual missions. In order to provide safety in these flight operations, extensive and restrictive rules and procedures have emerged over many decades that limit or constrain the operations to the degree required by human and other limitations in the systems that have safety responsibility. T...

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Section: Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Vision and Roadmap for Increasing User Autonomy in Flight Operations in the National Airspace

Cotton

Hilb

Koczo

et al. 2016

16th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Its central architecture, algorithms, and performance are derived from NASA's Autonomous Operations Planner (AOP), an airborne trajectory management decision-support tool developed for research into advanced concepts of airborne operational autonomy and self-separation. 7 Whereas AOP's primary function is to detect ,18 and resolve 19 conflicts in a fuel-efficient manner, TAP Engine's main functionality is to continuously probe for candidate route changes (including altitude changes) that optimize fuel burn, flight time, or trip cost (combining trip fuel and time according to a given Cost Index) across the entire route while avoiding the creation of conflicts with traffic, weather, and SUA. Although TAP is an optimization tool and not a self-separation tool, it is embedded with the deep heritage of AOP's extensively tested self-separation and four-dimensional, airborne-trajectory-management capabilities.…”

Section: Tap Enginementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Extensively tested and refined for over a decade, AOP generates timely, conflict-free, routechange solutions enabling an aircraft to manage its trajectory autonomously in complex, high-density en-route airspace. 7 Additional components of TAP were specifically developed under the TASAR research initiative,…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Traffic Aware Planner for Cockpit-based Trajectory Optimization

Woods

Vivona²,

Henderson

et al. 2016

16th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference

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The Traffic Aware Planner (TAP) software application is a cockpit-based advisory tool designed to be hosted on an Electronic Flight Bag and to enable and test the NASA concept of Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests (TASAR). The TASAR concept provides pilots with optimized route changes (including altitude) that reduce fuel burn and/or flight time, avoid interactions with known traffic, weather and restricted airspace, and may be used by the pilots to request a route and/or altitude change from Air Traffic Control. Developed using an iterative process, TAP's latest improvements include human-machine interface design upgrades and added functionality based on the results of human-in-the-loop simulation experiments and flight trials. Architectural improvements have been implemented to prepare the system for operational-use trials with partner commercial airlines. Future iterations will enhance coordination with airline dispatch and add functionality to improve the acceptability of TAP-generated route-change requests to pilots, dispatchers, and air traffic controllers.

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“…4,8 Developed for NASA by Engility Corporation, TAP was designed to run on a commercial-off-the-shelf Class 2 EFB platform. TAP's flight optimization and traffic conflict management algorithms were originally developed by Engility for advanced selfAmerican Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics separation research, 7 and these high-performance algorithms have been extensively tested and matured for over a decade. TAP's "Auto Mode" periodically scans for time-and/or fuelsaving trajectory changes of three types: lateral-only, altitudeonly, and combination lateral/altitude changes.…”

Section: E Software Application Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Achieving TASAR Operational Readiness

Wing

2015

15th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference

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NASA has been developing and testing the Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests (TASAR) concept for aircraft operations featuring a NASA-developed cockpit automation tool, the Traffic Aware Planner (TAP), which computes traffic/hazard-compatible route changes to improve flight efficiency. The TAP technology is anticipated to save fuel and flight time and thereby provide immediate and pervasive benefits to the aircraft operator, as well as improving flight schedule compliance, passenger comfort, and pilot and controller workload. Previous work has indicated the potential for significant benefits for TASAR-equipped aircraft, and a flight trial of the TAP software application in the National Airspace System has demonstrated its technical viability. This paper reviews previous and ongoing activities to prepare TASAR for operational use.

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Autonomous Operations Planner: A Flexible Platform for Research in Flight-Deck Support for Airborne Self-Separation

Cited by 26 publications

References 15 publications

A Vision and Roadmap for Increasing User Autonomy in Flight Operations in the National Airspace

A Vision and Roadmap for Increasing User Autonomy in Flight Operations in the National Airspace

Traffic Aware Planner for Cockpit-based Trajectory Optimization

Achieving TASAR Operational Readiness

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