Spacing Instructions in Approach: Assessing Usability from the Air Traffic Controller Perspective

The key innovation in this effort is the development of a simulation testbed for airborne merging and spacing (AM&S). We focus on concepts related to airports with Super Dense Operations where new airport runway configurations (e.g. parallel runways), sequencing, merging, and spacing are some of the concepts considered. We focus on modeling and simulating a complementary airborne and ground system for AM&S to increase efficiency and capacity of these high density terminal areas. From a ground systems perspective, a scheduling decision support tool generates arrival sequences and spacing requirements that are fed to the AM&S system operating on the flight deck. We enhanced NASA's Airspace Concept Evaluation Systems (ACES) software to model and simulate AM&S concepts and algorithms. Nomenclature

show abstract

“…Similar studies have also been undertaken from the controller perspective 18,19,20 . Interestingly, the controllers studied in Ref.…”

Section: 1617mentioning

confidence: 79%

A Simulation Testbed for Airborne Merging and Spacing

Santos

Manikonda

Feinberg

et al. 2008

AIAA Modeling and Simulation Technologies Conference and Exhibit

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…High-fidelity simulations 11,12 and a flight test 13 verified that this new operation could achieve the desired precision and accuracy without any negative impact on crew workload. Studies on a similar concept by Eurocontrol 14,15 have shown a decrease in controller workload and reduced radio communications. Following the success of the ATAAS flight test, it was decided to extend the capabilities to include merging traffic streams.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of Airborne Precision Spacing in a Human-in-the-Loop Experiment

Barmore

Abbott

Capron

2005

AIAA 5th ATIO And16th Lighter-Than-Air Sys Tech. And Balloon Systems Conferences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A significant bottleneck in the current air traffic system occurs at the runway. Expanding airports and adding new runways will help solve this problem; however, this comes with significant costs: financially, politically and environmentally. A complementary solution is to safely increase the capacity of current runways. This can be achieved by precisely spacing aircraft at the runway threshold, with a resulting reduction in the spacing buffer required under today's operations. At NASA's Langley Research Center, the Airspace Systems program has been investigating airborne technologies and procedures that will assist the flight crew in achieving precise spacing behind another aircraft. A new spacing clearance allows the pilot to follow speed cues from a new on-board guidance system called Airborne Merging and Spacing for Terminal Arrivals (AMSTAR). AMSTAR receives Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) reports from an assigned, leading aircraft and calculates the appropriate speed for the ownship to fly to achieve the desired spacing interval, time-or distance-based, at the runway threshold. Since the goal is overall system capacity, the speed guidance algorithm is designed to provide system-wide benefits and stability to a string of arriving aircraft.An experiment was recently performed at the NASA Langley Air Traffic Operations Laboratory (ATOL) to test the flexibility of Airborne Precision Spacing operations under a variety of operational conditions. These included several types of merge and approach geometries along with the complementary merging and in-trail operations. Twelve airline pilots and four controllers participated in this simulation. Performance and questionnaire data were collected from a total of eighty-four individual arrivals. The pilots were able to achieve precise spacing with a mean error of 0.5 seconds and a standard deviation of 4.7 seconds. No statistically significant differences in spacing performance were found between in-trail and merging operations or among the three modeled airspaces. Questionnaire data showed general acceptance for both pilots and controllers. These results reinforce previous findings from full-mission simulation and flight evaluation of the in-trail operations. This paper reviews the results of this simulation in detail.

show abstract

“…Research on airborne merging and spacing has shown feasibility in arrival problems and indicated potential benefits in reducing the spacing variability on final approach 16,17,18 . Requirements for airborne spacing are currently determined by the Requirements Focus Group.…”

Section: American Institute Of Aeronautics and Astronauticsmentioning

confidence: 99%