Automation and CWP
Proposals submitted for this topic should clearly describe an automation application concept for the en-route or TMA air traffic control position and describe what the expected benefits are and how they will undertake its initial validation. Please note that applications for the automation of air traffic management tasks other than the air traffic control position (e.g. Flow Management Position, improvement of traffic prediction algorithms for flow management purposes) are out of the scope of this topic. Applications for the air traffic control positions used to improve controller training are in scope.
The following non-exhaustive list of potential candidate application areas has been identified as being of interest by the SESAR Joint Undertaking:
Application area 1: Advanced automation support for en-route and TMA
Advanced automation support currently under development in the Wave 1 SESAR industrial research programme include use of multi-touch inputs, use of speech recognition to reduce the amount of typing for entries into the ground system required from controllers, attention control elements to measuring the level of attention (e.g. by measuring eye movement) and use of User Profile Management Systems (UPMS) for controller identification that use iris, speech recognition, finger print authentication or face recognition. Results of this research are expected to become publicly available at the end of 2019, and more research is planned for the Wave 2 IR programme (candidate SESAR solution 96). Proposals for work in this topic must demonstrate how they go beyond the scope of the work planned for Wave 2 IR. Examples of potential areas for exploratory research are: exploration of the use of machine learning to model and be able to anticipate controller behaviour and pre-fill entries into the ground system or CPDLC messages, advanced context-sensitive information presentation concepts, use of 3D representations, etc.
Application area 2: On-screen presentation of MET data to ATCOs
Combining ground-based meteorological radar information with data downlinked from aircraft’s on-board weather radar can provide high-quality weather information with granularity in both the vertical and the horizontal domain. This information would be very useful for controllers, because it would make it possible to anticipate how aircraft are likely to be requesting deviation from their horizontal or vertical route to avoid areas of weather activity. However, the on-screen presentation to controllers of detailed weather information is challenging, due to the need to avoid screen clutter and information overload on screen. The research may explore information presentation concepts, which may be context dependent, e.g. present only information relevant to the traffic that the controller is handling, or even present only an indication of which aircraft are likely to deviate and offer alternative courses to controllers, e.g. for vectoring arrivals and departures around weather activity in the TMA. Research in this area must be focused on the definition of the operational application; it should define the high-level requirements of the meteorological prediction process needed to support it. Bids on this topic proposing to work focused on improvement of the meteorological prediction processes rather than on its operational application are out of scope.
Application area 3: Applications of physiological measurements
Previous SESAR exploratory research work (projects STRESS, NINA, 6th SENSE, MINIMA) has shown that there is a potential for applying physiological measurements to air traffic control, e.g. measuring of brain waves to assess the level of attention, use of speech recognition combined with physiological measurements to monitor stress, correlation of eye-movement patterns with the occurrence of events that are potentially safety relevant. Please note that this is an applications-oriented topic, and consequently bids must propose a specific application. Bids may build on previous SESAR exploratory research or propose entirely new applications. All bids, whether proposing applications new to SESAR or building on previous SESAR research, must provide adequate background information in their proposal.
Application area 4: Automated ATC in low-density en-route airspace
Previous research shows the potential of using supervised learning to model some of the functions of an air traffic controller and can be used for training and task analysis purposes. IR solution PJ.16-04 is also developing ATCO task modelling in support of advanced HMI applications for ATC, and their results are expected to become publicly available at the end of 2019. This application area should explore if it is possible to build on this idea and develop and perform preliminary validations (TRL0 to TRL1) of a concept to automate ATC for high-level en-route sectors.
This concept may foresee that controllers have to intervene in certain situations, e.g. when two aircraft are anticipated to get closer than a pre-defined distance or below a certain flight level, but controllers can’t be expected to be able to be able to safety intervene if requests to intervene are for last-minute critical situations that can’t be handled by the automatic system. The role of the human would need to be carefully assessed in order to ensure that it is fully consistent with human capabilities. In particular, it is expected that in this application the controller should not be required to monitor the automated system, because this may create a safety issue; instead, the monitoring task must also be automated. Adaptable and adaptive automation concepts may be useful in support of optimised human performance and safety. Additionally, high automation may lead to the potential risk associated to monotony and boredom, and the concept should foresee measures to address this risk.
The research must address fallback solutions in case of failure in the fully automated system.
The concept would need to take into consideration the take-over procedure by the ATCO (automatic ATC-to-human ATC transfer process). ATC system–pilot communications may need to be adapted for this application, e.g. it might be necessary to notify pilots that the flight is being handled under automatic ATC, and a special call mechanism to require human controller intervention might be needed. The role that voice communications should play must be established (i.e. should the automatic ATC always send clearances via datalink, or would it be appropriate that some clearances be sent using synthetic voice?).
It is anticipated that voice communications check-in would still be necessary for all flights to ensure that they are immediately contactable via R/T at all times. The concept should determine whether the check-in on R/T would need to be handled by a human controller or it could also be handled by the automatic system. The concept may consider current datalink performance and messages or define more advanced datalink requirements.
It is expected that the R&D and eventual implementation of such an application may not have significant benefits in itself, but would provide invaluable operational experience in support of future more ambitious developments in ATC automation. Proposals should plan effort to analyse whether It may be possible to realise benefits in the short to medium term from this research though related concepts, e.g. though applications in ATCO training.
Application area 5: Clear air turbulence data consideration
According to IATA, turbulence is the leading cause of injuries to airline passengers and crews globally. Flight crews routinely report clear air turbulence to controllers, who, workload permitting, relay turbulence reports with aircraft that will be overflying the same area. However, controller workload may not always allow for controllers to properly relay this information. In order to overcome this limitation, the IATA turbulence Aware Platform allows this information to be automatically shared between pilots and AOCs. However, this initiative does not include the sharing of information with ATC, while turbulence information is also relevant for controllers, e.g. because it can support proactive management of level change requests or raise awareness of potential speed changes. An application could be developed to either connect ATC to an ongoing sharing initiative or to develop a complementary system for sharing turbulence reports between aircraft and ATC. The research must consider how controllers would be presented the information and how they would use it. New system support concepts may be proposed to assist controllers in effectively taking into consideration clear air turbulence information. The output of this project should be the definition of a concept for inclusion in the ATM Master Plan, with one or more operational improvements and enablers.
Application area 6: Standardization of ATCO procedures and more generic en-route controller validations
The amount of training required for en-route controllers to get endorsed in a sector is a limiting factor for controller mobility; in addition, the number of hours that are required to stay current in a sector limits the number of sectors that they can be endorsed for, which makes the controllers’ work more tedious (always working on the same sectors, same callsigns, etc.), and also makes efficient rostering harder for the ANSP. Applications to provide on-the-job support to controllers on local knowledge may alleviate this situation and support the controllers in accepting delegation of airspace as outlined in the Airspace Architecture Study (Airspace Architecture Study (AAS) (virtual centre / delegation of airspace / capacity on demand). Some basic applications are already locally implemented today, e.g. applications that check transfer conditions against LOAs or provide on-demand AIP information on the screen. However, the local knowledge required to control a sector includes a lot more than remembering AIP information. In particular, the exploratory research challenge is to provide difficult to define information items, e.g. information that would make a controller recognize a situation as unusual even though it is not against the established procedures, like unusual incoming or outgoing transfer condition, unusual vertical profile, etc. This type of information is an important part of what controllers learn during sector-specific on-the-job training and it may evolve with time. Bids may propose applications to capture this type of soft sector-specific rules and display it to controllers when it is relevant, e.g. using machine learning for detection of unusual situations that a controller who is inexperienced in a sector should be warned about, analysis of recordings of training sessions where veteran controllers are taught how to work in a new sector (i.e. they are learning the sector rather basic air traffic control skills), etc. Special care to avoid information overload must be taken.
Please note that applications outside these areas may also be proposed provided adequate justification and background is provided in the proposal.
Increasing the level of automation in air traffic control is a key enabler for the realization of the Master Plan vision. This topic explores automation applications for air traffic control beyond what is currently covered by the Industrial Research programme.
The exploratory research challenge is to bring new automation applications for air traffic control towards the maturity level required for their inclusion in the industrial research programme. Bids should describe their proposed application and outline a plan for the project to undertake its initial validation, with the objective of at the end of the research activities being able to make a recommendation to either propose its inclusion in the European ATM Master Plan or discard it.
Increasing the level of automation in en-route and TMA ATC is a key aspect for the realisation of the digital aviation vision put forward in the European ATM Master Plan. Its expected performance benefits are increased controller productivity and increased safety.