Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HYPERSOLVER (Artificial Intelligence controller able to manage Air traffic Control (ATC) and Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) within a single framework)
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-06-01 bis 2024-05-31
Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) is the problem of adjusting the traffic demand in each traffic volume using ATFM measures so that aircraft can be safely separated during the subsequent Air Traffic Control (ATC) process. On the other hand, ATC officers (ATCOs) give different aircraft heading, speed, and flight level change instructions to separate them in flight. Both ATFM and ATC problems have been subject of research during decades, however, all previous works addressed the ATFM and ATC problems independently. The project aims to develop an HyperSolver based on advanced Artificial Intelligent Reinforcement Learning method with continuous reassessment and dynamic updates, i.e. an holistic solver from end-to-end, covering the whole process to manage, density of aircraft, complexity of trajectories, interactions (potential conflict in Dynamic Capacity Balancing timeframe) of trajectories, conflict of trajectories at medium- term and conflict of trajectories at short-term.
The main achievements are:
- Description of the HYPERSOLVER concept: Production of the Concept Outline document.
- Development of a simulator prototype.
- Collection of airspace structure data.
- Description of the HYPERSOLVER concept: Production of the Concept Outline document.
- Development of a simulator prototype.
- Collection of airspace structure data.
The impact of HYPERSOLVER solution is potentially very important as it would completely change the way ATC and ATFM is performed.
Further research can be envisaged for example to explore new regulation measures taking advantage of HYPERSOLVER. The ENGAGE project HYPERSTREAM has been submitted to combine the results of a previous ENGAGE research project leaded by NMS with HYPERSOLVER solution. The Flight Centric ATC with Airstreams (FC2A) project has contributed to delineate the approach of flow corridors for the management of traffic in highly dense airspace over Europe. The approach of FC2A is complementary to HYPERSOLVER.
The HYPERSOLVER platform is also proposed in the AMELIA project ("Advanced methods to accelerate climate aviation neutrality"). This project has been submitted in the call HORIZON-CL5-2024-D5-01, topic 7.
Other areas of research include:
- the assessment of the impact of HYPERSOLVER concept on the organisation of the air navigation services (acceptability by the controllers, identification of new needs e.g. training etc.)
- the assessment of safety risks and benefits with HYPERSOLVER
- a Cost Benefit Analysis of HYPERSOLVER solution
Further research can be envisaged for example to explore new regulation measures taking advantage of HYPERSOLVER. The ENGAGE project HYPERSTREAM has been submitted to combine the results of a previous ENGAGE research project leaded by NMS with HYPERSOLVER solution. The Flight Centric ATC with Airstreams (FC2A) project has contributed to delineate the approach of flow corridors for the management of traffic in highly dense airspace over Europe. The approach of FC2A is complementary to HYPERSOLVER.
The HYPERSOLVER platform is also proposed in the AMELIA project ("Advanced methods to accelerate climate aviation neutrality"). This project has been submitted in the call HORIZON-CL5-2024-D5-01, topic 7.
Other areas of research include:
- the assessment of the impact of HYPERSOLVER concept on the organisation of the air navigation services (acceptability by the controllers, identification of new needs e.g. training etc.)
- the assessment of safety risks and benefits with HYPERSOLVER
- a Cost Benefit Analysis of HYPERSOLVER solution