Periodic Reporting for period 3 - PJ03a SUMO (Integrated Surface Management)
Reporting period: 2019-01-01 to 2019-12-31
The Project PJ03a SUMO – SUrface Management Operations – is allocated to the Industrial Research & Validation phase, developed under the SJU Private Public Partnership, and will contribute to the key feature High Performing Airport Operations. To this end, the PJ03a has received funding from the SESAR Joint Undertaking under Grant Agreement No 734153 in the context of European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The main objective of PJ03a is to investigate how airport resources allocation could be optimized to ensure smoother and more predictable airport operations in all weather conditions. Sharing of same and more accurate information among all relevant stakeholders will improve the efficiency of surface operations with a direct impact on environmental sustainability. Improve accessibility for airports operating in low visibility conditions by enabling flight crews with an enhanced vision aid to perform approach, landing and taxi operations with an increased safety level. The increased capacity of secondary airports in low visibility conditions has the potential to improve the attractiveness of a region for doing business, creating jobs, especially in remote areas. Airport resources allocation should take into account also the future integration of RPAS in the surface operations. Benefits associated to the possible utilizations of RPAS (as missions related to Civil Protection, Security, Environment Protection and Preservation) were identified during the EC Panel Workshops and represent important cornerstone for their acceptance by the European citizens.
WP01 – Project Management
Coordination and management of the project, monitoring of the progress against objectives, refinement/update of planning and, in coordination with the SESAR 2020 programme, accomplishment with the administrative stuff as required by the grant agreement.
A Project dissemination event was organised.
WP02 – Enhanced Guidance Assistance to Aircraft on the Airport Surface Combined with Routing
Solution PJ03a-01 had a wide scope; it was designed to address several Operational Improvement (OI) steps and Enablers, targeting different stakeholders in a relatively large and diverse set of sub-operating environments. Main results can be summarised as follows:
• the (sub)concepts/tools investigated in the solution are viable at large airports with high traffic in all weather conditions;
• the operational procedures defined for managing airport surface traffic on the movement areas are safe and useable;
• taxiway throughput is maintained safe and efficient in low visibility conditions, thus minimising the reduction of Capacity. In other words, the airport is more resilient in terms of “Loss of Airport Capacity Avoided” thanks to an improved situational awareness for all concerned stakeholders, namely controllers, pilots and vehicle drivers;
• reduction of taxi times and their variability were generally experienced, especially for departure operations, implying a saving of fuel efficiency and also a better predictability of surface operations.
However, the assessment performed at the maturity gate had not confirmed the achievement of the V2 maturity level as expected.
WP03 – Enhanced navigation and accuracy in low visibility conditions (LVC) on the airport surface
Solution PJ03a-03 was focused on development and testing of algorithms or systems for aircraft on-board position estimation addressing stringent requirements for airport surface operations. The main activities were focused on requirements derivation and on validation of on-board position estimation algorithms and systems in two exercises, real taxi tests and Monte Carlo simulations.
Results show that current GNSS systems are capable of providing sufficient performance under nominal condition, but performance is degraded especially in multipath conditions and requirements are not met. Degradation is suppressed by combination of information from other on-board sensors and the quantitative assessment of improvement is the main contribution of the solution. The suppression is achieved thanks to usage of new aiding sources (sensors) inside the GNSS/INS tightly coupled hybrid algorithms, including odometers and cameras.
Work Package 4 – Enhanced Visual Operations
Solution PJ03a-04 “enhanced visual operations” addressed the development and validation of the new vision based systems to increase accessibility and improve taxi at any airports in low visibility conditions and without additional ground infrastructure requirements. The outcomes of the PJ03a-04 validation exercises have confirmed the V3 maturity level of HMD technology for both taxi and EFVS 100ft landing operations.
The validation exercise for approach operations with active sensor could not confirm V3 maturity level, as expected during project time being due to lower maturity of the sensor. Nevertheless, partial objective for active sensor performances has been validated.
WP05 – Surface operations by RPAS
Solution PJ03a-09 investigated the ways in which RPAS may be able to use technical capability and procedural means to comply with ATC instructions in order to be integrated in surface operations with other manned traffic. It was designed to address the OI step AUO-0617 through two validation cycles (V1 and V2), targeting different stakeholders in a relatively small and very small airport environments. Results confirmed the Feasibility of the concept.
Coordination and management of the project, monitoring of the progress against objectives, refinement/update of planning and, in coordination with the SESAR 2020 programme, accomplishment with the administrative stuff as required by the grant agreement.
A Project dissemination event was organised.
WP02 – Enhanced Guidance Assistance to Aircraft on the Airport Surface Combined with Routing
Solution PJ03a-01 had a wide scope; it was designed to address several Operational Improvement (OI) steps and Enablers, targeting different stakeholders in a relatively large and diverse set of sub-operating environments. Main results can be summarised as follows:
• the (sub)concepts/tools investigated in the solution are viable at large airports with high traffic in all weather conditions;
• the operational procedures defined for managing airport surface traffic on the movement areas are safe and useable;
• taxiway throughput is maintained safe and efficient in low visibility conditions, thus minimising the reduction of Capacity. In other words, the airport is more resilient in terms of “Loss of Airport Capacity Avoided” thanks to an improved situational awareness for all concerned stakeholders, namely controllers, pilots and vehicle drivers;
• reduction of taxi times and their variability were generally experienced, especially for departure operations, implying a saving of fuel efficiency and also a better predictability of surface operations.
However, the assessment performed at the maturity gate had not confirmed the achievement of the V2 maturity level as expected.
WP03 – Enhanced navigation and accuracy in low visibility conditions (LVC) on the airport surface
Solution PJ03a-03 was focused on development and testing of algorithms or systems for aircraft on-board position estimation addressing stringent requirements for airport surface operations. The main activities were focused on requirements derivation and on validation of on-board position estimation algorithms and systems in two exercises, real taxi tests and Monte Carlo simulations.
Results show that current GNSS systems are capable of providing sufficient performance under nominal condition, but performance is degraded especially in multipath conditions and requirements are not met. Degradation is suppressed by combination of information from other on-board sensors and the quantitative assessment of improvement is the main contribution of the solution. The suppression is achieved thanks to usage of new aiding sources (sensors) inside the GNSS/INS tightly coupled hybrid algorithms, including odometers and cameras.
Work Package 4 – Enhanced Visual Operations
Solution PJ03a-04 “enhanced visual operations” addressed the development and validation of the new vision based systems to increase accessibility and improve taxi at any airports in low visibility conditions and without additional ground infrastructure requirements. The outcomes of the PJ03a-04 validation exercises have confirmed the V3 maturity level of HMD technology for both taxi and EFVS 100ft landing operations.
The validation exercise for approach operations with active sensor could not confirm V3 maturity level, as expected during project time being due to lower maturity of the sensor. Nevertheless, partial objective for active sensor performances has been validated.
WP05 – Surface operations by RPAS
Solution PJ03a-09 investigated the ways in which RPAS may be able to use technical capability and procedural means to comply with ATC instructions in order to be integrated in surface operations with other manned traffic. It was designed to address the OI step AUO-0617 through two validation cycles (V1 and V2), targeting different stakeholders in a relatively small and very small airport environments. Results confirmed the Feasibility of the concept.
WP02 – Enhanced Guidance Assistance to Aircraft on the Airport Surface Combined with Routing
Some tests have demonstrated interesting time savings. However, significant gaps and limitations were identified and recommended to be considered for the next R&D steps.
WP03 – Enhanced navigation and accuracy in low visibility conditions (LVC) on the airport surface brings important benefits as a result of a more fluent, better organized and safely operated system of ground operations, which will lead to cost savings especially due to reduced fuel burn and less delays. This contributes to the satisfaction of European standards set for noise, local air quality, emissions and contaminants at and around airports.
WP04 – Enhanced Vision System and Synthetic Vision System concepts enable more efficient taxi and landing operations improving accessibility to all airports without additional ground infrastructure requirements and keeping the same or increasing current level of safety. The increased capacity of secondary airports in low visibility conditions has the potential to improve the attractiveness of a region for doing business, creating jobs, especially in remote areas.
WP05 – Surface operations by RPAS
The ambition was to determine the impact (in terms of rules and regulations) of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) integration in the ATM environment.
Some tests have demonstrated interesting time savings. However, significant gaps and limitations were identified and recommended to be considered for the next R&D steps.
WP03 – Enhanced navigation and accuracy in low visibility conditions (LVC) on the airport surface brings important benefits as a result of a more fluent, better organized and safely operated system of ground operations, which will lead to cost savings especially due to reduced fuel burn and less delays. This contributes to the satisfaction of European standards set for noise, local air quality, emissions and contaminants at and around airports.
WP04 – Enhanced Vision System and Synthetic Vision System concepts enable more efficient taxi and landing operations improving accessibility to all airports without additional ground infrastructure requirements and keeping the same or increasing current level of safety. The increased capacity of secondary airports in low visibility conditions has the potential to improve the attractiveness of a region for doing business, creating jobs, especially in remote areas.
WP05 – Surface operations by RPAS
The ambition was to determine the impact (in terms of rules and regulations) of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) integration in the ATM environment.