The consortium considered of paramount importance to incorporate the views of relevant stakeholders in these early stages of the project. A workshop with the Advisory Board was carried out (FEB20) and a follow-up survey and bilateral discussions with some members of the Board and the Topic Manager conducted. These activities led to the definition of the objectives to be considered by the optimiser, the addition of the Operational ATM Estimator module, to estimate operational uncertainties, and provided input regarding the most suitable methods for optimisation (reported in D1.1 - Technical resources and problem definition (MAR20)).
The multi-criteria decision making technique selection process, with input from the Advisory Board (workshop and survey), not only selected a method but defined the prototype optimisation framework. These considerations, including a thorough literature review were reported in D2.1 - Trade-off report on multi-criteria decision making techniques (MAY20) reaching MS2.
The data collection and management focused on the interaction with stakeholders. These activities were reported in D3.1 - Airlines data collection report (JUL20) leading to MS3 - Airlines data collected and analysed.
A verification and validation plan was defined as part of WP5 and reported in D5.1 - Verification and validation plan (AUG20).
Two prototype releases have been delivered. The first one in JUL21, as reported in D4.1 and D4.2. This first proof of concept prototype was presented to the Advisory Board in an on-line workshop where feedback was gathered for the prioritisation of the final modelling activities, achieving MS4 - First release results review.
The final part of the project focused on the final implementation and integration of functionalities along with the validation activities (WP5) for the final release. This prototype was presented to the Advisory Board in a workshop (JAN22) where feedback on future potential developments was gathered, and some ideas on the path toward industrialisation identified (WP6). A follow-up survey was used to validate the design of the HMI. This final release concluded the development of Pilot3 with the production of D4.3 and D4.4. The known issues and next steps were reported in D6.1 - System evolution and uptake.
The final prototype is modular and configurable. Heuristic and machine learning estimators can be used and the optimisation of the vertical profile of the flight is performed considering the total expected cost with two approaches: optimising the cost index as a proxy control variable, or with a grid-search on the altitude and speed domain. The prototype and its components have been validated, as reported in D5.2 - Verification and validation report, reaching MS5 - Final acceptance.
Communication and dissemination activities include: the communication, dissemination and exploitation plan (D7.1 - MAY20), the project website, publication of six blog entries, participation at two editions of AGIFORS conference (one of them awarded as best conference presentation), participation at the PACEDays event 2020, two poster (with video) presentations at SESAR Innovation Days 2020 and 2021, and more than 25 further dissemination actions via social media (LinkedIn). Two journal papers with contributions from Pilot3 were submitted but not yet published. All these actions are reported in D7.2 - Project communication, dissemination and exploitation report.
Finally, the project management has been done as part of WP8 leading to D8.1 - Project management plan (NOV19), D8.2 - Proof of signature of Consortium Agreement (JAN20), six periodic monitoring reports (PRM), intermediate review meeting (IRM, MS3.1) and technical discussions with Topic Manager and Project Officer to plan the final development cycle (AUG21).
