Airspace Operations Lab @ NASA Ames

An anticipated increase in future traffic demand has propelled an investigation of numerous concepts aimed at improving efficiency and gaining capacity by reducing controller workload. NASA Ames and NASA Langley Research Centers have recently conducted a joint simulation to test the En Route Free Maneuvering concept element of Distributed Air- Ground Traffic Management (DAG-TM), which integrated advanced air and ground decision support tools (DSTs) with Controller-Pilot Data Link Communication (CPDLC). In this concept, controller "managed" aircraft flying under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) were mixed with self separating "autonomous" aircraft flying under Autonomous Flight Rules (AFR). The overall results showed a significant potential for capacity gains and controller workload reduction, provided that safety concerns raised by the controllers can be addressed. The overall results are summarized in [1]. This paper describes the ground-side automation prototyped for DAG-TM operations and presents results on sector capacity, controller workload, traffic constraint compliance and safety. Controller feedback on the overall concept and the provided DSTs is discussed in detail. Results presented here also indicate that integrated ground-side DSTs can increase capacity even before concepts like airborne self separation are ready for operational implementation.

DAG-TM research was funded by the Airspace Systems program as part of the Advanced Air Transportation Technologies project. DAG-TM activities were conducted by NASA Ames, NASA Langley, and NASA Glen Research Center.