Rosa María Arnaldo Valdés

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid | UPM

Air traffic complexity is an indicator that allows air traffic controllers to understand the airspace situation. Controllers need support tools to reduce their workload. For this reason, complexity is a parameter that is being studied more and more, as it makes it possible to know a large amount of information about air traffic. In this article, we...

This study delves into the realm of Air Traffic Management (ATM) and its criticality in ensuring the safety and resilience of aviation systems. Traditionally, safety has been approached reactively (Safety I), but with the complexities of socio-technical systems like ATM, a shift towards proactive measures is essential. This research explores Resili...

One of the main concerns of the aviation industry is the reduction of dependence on fossil fuels, the reduction of emissions, and, ultimately, the development of a more sustainable air transport system. Emerging technologies, new operational concepts, and research will be essential to achieve this. Batteries are one of the emerging technologies tha...

The study of human performance of air traffic controllers (ATCOs) is an interesting line of research to improve operational safety. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of techniques available to develop this research based on massive data analysis. This study presents the use of certain electroencephalography (EEG) parameters...

Air traffic is currently increasing. But the ATC service, which is responsible for providing control of aircraft crossing the airspace, is unable to increase its capacity to cope with this demand. This makes airspace an increasingly complex environment. Complexity is thus becoming an area of interest. This paper aims to develop a complexity indicat...

Aviation is undergoing a paradigm shift to become a more sustainable industry. Priorities include reducing fossil fuel consumption, cutting carbon dioxide and other emissions, and developing new technologies. One of the major enabling technologies is the electrification of aircraft. Batteries are a key part of this revolutionary concept. This paper...

The use of electroencephalography (EEG) techniques has many advantages in the study of human performance in air traffic control (ATC). At present, these are non-intrusive techniques that allow large volumes of data to be recorded on a continuous basis using wireless equipment. To achieve the most with these techniques, it is essential to establish...

Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs) perform safety-critical tasks and face a wide variety of demands to manage aircraft safely and efficiently. In order for these demands to not result in a degradation of their performance, they need to be within certain upper and lower limits. In the field of human factors in aviation, one option to establish these li...

The objective of this methodology is to create a model capable of analysing and predicting the identification of potential conflicts between aircraft during en-route flights by air traffic control operators (ATCOs). This aspect is crucial to prevent Separation Minima Infractions (SMIs) and ensure safety. Initially, a Bayesian Network Model (BNM) is...

Due to the increasing complexity of airspace, the ATC system does not have sufficient capacity to cope with aircraft demand. For this reason, the ATFCM system needs to implement more and more measures to balance capacity and demand. These measures are the ATFCM regulations. In this paper, a methodology to predict ATFCM capacity regulations based on...

The future Air Traffic Management System (ATM) is based on the concept of Trajectory Based Operations (TBO), in which all stakeholders have access to a consistent and synchronised view of flight trajectories. In the TBO framework, the trajectory prediction plays a key role. Inaccuracy of current trajectory predictors caused by the lack of a common...

Flight trajectory data sets are difficult to analyse due to several reasons, from the high interconnectedness of all their factors to the high dimensionality of the data. In this paper we introduce Topological Data Analysis (TDA) and some of its techniques to extract some useful conclusions concerning ATM data. We will show how topology encodes use...

The Air Traffic Control (ATC) system suffers from an ever-increasing demand for aircraft, leading to capacity issues. For this reason, airspace is regulated by limiting the entry of aircraft into the airspace. Knowledge of these regulations before they occur would allow the ATC system to be aware of conflicting areas of the airspace, and to manage...

The main goal of this article is to analyse the probability of detecting potential conflicts by the Air Traffic Controller (ATCo). The ATCo ensures the safety of aircraft and one of its main functions is collision avoidance. Collision avoidance is known as separation provision and this term means assuring the safe distance between each aircraft by...

The integration of Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) in non-segregated airspace is one of the most demanding challenges that the aviation community must face in the years ahead. This article develops the flight-plan processing from a risk-based methodology. The risk-based methodology is underpinned by an in-depth safety analysis throughout th...

It has always been a topic of great interest in air transport management to be able to estimate controller workload. So far, research has not had the opportunity to make use of real data on the controller’s actions. We have enough data to be able to use machine learning methods. The aim of this work is to predict the controller’s actions to know hi...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to establish a systematic framework to characterise the safety of air routes, in terms of separation minima infringements (SMIs) between en-route aircraft, based on the definition of models known as safety performance functions. Design/methodology/approach Techniques with high predictive capability were selecte...

Air traffic controllers (ATCOs) play a fundamental role in the safe, orderly and efficient management of air traffic. In the interests of improving safety, it would be beneficial to know what the workload thresholds are that permit ATCOs to carry out their functions safely and efficiently. The purpose of this paper is to present the development of...

The ATC service has the objective of controlling airspace operations safely and efficiently. This control is becoming more and more difficult due to the increasing complexity of airspace. With the objective of collaborating and facilitating the provision of the control service, FLUJOS project aims to develop a methodology to characterise ATC sector...

Air traffic controllers play an important role in enabling safe, orderly, and efficient flight management within airspace. By the very nature of their work, they must make critical decisions in a time-critical environment. From a safety point of view, it would be of interest to obtain the workload thresholds (upper and lower limits) in order to def...

The objective of this methodology is to characterise the safety of air routes under a systematic framework, in terms of Separation Minimum Infringements (SMI) between en-route aircraft based on models known as Safety Performance Functions (SPF). Bayesian Networks have been selected as techniques with high predictive capability and low probability e...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to set out a methodology for characterising the complexity of air traffic control (ATC) sectors based on individual operations. This machine learning methodology also learns from the data on which the model is based. Design/methodology/approach The methodology comprises three steps. Firstly, a statistical analy...

The European Universities initiative, launched by the European Commission in 2018, has its origin in the concept of Civic Universities (CivUs) and consists of transnational higher education alliances throughout the European Union that share long-term strategies. They are expected to become universities of the future, to promote European ideals and...

COVID 19 has become a mayor and without precedent disruption in aviation, with a big impact in aviation front line operators, such as crews, air traffic controller and aircraft dispatchers. This new reality has generated unexperienced human factors consequences and ups and downs in the lives of these professionals. They had to deal with new environ...

In recent years we have witnessed the emergence of applications based on artificial intelligence in the aviation industry. This technology is said to be promoting a new era or evolution, such as the introduction of jet engines in the 1950s and fly-by-wire in the 1980s. To maintain aviation safety standards in this transition, civil aviation authori...

Purpose Airports are limited in terms of capacity. Particularly, runways can only accommodate a certain number of movements (arrivals and departures) while ensuring safety and determined operational requirements. In such a constrained operating environment, any reduction in system capacity results in major delays with significant costs for airlines...

Purpose This paper aims to analyse remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS) integration in non-segregated terminal airspace. This work aims to identify the potential airspace volumes where a free operation of RPAS can be developed by analysing the airspace design of the terminal airspace. Design/methodology/approach The methodology considers five c...

Air transport is considered to be the safest mode of mass transportation. Air traffic management (ATM) systems constitute one of the fundamental pillars that contribute to these high levels of safety. In this paper we wish to answer two questions: (i) What is the underlying safety level of ATM systems in Europe? and (ii) What is the dispersion, tha...

Aviation emissions from 2016 to 2050 could consume between 12% and 27% of the remaining carbon budget to keep global temperature rise below 1.5C above preindustrial levels. Consequently, aviation is being challenged to immediately start to reduce its in-sector emissions, then sharply reduce its CO 2 emissions and fully decarbonize toward the second...

The successful implementation of the new European Green Deal in aviation depends on the European aeronautics industry’s ability to develop new technologies able to face the climate changes. The decarbonization in the aviation is very difficult, compared to other transport sector, and one possibility to reduce emissions is by increasing the usage of...

Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) is a capital issue for the majority of aviation actors nowadays. The integration of RPAS is an extremely demanding task that must be tackled by multiple standpoints: economic, social, technological or environmental among others. U-space is the answer from Europe to design the operation of multiple and differe...

Aviation emissions from 2016 to 2050 could consume between 12% and 27% of the remaining carbon budget to keep global temperature rise below 1.5 °C above preindustrial levels. Consequently, aviation is being challenged to immediately start to reduce its in-sector emissions, then sharply reduce its CO2 emissions and fully decarbonize toward the secon...

Passengers go through different handling processes inside airport terminal buildings. The quality of these processes is usually measured by the time passengers require and by the level of comfort experienced by them. We present an analysis of behavioural patterns in queues at check-in desks and security controls, which are two of the most critical...

The integration of Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) in non-segregated airspace is one of the forthcoming challenges in aviation. This paper develops a decision framework to determine the airways where RPAS should fly. The methodology defines three types of indicators: (1) static indicators based on the geometry of the airspace; (2) dynamic i...

This research assesses the impact of the integration of Continuous Climb operations (CCOs) on Air Traffic Control (ATC) workload. The methodology encompasses different modules: CCO, standard departing and arriving trajectories extracted from an external database, an ad-hoc algorithm for detecting and solving conflicts, and an ATC-workload model wit...

This paper presents the results of applying the new mechanization of the Kalman filter (KF) algorithm using singular value decomposition (SVD). The proposed algorithm is useful in applications where the influence of round‐off errors reduces the accuracy of the numerical solution of the associated Riccati equation. When the Riccati equation does not...

Purpose The current air traffic management (ATM) operational approach is changing; “time” is now integrated as an additional fourth dimension on trajectories. This notion will impose on aircraft the compliance of accurate arrival times over designated checkpoints (CPs), called time windows (TWs). This paper aims to clarify the basic requirements an...

Purpose – The current air traffic management (ATM) operational approach is changing; “time” is now integrated as an additional fourth dimension on trajectories. This notion will impose on aircraft the compliance of accurate arrival times over designated checkpoints (CPs), called time windows (TWs). This paper aims to clarify the basic requirements...

Jet engine malfunctions and pitot probe blocking are two safety events for which the formation of High Altitude Ice Crystals (HAIC) is a relevant contributing factor. Power loss and damage in jet engine under such conditions has drawn considerable attention of air transport authorities and industry. In turn, little interest has been paid to pitot p...

Purpose This paper aims to assess the implications in safety levels by the integration of remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS). The goal is to calculate the number of RPAS that can jointly operate with conventional aircraft regarding conflict risk, without exceeding current safety levels. Design/methodology/approach This approach benchmarks a c...

Many civilian applications of commercial unmanned aircraft are being planned to operate in the years ahead. Several countries have developed their own framework to design the operation of unmanned aircraft and the different services that demand safe operation. This paper focuses on the European framework denoted as U-space which concludes with the...

The expected growth of air traffic in the following decades demands the implementation of new operational concepts to avoid current limitations of the air traffic management system. This paper focuses on the strategic conflict management for four-dimensional trajectories (4DT) in free-route airspace. 4DT has been proposed as the future operational...

The current Air Traffic Management (ATM) functional approach is changing: ‘time’ is now integrated as an additional fourth dimension on trajectories. This notion will impose on aircraft the compliance of accurately arrival times over designated checkpoints, called Time Windows (TWs). In this context, we review the operational concept of 4D-trajecto...

The forthcoming integration of Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) is one of the cmost omplex challenges for aviation. Europe draws to allow operating RPAS and conventional aircraft in non-segregated airspace by 2025, but this demanding perspective entails a thorough analysis of the different aspects involved. The RPAS integration in non-segreg...

The integration of remotely piloted aircraft system in non-segregated airspace requires a significant effort and new methodologies to underway this challenge. This paper develops a methodology to assess the impact of remotely piloted aircraft system integration by applying safety metrics in tactical planning. This methodology builds five modules to...

Heinrich's pyramid theory is one of the most influential theories in accident and incident prevention, especially for industries with high safety requirements. Originally, this theory established a quantitative correlation between major injury accidents, minor injury accidents and no-injury accidents. Nowadays, researchers from different fields of...

This research assesses the impact on Air Traffic Control (ATC) workload by the integration of Continuous Climb operations (CCOs) in a high-density Terminal Manoeuvre Area (TMA). The methodology encompasses different modules: CCO, standard departing and arriving trajectories are extracted from an external database, an ad-hoc algorithm detects confli...

The forthcoming integration of Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) is one of the cmost omplex challenges for aviation. Europe draws to allow operating RPAS and conventional aircraft in non-segregated airspace by 2025, but this demanding perspective entails a thorough analysis of the different aspects involved. The RPAS integration in non-segreg...

Air Traffic Management is evolving towards a Trajectory-Based Operations paradigm. Trajectory prediction will hold a key role supporting its deployment, but it is limited by a lack of understanding of air traffic associated uncertainties, specifically contextual factors. Trajectory predictors are usually based on modelling aircraft dynamics based o...

In this study, the environmental realities of enhancing departure aircraft procedures, based on optimal Continuous Climb Operations (CCOs), are discussed for a long-range wide-body aircraft. The findings are driven by the advantage offered by the analysis of real Flight Data Recorder (FDR) data against the simulated data, obtained through the use o...

Airports around the world are more and more environmentally concerned, increasing their efforts in reducing aviation impacts by applying environmental management, certification systems, or other types of ecological rating systems to their infrastructures and operation. Especially relevant are the airports’ efforts to manage and reduce their CO2 emi...

Significant changes in air navigation service provision are expected for 2050 and beyond. Apart from full free flight, the vision is that traditional (sector-centric) approach will evolve to flight-centric, i.e. air traffic controllers (ATCo) will be in charge of specific flights within significantly larger geographical airspace. Increase in traffi...

Poster presented during the conference of EUCASS 2019.

Causes leading to loss of Separation (LOS) in serious and major incidents are considered as potential precursors for Mid-Air Collision (MAC) accident. This paper attempts to model the likelihood of these precursors combining Bayesian Networks (BN), which are based on expert-built, and Information Theory (IT). BN provides the analysis of LOS contrib...

System Safety Assessment is an integral part of the design and operation of aviation and Air Traffic Management (ATM) systems. The aim of the System Safety Assessment is to identify, quantify and mitigate any and all risks; and to ensure that the system complies with the safety levels established by the regulatory authority. This paper presents an...

High-Altitude Ice Crystals (HAIC) constitute a hazard to commercial aircraft flying near deep convective weather due to jet-engine power loss and air data probes malfunction. HAIC can stick to warm metal surfaces in jet-engines and cause engine surge, stall, flameout and rollback, power loss, as well as engine compressor damage due to ice shedding....