Content uploaded by Vittorio Di Vito
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Vittorio Di Vito on May 17, 2020
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
Selected Avionic Technologies in the COAST Project for Small Air Transport Vehicles
Abstract and Figures
Small Air Transport (SAT) is emerging as the most suitable transportation means in order to allow efficient travel over a regional range, in particular for commuters, based on the use of small airports. The vehicles that are comprised under the SAT domain are usually fixed wing aircraft with 5 to 19 seats or similar cargo vehicles, belonging to the EASA CS-23 category. In order to ease the growth of the SAT business domain, the availability of new technological solutions allowing reducing the related operative costs represents a challenge of capital importance. The project COAST (Cost Optimized Avionics SysTem), started in the year 2016 and funded by the Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking in the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No CS2-SYS-ITD-GAM-2004-2015-01, aims to tackle this challenge and to deliver key technology enablers for the affordable cockpit and avionics, while also enabling the single pilot operations for small aircraft. Among all the technological challenges addressed in the project, some selected ones are outlined in this paper, namely the ones of traffic situational awareness, traffic separation, meteorological awareness and pilot or platform emergency management. The paper, therefore, focuses on a selected cluster, from the overall framework of the COAST project, of SAT single pilot operations enabling technologies: Traffic Awareness System (TAS), Tactical Separation System (TSS), Flight Reconfiguration System (FRS), and Advanced Weather Awareness System (AWAS). In the paper, a description is first reported of the overall COAST project approach to the SAT vehicles cockpit design, by providing an overview of the considered architecture, and, then, the description of each of the above-indicated selected technologies is presented (the additional technologies considered in the COAST project are out of the scope of this paper). Based on that, for each of the considered systems (TAS, TSS, FRS, AWAS) the logical architecture is described and the related technical innovation aspects are outlined.
Figures - uploaded by Vittorio Di Vito
Author content
All figure content in this area was uploaded by Vittorio Di Vito
Content may be subject to copyright.
... In such a situation, a solution to increase mobility capabilities would be to implement the extensive use of regional small airports, which are numerous in those areas, by wide number of SAT vehicles that would be piloted under single pilot operations to reduce flight costs and the needed number of qualified crew. In such a framework, research activities are ongoing under the transversal SAT work package in the Clean Sky 2 EU-funded program, including activities specifically devoted to design of enabling technologies for single pilot operations in SAT vehicles that are carried out in the Cost Optimized Avionic System (COAST) project [4,5]. In this framework, in order to reduce the single pilot workload, detect and avoid technologies are fundamental and also more relevant in the case of the delegation of the separation responsibility to the flight segment, as envisaged under specific circumstances by the SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) air traffic management (ATM) Target Concept [6]. ...
... Further improvements of the ASACAS are still ongoing in the framework of the EATS project [25,26], benefitting from the additional experience and know-how gained by CIRA in several international projects both completed (e.g., the EDA-funded project MIDCAS: Mid-Air Collision Avoidance System [27,28]) and currently ongoing (e.g., the Clean Sky 2-funded project COAST [4,5,7,8]). Such improvements were focused on the improvement of the algorithms for detection and resolution and not on any change of the sensor for traffic detection, which remains the ADS-B IN to address cooperative traffic detection. ...
Remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) are increasingly becoming relevant actors that are flying through the airspace and will gain much more importance in the future. In order to allow for their safe integration with manned conventional traffic in non-segregated airspaces, in accordance with the overall air traffic management (ATM) paradigm, specific enabling technologies are needed. As is well known, the detect and avoid (DAA) technology is fundamental among the enabling technologies identified as crucial for RPAS integration into the overall ATM system. In the meantime, to support extended surveillance, the universal introduction of cooperative automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) on-board aircraft is being increasingly implemented because it has the potential to allow for the coverage of the entire airspaces in remote areas not usually covered by conventional radar surveillance. In this paper, experimental results that were obtained through the real-time validation, with hardware and human in the loop (RTS-HIL) simulations, of an automatic ADS-B based separation assurance and collision avoidance system aimed to support RPAS automatic operations (as well as remote pilot decision making) are presented and discussed. In the paper, after an introductory outline of the concept of operations (ConOps) of the system and its architectural organization, in addition to basic information about the main system functionalities, a description of the tests that were carried out is reported, and the obtained results are described and discussed in order to emphasize the performance and limitations of the proposed system. In particular, the obtained quantitative performances are reported and commented on, and the feedback presented by pilots in order to improve the system, e.g., in terms of preferred typology of conflict resolution maneuver elaborated by the system, is described.
... In such a situation, a solution to increase the mobility capabilities in such areas would be the one of implementing extensive use of regional small airports, which in those areas are numerous, by wide number of SAT vehicles, which would be piloted under single pilot operations to reduce the flight costs and the needed number of qualified crew. In such framework, research activities are ongoing under the transversal SAT work package in Clean Sky 2 EU funded programme, such as the ones specifically devoted to design of enabling technologies for single pilot operations in SAT vehicles that are carried out in the COAST project [4][5]. In this framework, in order to reduce the single pilot workload the Detect and Avoid technologies are fundamental and are also more relevant in case of delegation of the separation responsibility to the flight segment, as envisaged under specific circumstances by the SESAR ATM Target Concept [6]. ...
... The ASACAS system, therefore, provides the RPAS with the following automatic capabilities: assistance to Separation Assurance, to perform separation maneuver, when required, to remain well clear of other traffic aircraft; Collision Avoidance; enhanced Situational Awareness, providing Traffic information to allow the RPAS pilot to build his situational awareness related to the surrounding traffic, as enhancement of the Remote Pilot traffic supervision; provision of compatibility information between the ASACAS system and the TCAS operations foreseen in case of proximity between the ownship and a TCAS-equipped aircraft; provision of an automation logic that coordinates and sequences all the functionalities, based on the risk associated to the surrounding aircraft, and processes the possible remote pilot inputs received through the dedicated HMI implemented in the Remote Pilot Station (RPS). Further improvements of the ASACAS system are still ongoing in the framework of the EATS project [25][26], benefitting, in addition, from the additional experience and know-how gained by CIRA in several international projects, both completed (as for instance the EDA funded project MIDCAS, Mid-Air Collision Avoidance System [27][28]) and currently ongoing (as for instance the Clean Sky 2 funded project COAST, Cost Optimized Avionic System [4][5][7][8]). ...
Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) are increasingly becoming relevant actors flying through the airspace and will assume much more importance in the future perspective. In order to allow their safe integration with manned conventional traffic in non-segregated airspaces, in accordance with the overall Air Traffic Management (ATM) paradigm, specific enabling technologies are needed. As well known, among the enabling technologies identified as crucial for RPAS integration into the overall ATM system, the Detect and Avoid (DAA) technology is fundamental. In the meantime, to support extended surveillance, the universal introduction on-board of aircraft of cooperative Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) is increasingly implemented, having the potential to allow coverage of the whole airspace also in remote areas not usually covered by conventional radar surveillance. In this paper, the experimental results are presented and discussed that have been obtained through the real-time validation, with hardware and human in the loop (RTS-HIL) simulations, of an automatic ADS-B based Separation Assurance and Collision Avoidance System aimed to support RPAS automatic operations as well as remote pilot decision making. In the paper, after an introductory outline of the Concept of Operations (ConOps) of the system and of its architectural organization, while also providing basic information about the main system functionalities, the description is reported of the tests that have been carried out and the obtained results are described and discussed, in order to emphasize the performances and limitations of the proposed system. In particular, not only the quantitative performances obtained are reported and commented but also the feedbacks received by the pilots in order to improve the system are described, for instance in terms of preferred typology of conflict resolution manoeuver elaborated by the system.
... The SAT concept is now addressed in terms of research and development of solutions allowing single pilot operations, having the potential to ease the introduction of this aviation transport paradigm as a relevant industry [4] [5]. In this framework, in order to reduce the single pilot workload, the Detect and Avoid technologies are fundamental and are also more relevant in case of delegation of the separation responsibility to the flight segment, as envisaged under specific circumstances by the SESAR ATM Target Concept [6]. ...
In this paper, an automatic ADS-B based system for Separation Assurance (at tactical level) and Collision Avoidance (at emergency level) and for enhanced Remote Pilot’s Situational Awareness is conceptually presented and the numerical results of the application of the designed system to conflict and collision scenarios with respect to surrounding traffic are presented and discussed. The test results address some numerical validation campaigns carried out by means of fast-time simulations in Matlab/Simulink software environment. In the paper, therefore, first the conceptual design of the proposed system is reported and, then, the description is provided of the numerical validation campaigns that have been carried out, with particular reference and specific details about some relevant test cases. The obtained results are reported and discussed, in order to emphasize the performances and limitations of the proposed system and to indicate the ideas for its further development and improvement. Both Collision Avoidance and Traffic Avoidance (Self-Separation) tests are considered in the paper, in order to provide an outline of the proposed system functionalities and of the overall coordination of the different functions that have been implemented in the system.
... The project, started in the year 2016, aims to tackle the SAT challenge and to deliver key technology enablers for the affordable cockpit and avionics, while also enabling the single pilot operations for small aircraft. In this project, the research and developments activities are carried out addressing some enabling technologies for the implementation of the SAT vehicles single pilot operations [9] [10] and, among these technologies, the Tactical Separation System (TSS) is considered [11] [12]. ...
This paper provides the conceptual description of the Tactical Separation System (TSS) which design is ongoing in the EU funded project COAST (Cost Optimized Avionics System), under the Clean Sky 2 research and development programme. The TSS is an ADS-B-based advanced self-separation system aimed to extend the traffic situational awareness and to provide the pilot with suggested manoeuvres aimed to maintain the required separation minima. It constitutes not only an enabler for single-pilot operations in SAT vehicles and for the implementation of the separation responsibility delegation to the flight segment in the future SESAR environment, but it also constitutes a step-forward in the framework of the development of Airborne Separation Assurance Systems (ASAS) for Small Aircraft. The TSS receives consolidated traffic picture (position and velocity of all tracks) from the ADS-B receiver and its own position and velocity from the GNSS receiver, all consolidated by dedicated traffic data processing application. Based on this overall information, the TSS perform its main assigned functions, i.e. Conflict Detection and Conflict Resolution. In the paper, a description is first reported of the overall TSS architecture and of its concept of operations. Based on that, an overview of each functionality implemented in the TSS is reported, namely with reference to: Coarse Filtering, Conflict Detection, Severity Assignment, Conflict Resolution and overall TSS Logic. Finally, the design process that is ongoing is outlined and the future developments are indicated.
... These benefits are particularly evident when considering the possibility of implementing regional transportation in countries where the economic development level and/or the geographical constraints prevent the use of other competitive transportation means, such as trains. lt has to be considered, indeed, that the construction of railways on a regional extent is far more expensive than the use of small even if remote airports, especially where the geographic morphology is an additional obstacle for the implementation of railways [1]. In the SAT framework, the COAST project develops both individual technologies (Tactical Separation System [2] [3], Flight Reconfiguration System [4] and Advanced Weather Awareness System [5] [6] [7]) and the Integrated Mission Management System enabling autonomous mission management in all flight phases for Small Air Transport (SAT). ...
This paper is focused on the design, implementation and validation, in the MATLAB/Simulink/Stateflow environment, of a software prototype, named Automation Logic Supervisor (ALS) module, for the internal execution logic automation of the various systems constituting an Integrated Mission Management System (IMMS). The Automation Logic Supervisor module has been developed by CIRA as a part of a thesis work within the international project COAST (Cost Optimized Avionics System), funded by the European Union in the framework of the Clean Sky 2 - Systems ITD Programme, in which CIRA is a core partner. In the paper, after an introduction about the operational framework and motivations of the ALS design, it is described the preliminary conceptual design of the module, emphasizing the various considered logical states and their connections and associated transition conditions. Then, the implementation of the ALS as preliminary software prototype in Matlab/Simulink/Stateflow environment is outlined. Finally, the numerical validation of the ALS model is described, by outlining the considered test scenarios, which have been on purpose defined to stimulate all the ALS finite state machine modelled transitions, and reporting the results of the numerical simulations that show the correct behavior of the ALS, whose development successfully reached TRL 3.
Small Air Transport (SAT) is emerging as the most suitable transportation means in order to allow efficient travel, in particular for commuters, on a regional range based on the use of small airports. In this framework, the project COAST (Cost-Optimized Avionic System), funded by the Clean Sky JU and started in the year 2016, aims to deliver key technology enablers for the affordable cockpit and avionics, including dedicated technology for Tactical Separation decision support to the pilot. This paper provides the description of the COAST proposed Tactical Separation System (TSS), which is an ADS-B-based advanced self-separation system aimed to extend the traffic situational awareness and to provide the pilot with suggested manoeuvers aimed to maintain the required separation minima. TSS will constitute an enabling technology for the implementation of the separation responsibility delegation to the flight segment (self-separation) in the future SESAR environment. Furthermore, the proposed TSS implementation will constitute a step-forward in the framework of the development of Airborne Separation Assurance Systems (ASAS) for Small Aircraft. The TSS is expected to receive consolidated traffic picture (position and velocity of all tracks) from the ADS-B receiver and its own position and velocity from the GNSS receiver, all consolidated by the Traffic Awareness System (TAS) under development in the COAST platform. Based on this overall information, the TSS is expected to perform its main assigned functions, i.e. Conflict Detection and Conflict Resolution. In the paper, a description is first reported of the overall TSS architecture and of its concept of operations. Based on that, an overview of each functionality implemented in the TSS is reported in the paper, namely with reference to: Coarse Filtering, Conflict Detection, Severity Assignment, Conflict Resolution and overall TSS Logic.
To reduce the effects of aircraft noise, fuel use and related pollutant atmospheric emissions, due to conventional step-down procedures for approach and landing, designed curved and continuous descent approach trajectories can be adopted in order to provide suitably optimized vertical profiles by combining flexible lateral paths and continuous descent operations such that level flight segments can be completely eliminated. This paper describes a methodology for the automatic generation of efficient Curved and Continuous Descent Approach (CCDA) trajectories to reduce the aircraft fuel consumption during the approach phase. Furthermore, the proposed method takes into account the airport and external environmental constraints by providing the obstacles mapping from aeronautical charts georeferencing processes and suitable DSMs and DTMs. This allows to automatically generate a modified set of trajectories that optimizes the track distance within a tolerable range. The Italian Aerospace Research Center (CIRA) has developed this study within the framework of the Efficient Air Transport System (EATS) project. The identification of all influencing factors in TMA has been here provided for a specified airport and related Aerodrome Traffic Zone and Control Zones in collaboration with the University of the Study of Naples “Parthenope”. Applications and simulations results of the proposed methodology have been reported and discussed.
In the future ATM scenario, a relevant increase of air traffic density is expected, leading to the increase of the risk of occurrence of hazardous collision situations. In this framework, the pilot workload will also consequently be incremented, so inherently leading to further risks, especially with reference to the General Aviation domain, being usually these aircraft less equipped than the commercial ones. In the paper a system is presented, developed by the Italian Aerospace Research Center (CIRA), which is able to support the pilot in real-time in order to ease his/her tasks in presence of congested traffic scenarios. The proposed system is able to act in real-time during the flight in order to: detect possible conflict situations involving own vehicle and surrounding traffic, compute a safe maneuver to maintain separation with other traffic and, finally, propose the manoeuver to the pilot as a suggested escape strategy. This allows reducing the pilot’s decision-making process related workload in performing the self-separation task, while at the same time enhancing the flight safety level. In the paper, the proposed system is first functionally described at architectural level, and then the algorithms for conflict detection and resolution are briefly presented. Relevant focus is then devoted to the presentation of the system validation results. To this aim, first in the paper some relevant numerical simulations with challenging scenarios are presented and discussed. Then, the results obtained by real-time with pilot in the loop simulations are reported and commented. Pilots’ feedback about the system overall performances and features are also described. The validation campaign results show the ability of the proposed system to alleviate the pilot’s workload.
This paper aims to demonstrate the benefits of combining the PBN concept with the CDA implementation by proposing an innovative system for the automatic generation of Curved and Continuous Descent Approach (CCDA) trajectories. These trajectories reduce aircraft fuel consumption and noise impact near to airport. Furthermore, the path curvature property preserves the dispersion of tracks with respect to the conventional ground-based step-down arrival path in both lateral and vertical profiles. The proposed system implements the procedure described in the following. First, specific paths are elaborated, with calculated top of descent point according to predefined angle or with initial fixed altitude up to intercept the descend glide path at constant or variable angle. This elaboration integrates obstacles geo-referenced mapping to avoid potential conflicts with airport/external environmental constraints by automatically generating corrective maneuvers. Then, the BADA aircraft performance parameters are elaborated in order to compute the fuel consumption associated to each calculated descent path. Finally, the CCDA path that minimizes the fuel consumption is selected. The system performances are evaluated in terms of fuel efficiency, noise impact, and lateral and vertical protected areas for tracking tolerance.
This paper presents the automatic approach and landing system for fixed wing UAVs developed by CIRA (the Italian Aerospace Research Centre). This system, which is part of the complete autonomous mid air flight and landing system worked out by CIRA, is able to perform a fully automatic landing of a fixed wing aircraft starting from any point of the three dimensional space, based on the use of the DGPS/AHRS technology. Main features of the system are: fully autonomy from pilot inputs, weakly instrumented landing runway, ability to land starting from any point in the space, once set the coordinates and orientation of the landing runway, autonomous management of failures and/or adverse atmospheric conditions, real time trajectory generation in compliance with the dynamic constraints acting on the vehicle. More into details, in the paper are described the algorithms designed for the main flight phases involved in the autolanding manoeuvre (alignment, approach and touch down), the method for the real time trajectory generation and tracking and the methodologies developed in order to safely manage the possible presence of failures and/or unfavourable weather conditions. Furthermore, some results of the real time validation with hardware in the loop simulation of the described system are presented with reference to the CIRA experimental platform.
To reduce the effects of aircraft noise, fuel use and related pollutant atmospheric emissions, due to conventional step-down procedures for approach and landing, designed curved and continuous descent approach trajectories can be adopted in order to provide suitably optimized vertical profiles by combining flexible lateral paths and continuous descent operations such that level flight segments can be completely eliminated. This paper aims at providing a methodology for generating vertical profiles for a generic aircraft and validate a system enabling to compute curved and continuous trajectories along more optimized approach and landing profiles in terms of aircraft fuel consumption, in TMA environment typically rich of obstacles. A small-scale experiment was carried out to compared the CDA vertical profiles with the conventional techniques of descent, to assess the fuel burn during aircraft descent and finally to select of the optimal trajectory in terms of fuel saving. Simulations of trajectories generation and the identification of all influencing factors in TMA were provided for an airport particularly affected by aircraft noise and rich of obstacles, due to the proximity of the runway to the highly populated city of Naples in Italy. The validation of the methodology was carried out by running the simulation of the study reference scenario and using the proposed optimized trajectory solutions.
This study explored the policy implications of a specific jointly funded government-industry-academic research and development initiative on future planning. The researcher sought to uncover what trends or patterns of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiments (AGATE) had a positive affect on the outcomes of the consortium. By identifying these trends, the research may be able to help foster a more practical transition to follow-on programs. AGATE focused on developing innovative cockpit technologies that highlighted safety, affordability, and ease-of-use based in such areas as flight systems and integrated design and manufacturing. A quantitative analytic methodological approach encompassing qualitative data analysis software and the policy research construct was applied to analyze the organizational policy trends through the application of lessons learned from the AGATE program with reference to the current NASA program-the Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS). Both NASA programs consist of a similar participant pool. By examining the effects of recommendations from previous studies, this analysis illustrated the transitional effects identified through the analysis. This planning framework illustrated the evolution of program and goal structure and the catalytic effect on the aviation industry and product development through increased interaction.
In the framework of future surveillance systems, ADS-B devices are assuming a primary role. They are expected to be widely implemented on-board of vehicles, so the possibility of using ADS-B data to support the safety of the flight is worth to be investigated. This paper describes the real time validation of an ADS-B based application for conflict detection algorithms in order to support future self-separation as well as collision avoidance systems. In particular, the paper first presents an overview of the proposed system architecture including a brief description of the software modules and, then, provides a description of the hardware-in-the-loop architecture that has been used for the validation of the system. Finally, in the paper the results of some real-time simulation tests are described and discussed. The results reported in the paper emphasize that the proposed conflict detection system, based on the use of ADS-B data, is suitable for real-time implementation and, therefore, can be considered for the implementation on-board vehicles for on-line application during the flight.
The effects of aircraft noise, fuel use and related pollutant atmospheric emissions can impact the quality of life in populated areas near to airports and represent environmental issues resulting in restrictions for air traffic procedures, aircraft manufacturing and airport facilities design. In order to mitigate the above-indicated environmental issues, specifically designed Curved and Continuous Descent Approach trajectories can be adopted for the implementation during approach and landing phases. This paper provides a study about Curved and Continuous Descent Approach concept for the future efficient flight operations in TMA. It aims providing the main concepts and mathematical models needed to implement a system able to generate descent profiles that are suitably optimized in terms of fuel consumption. These concepts and models are the basis for the development of dedicated tools and algorithms able to real-time generate optimal descent profiles, in the framework of a more efficient Air Transport System management with reduced environmental impact. In particular, this study investigates the differences between conventional descent and proposed curved and continuous descent techniques, starting from the analysis of procedures for a generic descent trajectory. Furthermore, detailed mathematical modelling of fuel consumption with reference to the descent phase is reported in the paper and, finally, high-level requirements and performance assessment indicators for Continuous Descent and Curved Approach profiles are discussed. The overall study here proposed, therefore, aims providing the basis for the development of automatic Continuous Descent and Curved Approach profiles real-time generation tools, able to take into account route structures and system operations, in compliance with the current rules of the air and integrating future ATM concepts and technologies.
