Growing traffic numbers, environmental aspects and cost effectiveness issues create a huge demand on the Air Traffic Management to continuously optimize its processes and use of resources. One key resource is the availability air traffic controllers of the air navigation service providers. Due to current regulations and practices, the deployment of air traffic controllers to a specific airspace or unit is restricted by unit endorsements, as controllers have to be comprehensively trained on local procedures and circumstances. The research proposed in this project aims at enabling a more flexible deployment of ATCOs to sectors. This is a very wanted and eagerly awaited improvement in ATM, because it would improve its cost efficiency by Millions of Euros that could be saved yearly in the European Union. The concept behind increased flexibility of ATCO validations (IFAV) are various flexible endorsement strategies, that are based on technical enablers, like specific controller assistance systems that provide support on sector specific procedures and rules and/or procedural enablers, like for example ATC task standardization. Based on prequel SESAR solutions (such as PJ.33-01a/b and PJ.10-73 IFAV), this new project will continue the IFAV work done in upper area control, and progress it to V3 / TRL6 maturity. This will be the main part of the project. In addition, about 15% of the project will be spent to transfer the know-how to another beneficial and similar use case: the application of IFAV in a remote tower centre. This project proposes two solutions that correspond to the described activities, and will include eight validation exercises. The consortium consists of 13 partners: 5 ANSPs, 2 universities, 1 big industrial partner and 5 research organisations.
Identifying possible situations of too high or too low workload (overload or underload) is critical for various operators; given the tasks of an air traffic controller (ATCO), this applies in particular to air navigation service providers (ANSPs) following the implementation of changes that alter task definitions. However, to identify overload or underload, we need to be able to measure an operator s workload (WL). Unfortunately, workload is a subjective measure: it measures the subjective, experienced cognitive demand during a task. Assessing an operator s and particularly an ATCO s workload has been a longstanding research topic, and researchers have reverted to controller self-assessment using numeric scales. These methods suffer from various drawbacks (the query is intrusive, social bias may impact the self-assessment, and small WL variations cannot be recorded). Hence, in this project, we aim to make progress towards the development of objective, non-intrusive WL measures: we plan a study design with which we aim to reduce the impact of the numeric scales for WL assessment, we will record various promising WL-indicator candidates (e.g., eye-gaze measures) and then analyze the validity of these objective indicators.
Publications:
A. Lemetti, L. Meyer, M. Peukert, T. Polishchuk, C. Schmidt. Discrete-Fourier-Transform-Based Evaluation of Physiological Measures as Workload Indicators. DASC 2023, Barcelona, Spain.
A set of simulation and on-site validation activities are planned for evaluation of the new paradigm where pilots equipped to stay ashore (instead of bearding the boats) at some land-based center and guide the vessels in and out of the port remotely. In order to reach the full potential of the Navigation support from land concept from the economical and social point of view, we will propose to organize such on-shore pilots into a remote pilot station which could serve many ports simultaneously. We will provide our expertise on the methods of evaluation of the controllers' workload from the ATM, compare VTS and ATC taking into consideration such important parameters as the background and cultural differences, the size of the surveillance area, the amount and precision of the information provided by the controllers, vehicle speeds and training procedures. AEAR group is participating as a partner in this project lead by Sj fartsverket (SFV), conducted in collaboration with Rise, LFV, Chalmers University and SSPA.
The project will contribute to more efficient arrival procedures in the pre-sequencing area and inside TMA. Comprehensive performance evaluation and mathematical optimization frameworks developed in a series of previous and ongoing projects (ODESTA, IFWHEN, TMAKPI, IWA) will support the initiative on modernization and re-organization of Stockholm TMA by LFV and Swedavia within SAARP and SWEA projects. The proposed design with the Point Merge in the pre-sequencing area (high and far from the airport) followed by more efficient Continuous Descent arrivals are expected to drastically reduce the noise level on the ground in the vicinity of the airport, as well as provide significant fuel savings within TMA. We will evaluate the effect of introducing Point Merge structures in the pre-sequencing TMA area to investigate the pros and cons of the proposed design, to assess the ability of the systems to enable Continuous Descent Operations in terminal area, and to quantify the environmental benefits provided by this solution. Next, we will analyse the typical arrival flows to Stockholm TMA, and suggest the improvements to the initially-sketched configuration of the Point Merge system, which is critical for successful implementation of this technique. To achieve that, we will develop mathematical models for optimized scheduling of aircraft in the pre-sequencing areas, enabling fuel-efficient arrival routes with minimal noise footprint inside TMA; our solutions will provide the stakeholders with flexible decision support tools to decrease environmental impact of arrivals. In addition, we will study the trade-off between the capacity and efficiency of the Point Merge systems and suggest optimized flexible usage of the structure, testing an innovative idea of dynamic TMA allowing to switch on and off the Point Merge Systems depending on the current traffic demand.
Publications:
H. Hardell, A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, L. Smetanova. Performance Characterization of Arrival Operations with Point Merge at Oslo Gardermoen Airport. In ATM Seminar 2023, Savannah, USA
H. Hardell, T. Polishchuk, L. Smetanova. Investigation of Point Merge Utilization Worldwide Using Opensky Network Data. In Opensky Symposium 2023, Toulouse, France. Slides. Video.
H. Hardell, T. Polishchuk, L. Smetanova. Arrival Optimization with Point Merge in a Dual-runway Environment. In SIDs 2023, Sevilla, Spain. Slides.
The project will contribute to a more efficient ATM by designing PBN-based flight paths which will reduce environmental effects of flying via minimizing fuel consumption and noise impact in TMA. The project thus targets areas of ATM and Noise exposure, while also dealing with fuel efficiency (which strongly relates to emission minimization). A study of tradeoffs among various ATM TMA-related KPIs is also included in the project. Specifically, we will develop mathematical models and optimization algorithms for constructing fuel-efficient arrival routes with minimal noise footprint in airport vicinity; our solutions will provide the stakeholders with flexible decision support tools to decrease environmental impact of aviation. Evaluation and validation of the project results will be performed with simulations on Stockholm Arlanda airport arrival scenarios, which provides an interesting and challenging test case due to the noise-restricted areas and generally complicated situation with the two major airports in close vicinity.
Publications:
R. S ez, X. Prats, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, C.Schmidt. Automation for Separation with CDOs: Dynamic Aircraft Arrival Routes. In AIAA Journal of Air Transporation, published online May 28 2020, doi.
H. Hardell, A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, V. Bulusu, E. Royo. Morphing STARs vs drones and weather in TMA. In ICRAT 2020.
L. Smetanov , A. Ulanovsk , P. Hluska. Analysis of the Typical Fleet Mix for Stockholm Arlanda Airport Arrivals. TNK103 MS project work.
T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, C. Schmidt, R. Saez, X. Prats, H. Hardell, L. Smetanova. How to Achieve CDOs for All Aircraft: Automated Separation in TMAs (Enabling Flexible Entry Times and Accounting for Wake Turbulence Categories). SESAR Innovation Days (SIDs) 2020. Slides. Video.
A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, H. Hardell. Arrival Flight Efficiency in Numbers: What New the Covid-19 Crisis is Bringing to the Picture? SESAR Innovation Days (SIDs) 2020. Slides. Video.
R. S ez, X. Prats, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk. Traffic synchronization in terminal airspace to enable continuous descent operations in trombone sequencing and merging procedures: An implementation study for Frankfurt airport. In Transportation research Part C, vol. 121, December 2020, doi.
R. S ez, T. Polishchuk, C. Schmidt, H. Hardell, L. Smetanova, V. Polishchuk, X. Prats. Automated Sequencing and Merging with Dynamic Aircraft Arrival Routes and Speed Management for Continuous Descent Operations. In Transportation research Part C, vol. 132, November 2021, doi.
H. Hardell, A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, L. Smetanova. Evaluation of the Sequencing and Merging Procedures at Three European Airports Using Opensky Data. Opensky Symposium, November 2021, Brussels. Slides.
H. Hardell, A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, L. Smetanova, K. Zeghal. Towards a Comprehensive Characterization of the Arrival Operations in the Terminal Area. SESAR Innovation Days (SIDs), December 2021. Slides.
H. Hardell, A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, L. Smetanova. Automated Traffic Scheduling in TMA with Point Merge to Enable Greener Descents. ICRAT 2022, June 2022, Tampa, USA. Slides.
H. Hardell, A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk. Performance Evaluation of the Arrival Operations in the Terminal Area. ICAS 2022, September. Slides.
H. Hardell, T. Polishchuk. Evaluation of the Noise Benefits from Performing CDO in TMA Using OpenSky Data. Opensky Network Symposium 2022, November, Delft. Slides.
A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, H. Hardell. Arrival Flight Efficiency in Pre- and Post-Covid-19 Pandemics. In Journal of Air Transport Management. Available online 10.11.2022. doi.
H. Hardell, T. Polishchuk, L. Smetanova. Arrival Optimization with Point Merge in a Dual-runway Environment. In SIDs 2023, Sevilla, Spain. Slides.
The development of proper Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) correctly characterizing ATM operations is a key activity for both Eurocontrol and FAA. The KPIs are used to quantify tradeoffs between the (often conflicting) objectives, serving as a decision support tool both for the managers and the operatives. Improving operational efficiency is high on the agenda of aviation policy makers both in EU (SESAR) and the US (NextGen). While (subjective) expert opinion remains important in assessing the improvements, an objective evaluation of ATM modernization activities is possible only with a set of precise quantitative performance indicators. Most of the ongoing work on KPIs addresses the enroute portion of the flight, looking at long-term effectiveness of operations over large geographical area. Detailed assessment of terminal airspaces over short(er) time periods had not been in focus; in particular, the dynamics of the KPIs over a day/week/month has not been explored. Contrary to producing more KPIs (which questions the K---Key---in the KPI abbreviation itself), in this project we will delve into deeper understanding of several KPIs. Our multidimensional adaptive KPIs will enable creating a comprehensive picture of the operations and capturing the "moving target" of faithfully characterizing ATM performance. Moreover, our KPIs will allow the authorities to pinpoint areas where efficiency is lost and suggest directions for the improvements.
Publications:
A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, R. S ez, X. Prats. Analysis of Weather Impact on Flight Efficiency for Stockholm Arlanda Airport Arrivals. In EIWAC 2019, Tokyo.
A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, R. S ez, X. Prats. Identification of Significant Impact Factors on Arrival Flight Efficiency within TMA. In ICRAT 2020.
H. Holmquist, A. Neu. Analysis of Key Performance Indicators for Terminal Maneuvering Areas. TNK103 MS project work, 2020.
R. S ez, X. Prats, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, C.Schmidt. Automation for Separation with CDOs: Dynamic Aircraft Arrival Routes. In AIAA Journal of Air Transporation, published online May 28 2020, doi.
L.Smetanova. Evaluation of Arrival Sequencing at Arlanda Airport. MS thesis, 2020.
T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, C. Schmidt, R. Saez, X. Prats, H. Hardell, L. Smetanova. How to Achieve CDOs for All Aircraft: Automated Separation in TMAs (Enabling Flexible Entry Times and Accounting for Wake Turbulence Categories). SESAR Innovation Days (SIDs) 2020. Slides. Video.
H. Hardell, T. Polishchuk, L. Smetanova. Fine-Grained Evaluation of Arrival Operations. SESAR Innovation Days (SIDs) 2020. Slides. Video.
A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, H. Hardell. Arrival Flight Efficiency in Numbers: What New the Covid-19 Crisis is Bringing to the Picture? SESAR Innovation Days (SIDs) 2020. Slides. Video.
R. S ez, T. Polishchuk, C. Schmidt, H. Hardell, L. Smetanova, V. Polishchuk, X. Prats. Automated Sequencing and Merging with Dynamic Aircraft Arrival Routes and Speed Management for Continuous Descent Operations. In Transportation research Part C, vol. 132, November 2021, doi.
H. Hardell, T. Polishchuk, L. Smetanov . Fine-Grained Evaluation of Arlanda Airport Arrival Operations. In Swedish Transportation Research Conference 2021, Malm .
H. Hardell, A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, L. Smetanova. Evaluation of the Sequencing and Merging Procedures at Three European Airports Using Opensky Data. Opensky Symposium, November 2021, Brussels. Slides.
H. Hardell, A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, L. Smetanova, K. Zeghal. Towards a Comprehensive Characterization of the Arrival Operations in the Terminal Area. SESAR Innovation Days (SIDs), December 2021. Slides.
H. Hardell, A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, L. Smetanova. Automated Traffic Scheduling in TMA with Point Merge to Enable Greener Descents. ICRAT 2022, June 2022, Tampa, USA. Slides.
H. Hardell, A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk. Performance Evaluation of the Arrival Operations in the Terminal Area. ICAS 2022, September. Slides.
A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, H. Hardell. Arrival Flight Efficiency in Pre- and Post-Covid-19 Pandemics. In Journal of Air Transport Management. Available online 10.11.2022. doi.
H. Hardell, A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, L. Smetanova. Performance Characterization of Arrival Operations with Point Merge at Oslo Gardermoen Airport. In ATM Seminar 2023, Savannah, USA.
T. Polishchuk, L. Smetanova. New Insight Towards Characterization of the Terminal Areas. In AIAA Aviation Forum 2023, San Diego, USA. Slides. Video.
H. Hardell, T. Polishchuk, L. Smetanova. Investigation of Point Merge Utilization Worldwide Using Opensky Network Data. In Opensky Symposium 2023, Toulouse, France. Slides. Video.
The project is conducted by the consortium of 9 parties from 5 countries within EU, coordinated by Dr. Damian Rivas (University of Sevilla). The framework for this project is the integration of meteorological forecast uncertainty information into the decision-making process for Flow Management Position (FMP). FMP is an operational position located in Area Control Centres (ACC) which serves as an interface between Air Traffic Control (ATC) and the Network Manager (NM). FMP monitors the level of traffic in ATC sectors, adjusts the value of capacity in view of unexpected events, and coordinates possible traffic flow measures with the ACC Supervisor and the NM when an excess of demand over capacity is detected. The presence of convective weather challenges this task, because it makes the sector demand not easy to predict and increases the complexity, thus reducing the sector capacity. The goal of this project is to provide the FMP with an intuitive and interpretable probabilistic assessment of the impact of convective weather on the operations, up to 8 hours in advance, coming from probabilistic forecasts of sector demand, complexity and capacity reduction, to allow better-informed decision making. Our group contributed with the development of the methodology for forecasting sector capacity reduction due to convective weather and its application in detection of the sector congestion on example of Austrian airspace.
Publications:
A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, A. Valenzuela, A. Franco, J. Nunez-Portillo, D. Rivas. Probabilistic Analysis of Airspace Capacity in Adverse Weather Scenarios. In SIDs 2022, Budapest. Slides.
The project is a continuation of our previous project ODESTA (Optimal Design of Terminal Airspace 2015-2018), which focused on pure 2D geometry of Stockholm TMA (i.e., routes and sectors like in charts without height annotations, without taking into account vertical flight profiles of different fleet types, and ignoring the weather). IFWHEN will extend ODESTA research by focusing on the environmental impact of TMA operations. Specifically, we will - add the third dimension, i.e., consider vertical (in)efficiency - take into account differences among fleet types and how the situation changes for aircraft from different groups - study tradeoffs between noise footprint, fuel consumption (which directly impacts emissions), flight time, resilience and other KPIs for individual flights - take into account weather impact on individual flights on short-time, tactical scale.
Publications:
R. S ez, X. Prats, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, C.Schmidt. Automation for Separation with CDOs: Dynamic Aircraft Arrival Routes. In ATM Seminar, 2019, Vienna, (Awarder best in track). Slides.
A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, R. S ez, X. Prats. Evaluation of Flight Efficiency for Stockholm Arlanda Airport Arrivals. In DASC 2019, San Diego. Slides.
A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, R. S ez, X. Prats. Analysis of Weather Impact on Flight Efficiency for Stockholm Arlanda Airport Arrivals. In EIWAC 2019, Tokyo.
A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, R. S ez. Evaluation of Flight Efficiency for Stockholm Arlanda Airport using OpenSky Network Data. OpenSky Workshop 2019, Zurich. Slides.
L. Smetanov , A. Ulanovsk , P. Hluska. Analysis of the Typical Fleet Mix for Stockholm Arlanda Airport Arrivals. TNK103 MS project work.
A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, R. S ez, X. Prats. Identification of Significant Impact Factors on Arrival Flight Efficiency within TMA. In ICRAT 2020.
H. Hardell, A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, V. Bulusu, E. Royo. Morphing STARs vs drones and weather in TMA. In ICRAT 2020.
T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, C. Schmidt, R. Saez, X. Prats, H. Hardell, L. Smetanova. How to Achieve CDOs for All Aircraft: Automated Separation in TMAs (Enabling Flexible Entry Times and Accounting for Wake Turbulence Categories). SESAR Innovation Days (SIDs) 2020. Slides. Video.
H. Hardell, T. Polishchuk, L. Smetanova. Fine-Grained Evaluation of Arrival Operations. SESAR Innovation Days (SIDs) 2020. Slides. Video.
A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, H. Hardell. Arrival Flight Efficiency in Numbers: What New the Covid-19 Crisis is Bringing to the Picture? SESAR Innovation Days (SIDs) 2020. Slides. Video.
R. S ez, X. Prats, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk. Traffic synchronization in terminal airspace to enable continuous descent operations in trombone sequencing and merging procedures: An implementation study for Frankfurt airport. In Transportation research Part C, vol. 121, December 2020, doi.
R. S ez, T. Polishchuk, C. Schmidt, H. Hardell, L. Smetanova, V. Polishchuk, X. Prats. Automated Sequencing and Merging with Dynamic Aircraft Arrival Routes and Speed Management for Continuous Descent Operations. In Transportation research Part C, vol. 132, November 2021, doi.
H. Hardell, A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, L. Smetanova. Evaluation of the Sequencing and Merging Procedures at Three European Airports Using Opensky Data. Opensky Symposium, November 2021, Brussels. Slides.
H. Hardell, A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, L. Smetanova, K. Zeghal. Towards a Comprehensive Characterization of the Arrival Operations in the Terminal Area. SESAR Innovation Days (SIDs), December 2021. Slides.
Weather has a big impact on Air Traffic Management (ATM). Inefficient weather avoidance procedures and inaccurate prognosis lead to longer aircraft routes and, as a result, to fuel waste and increased negative environmental impact. A better integration of weather information into the operational ATM-system will ultimately improve the overall air traffic safety and efficiency. Our group (AEAR) at Link ping University, together with the Research and Innovation at Luftfartsverket (LFV, Swedish ANSP) develops optimization techniques to support efficient decision-making for aviation authorities. In a series of projects we plan to refine our frameworks, making them more robust with respect to changing weather conditions influence. We will study and apply probabilistic models and the corresponding weather data, prototype and test the mathematical tools which will help to account for influence of bad weather conditions on the solutions developed in our related projects. We work in collaboration with University of Sevilla, Spain, Professors Damian Rivas and Antonio Franco.
Publications:
A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, R. S ez, X. Prats. Analysis of Weather Impact on Flight Efficiency for Stockholm Arlanda Airport Arrivals. In EIWAC 2019, Tokyo.
A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, R. S ez, X. Prats. Identification of Significant Impact Factors on Arrival Flight Efficiency within TMA. In ICRAT 2020.
H. Hardell, A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, V. Bulusu, E. Royo. Morphing STARs vs drones and weather in TMA. In ICRAT 2020.
A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, H. Hardell. Arrival Flight Efficiency in Numbers: What New the Covid-19 Crisis is Bringing to the Picture? SESAR Innovation Days (SIDs) 2020. Slides. Video.
Journal version: A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, H. Hardell. Arrival Flight Efficiency in Pre- and Post-Covid-19 Pandemics. Journal of Air Transport Management, available online 10.11.2022. doi.
B. Josefsson, A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, C. Schmidt. Integrang Weather Impact in RTC Staff Scheduling. SESAR Innovation Days (SIDs) 2020. Slides. Video.
Journal version: B. Josefsson, A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, C. Schmidt. Integrating weather impact in air traffic controller shift scheduling in remote and conventional towers. In EURO Journal of Transportation and Logistics. Published online 31 March 2022. doi.
The project is motivated from the KODIC project, where we designed mathematical models for controllers rostering in a RTC, using the number of IFR flight movements as an indicator of staff workload. A natural next step to reflect the full picture of the controllers workload is to include extra traffic, ground traffic and other factors into RTC personnel planning. We observed that quantification of the controllers workload by the number of scheduled flight movements is not good enough to reflect the full picture of the controller s tasks. According to LFV Operations, IFR traffic accounts for only ~40% of the workload at smaller airports, and in this project we will take into account other important aspects, such as ground traffic movements, bad weather conditions, seasonal variations, VFR and extra traffic movements. ATCOs perform in a multitask environment. A vast majority of related literature report the importance of workload evaluation, and most of it base the evaluation on several complexity measures (e.g., the number of aircraft in a sector, voice messages, radar screen clicks etc.), which are used for workload representation. But to the best of our knowledge, none of them has established a generic quantity for workload measurement. The main research questions are: Which factors contribute into controller s workload? How the workload at RTC differs from the workload at the traditional towers? In terms of planning traffic flow, an objective assessment of workload and airspace capacity (complexity) is crucial in order to find an appropriate level of human responsibility. This is important as the current method of evaluating workload and complexity in air traffic can be seen as imprecise, subjective, or both. This project will focus on complete and descriptive capacity modeling, which will quantify the total controller's load. Our mathematical framework will also include probabilistic modeling for increased predictability of the extra workload due to unscheduled events (extreme weather conditions, military exercise, hospital helicopters etc.).
Publications:
C. Massinger and H. Willers. En analys av den mentala arbetsbelast-ningen f r en RATCO vid hanterbara fl den. B.S. thesis, Link ping University, 2019.
B. Josefsson, J. Jakobi, A. Papenfuss, T. Polishchuk, C. Schmidt, L. Sedov Identification of Complexity Factors for Remote Towers. In SESAR Innovaon Days (SID 2018), Salzburg. Slides.
B. Josefsson, L. Meyer, M. Peukert, T. Polishchuk, C. Schmidt. Validation of Controller Workload Predictors at Conventional and Remote Towers. In ICRAT 2020, Slides, Video presentation.
B. Josefsson, A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, C. Schmidt. Integrang Weather Impact in RTC Staff Scheduling. SESAR Innovation Days (SIDs) 2020. Slides. Video.
B. Josefsson, A. Lemetti, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, C. Schmidt. Integrating weather impact in air traffic controller shift scheduling in remote and conventional towers. In EURO Journal of Transportation and Logistics. Published online 31 March 2022. doi.
B. Josefsson, T. Polishchuk, C. Schmidt. CAPMOD final report. September 2021.
Remote Towers Services (RTSs) are one of several technological and operational solutions that the SESAR Programme is delivering to the ATM community for deployment. Over the last years, the Swedish ANSP Luftfartsverket (LFV) has been working on the deployment of the RTS concept as an alternative to traditional Air Traffic Service (ATS). In 2015 and 2016 LFV and Swedavia conducted a joint feasibility study to analyze the impact of the transition from traditional tower ATS to RTS for five additional appointed airports in Sweden. The study confirmed that RTS is technically and operationally feasible, the level of risk is manageable, and that it is deemed financially advantageous to use RTS for these airports. In particular, the study identified several issues related to staff scheduling when multiple airports are operated from a single center. The main research questions are: How to distribute the workload from several airports over several controller working positions? How to assign a qualified controller at each position, respecting the constraints on the durations of controllers shifts, breaks and the necessity of maintaining ratings? Within the project we develop a general optimization framework designed as a flexible tool for future staff planning. The model under development is discussed with operational experts to provide a picture on staffing constraints as close as possible to reality. The results of this work help to evaluate efficiency of the RTC concept in general and give intuition for further deployment. Furthermore, the designed techniques and tools will be applied to other sets of airports being considered for remote operation.
Publications:
T. Andersson, P. Axelsson, J. Petersson, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, C. Schmidt. Configuration and Planning of the Remote Tower Modules in a Remote Tower Center. In ICRAT'16, Philadelphia, USA. Slides.
B. Joseffson, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, C. Schmidt. A Step Towards Remote Tower Center Deployment: Optimizing Staff Scheduling. In ATM Seminar 2017, Seattle, USA. Slides.
B. Joseffson, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, C. Schmidt. Scheduling Air Traffic Controllers at the Remote Tower Center. In DASC 2017, St. Petersburg, USA. Slides.
B. Joseffson, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, C. Schmidt. Scheduling Air Traffic Controllers at the Remote Tower Center. In Swedish Transportation Research Conference, Stockholm.
J. Dahlberg, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, C. Schmidt. Stakeholder Cooperaon for Improved Predictability and Lower Cost Remote Services. In SESAR Innovaon Days (SID 2017), Belgrad.
A number of wireless technologies are used by air traffic communication systems during different flight phases. From a conceptual perspective, all of them are insecure as security was never part of their design. Airlines and airports increasingly become targets of cyber attacks. EASA s new cybersecurity centre registers about 1000 attacks each month. With the widespread availability of cheap and powerful tools such as software-defined radios (SDR) and drones, the high-profile incidents, such as the case of hijacked emergency signals or alleged military exercises causing aircraft to vanish from European radar screens, became potentially feasible, which has been proven recently by hackers and the academic community. Recent contributions from academic and hacking communities have exploited potential vulnerability of air traffic communication to demonstrate attacks on some of the currently used technologies. However, not all of these contributions have resonated widely within aviation circles. There exists an obvious mismatch between security research and the aviation community concerning their approaches to the problem of air traffic communications security. Goals. Within the project we examine the security measures currently adopted in air traffic communication in Sweden, analyse technical characteristics of the wireless ATM communication technologies and examine the possibility of attacks and unauthorised usage. The pre-studies and the follow-up studies will build a bridge between the ATM and research communities in the field of wireless communication security. We will propose a set of potential countermeasures able to defend air traffic control systems and significantly improve the security of air traffic communication networks under the existing real-world constraints.
Publications:
A. Gurtov, T. Polishchuk, M. Wernberg. Controller Pilot Data Link Communication Security. Sensors 2018, 18(5), 1636; //doi.org/10.3390/s18051636, Presentation slides.
In ODESTA we proposed a unified approach to simultaneous design of TMA routes and control sectors. In particular, we developed a Mixed-Integer Programming optimization framework for computing aircraft arrival routes with limited turning angle that guarantees spatial separation of aircraft. The framework incorporates constraints on the merge points in the STAR that facilitate handling the traffic for ATCOs by ensuring that all aircraft on the arrival routes are spatially separated in all merge points. In addition, to allow for handling of both arriving and departing aircraft, we show that we can easily integrate constraints from the departure routes. The output routes constitute operationally feasible turn-constrained standard arrival routes (TC-STAR). We demonstrated feasibility of the developed optimization tool by experiments for arrival routes with limited turning angle at Stockholm TMA.
Publications:
T. Andersson Granberg, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, C. Schmidt. Automatic Design of Aircraft Arrival Routes with Limited Turning Angle. In ATMOS 2016, Aarhus, Denmark, Slides.
T. Andersson Granberg, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, C.Schmidt. Convex Sectorization--a Novel Integer Programming Approach. In ICNS 2017, Philadelphia, USA, (Awarded 3rd place conference paper).
T. Andersson Granberg, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, C.Schmidt. A Novel MIP-based Airspace Sectorization of TMAs. In EuroCG 2017, Malm , Sweden, 2017.
T. Andersson Granberg, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, C.Schmidt. A Novel MIP-based Airspace Sectorization of TMAs. In ATM Seminar, 2017, Seattle, Washington, USA.
T. Andersson Granberg, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, C. Schmidt. A Novel MIP-based Airspace Sectorization of TMAs. In AIAA Journal, published online July 3, 2019, doi.
T. Andersson Granberg, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, C.Schmidt. A Framework for Integrated Terminal Airspace Design. In FGC 2017, London, UK.
T. Andersson Granberg, T. Polishchuk, V. Polishchuk, C. Schmidt. A Framework for Integrated Terminal Airspace Design. In The Aeronautical Journal, 2019, Volume 123 / Issue 1263, pp. 567-585, doi.
J. Dahlberg, T. Andersson Granberg, T. Polishchuk, C. Schmidt, L. Sedov. Capacity-Driven Automatic Design of Dynamic Aircraft Arrival Routes. In DASC 2018, London, UK, (Awarded best in session). Slides.