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DIVISION NEWS
Air Traffic Management Technology Demonstration #1 (ATD-1) Highlights - Fiscal Year 2013

At the end of fiscal year 2013, NASA delivered to the FAA a significant portion of the Agency's first Air Traffic Management (ATM) Technology Demonstration (ATD) research and development capability, capping off a year of impressive progress towards field demonstration. The terminal sequencing and spacing ground tools of ATD-1 were delivered to the FAA's Time-based Flow Management (TBFM) Program, and included over 100 technical and programmatic documents. In addition to the technology transfer, the Aviation Systems Division supported ATD-1 by conducting three major human-in-the-loop simulation activities and successfully demonstrated the integration of NASA's ground-side tools on the FAA's Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS)-Elite displays, installed in the Division's air traffic control (ATC) simulation lab.

The successful demonstration of ATD-1 controller tools on the STARS displays was preceded by several in-depth meetings and testing activities at the Raytheon Corporation in Mt. Laurel, NJ. At the Raytheon facilities, NASA and Raytheon evaluated the display of the Controller-Managed Spacing (CMS) tools on STARS, and performed integration testing with STARS, the Multi Aircraft Control System (MACS) and the research Traffic Management Advisor (rTMA).

Three Fully-Integrated ATD-1 Test (FIAT) simulations were conducted during FY2013, along with a shakedown of a fourth FIAT simulation. The first FIAT simulation was run concurrently with the Terminal Sequencing and Spacing (TSS) simulation in conjunction with the FAA; this simulation specifically targeted evaluation of the CMS tools with traffic levels exceeding 120% of current operations, and used advanced FAA Performance Based Navigation (PBN) procedures coupled with current procedures. The NASA TMA and the FAA's Research TMA software baselines were compared. Active FAA controllers from New York, Boston and Phoenix ATC facilities participated in the simulations that were observed by MITRE and FAA researchers. The initial results indicated that using the TSS technologies, controllers could successfully execute the advanced PBN procedures simultaneously with the current procedures, with less delay and higher throughput than without the TSS tools.

The second FY13 FIAT experiment examined the performance of new software emulating both the FAA's En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) and STARS interfaces, and the rTMA software in the Phoenix Terminal airspace. The testing and simulations included a full controller complement using either NASA's newly acquired STARS capabilities or MACS STARS emulation and no performance differences were found. Data was collected on system interface issues and problems, software enhancements, and failure modes during heavy traffic conditions.

In September 2013, the ATD-1 team completed its first week of shakedown runs for a joint Ames-Langley simulation of FIAT, which evaluated the performance of the newly improved airborne spacing algorithm, ASTAR 12. Test scenarios were designed to validate the ASTAR 12 integration with the ground-based air traffic decision support tools (TSS).

The ATD-1 team members also observed operations at the FAA's Albuquerque Center Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZAB) in June 2013 and the Phoenix TRACON in September 2013, to observe operations at, and gain experience with, the proposed ATD-1 test sites. Team management briefed NASA Associate Administrator for Aeronautics, Dr. Jaiwon Shin, in March 2013, and provided ATD-1 briefings to the Tech Pilots Forum meeting in January 2013.

Four conference papers on ATD-1 research results were published and presented at the FAA/Eurocontrol Air traffic management Research and Development Seminar 2013 (ATM 2013), the AIAA Aviation 2013 conference, and the 32nd Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC). One of the ATD-1 papers received the best paper in session award at the 32nd DASC.

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