SESAR-DEMONSTRATORS HLA - works

Demonstrators will take place in live operational environments demonstrating services, technologies and standards necessary to deliver the digital European sky. This will help create buy-in from the supervisory authorities, civil and military stakeholders, manufacturers and operational staff, providing tangible evidence of the performance benefits in terms of environment, capacity, safety, security and affordability.

The establishment of a Europe-wide network of large-scale digital sky demonstrators offers a viable means to build confidence and bridge from research, through industrialisation to implementation.

High Level of Automation Support

The Digital Sky Demonstrators (DSD) under this topic aim to increase the level of automation support in Air Traffic Management (ATM). This includes:

• Operational efficiency and environment. Higher automation and interoperability will result in fewer tactical interventions by air traffic control (ATC) and increase predictability, enabling airspace users to fly closer to their preferred trajectories, thus reducing fuel-burn and emissions.
• Capacity. The increased level of automation support to ATC will contribute to optimising the use of the airspace. Improvements in ground operations predictability and the integration of advanced tools for arrival and departure will help to optimise runway use. Better connectivity between stakeholders, higher levels of interoperability and greater predictability brought about by increased automation will increase capacity.
• Cost-efficiency. Increased automation support, when adopted consistently, will contribute to operational harmonisation and eventually to cost-efficiency. A service-based approach and a well-defined required service level (e.g. for Communication Navigation Surveillance (CNS) services) will also help to achieve cost-efficiencies.
• Safety. The automation of some procedures will ultimately lead to improved safety and fewer errors, due to better allocation of human resources creating the greatest possible added value. Additionally, increased data-sharing will also foster the early detection of potential safety issues and their mitigation.

The airspace architecture strategy (AAS) recognises that humans will remain at the centre of the system. The participation of pilots, controllers and air traffic safety electronics personnel (ATSEPs) in the DSD will contribute to assessing the human aspects of increasing the level of automation in ATM (e.g. Human Machine Interface , workload, training needs).

The Digital Sky Demonstrators will help to increase buy-in from the ATM community to Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) Solutions and will provide further evidence to support the business case for them. The Digital Sky Demonstrator instrument will provide a basis for achieving a critical mass of early movers, thus accelerating market uptake, facilitating the industrialisation process for SESAR solutions and promoting their deployment. All stakeholders will have an opportunity to learn and exchange practical expertise related to the introduction of SESAR solutions.

The objective is to establish a network of Digital Sky Demonstrators to accelerate the transition to deployment of a number of SESAR solutions that are part of measure 3 under the airspace architecture study transition plan (AAS TP) in order to fully leverage breakthrough technologies that can contribute to the defragmentation of European skies (e.g. dynamic airspace configurations, solutions boosting the level of automation support, enhanced air-ground datalink capabilities, multilink environment, etc.).

The scope of the topic is described in terms of individual elements. A proposal shall fully cover at least one of these elements, but should also aim at addressing as many elements as possible.

• Increased automation support. This will cover improved conflict detection and resolution tools that are derived from the improvement of ground trajectory prediction, based for example on the use of advanced data from automatic dependent surveillance contract (ADS-C )reports, improved algorithms or improved use of meteorological data. The improvements to ground trajectory prediction may include the use of ADS-C data (e.g. gross mass, speed schedule, top of climb (TOC) and top of descent (TOD) altitudes, the predicted speeds at route points), improvements to calculations of turning manoeuvres thanks to the use of turn radius and the turning strategy (overfly versus fly-by), the implementation of catch-up manoeuvres (not depending on the extended projected profile (EPP) data), etc. (PJ.18-W2-53B, AAS TP Milestone 6: trajectory-based operations).
• New HMI interaction modes and technologies for Air Traffic Service Unit (ATSU). The aim is to minimise the load and mental strain on controllers in ATSUs . This may include the use of in-air gestures, attention control, automatic speech recognition, user-profile management systems, tracking labels, virtual and augmented reality, etc.(PJ.10-W2-96 AG (Attention Guidance), PJ.10-W2-96 ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) and PJ.10-W2-96 UPMS (User Profile Management System), AAS TP Milestone 4: gradual transition towards higher levels of automation supported by SESAR solutions).
• Flight-centric demonstrator to improve ANS productivity. This demonstrator covers the demonstration of flight-centric operations in environments where most benefits in terms of cost-efficiency are expected (e.g. daytime high-altitude airspace and daytime or night-time low-density airspace) (PJ.10-W2-73 FCA (Flight Centric ATC), AAS TP Milestone 5: transition to flight-/flow-centric operations).
• Near-real-time traffic management in sequence- or flow-based coupled AMAN-DMAN (Arrival – Departure Management tools) environmment. This will involve taking advantage of predicted demand information provided by local AMAN and DMAN systems and potentially include, in addition to the optimisation of runway usage, the balancing of flows in the Terminal Manoeuvring Area TMA (e.g. through the prioritisation of traffic flows where appropriate), and more consistent and manageable delivery into the en-route phase of flight, while still ensuring optimal usage of runway and TMA capacity (PJ.01-W2-08A1, AAS TP Milestone 4: gradual transition towards higher levels of automation supported by SESAR solutions).
• Use of enriched Demand Capacity Balance (DCB) Information and enhanced what-ifs to improve flight planning, including the Network Manager (NM) flight plan approval process. The aim is to reduce the impact of ATM planning on airspace users’ costs of operations, by providing them with better access to ATM resource management and allowing them to better cope with ATM constraints. The objective is to demonstrate solutions aimed at improving airspace users’ flight planning and network management through improved Flight Operations Centre (FOC) participation in the ATM network and collaborative processes in the flight and flow information for a collaborative environment (FF-ICE) context. Enriched DCB information will be available to improve Airspace Users (AUs)’ decision-making processes when planning or replanning trajectories and may include DCB constraints/measures, information such as air traffic flow and capacity management (ATFCM) regulations / calculated take-off time CTOT / short-term ATFCM measures (STAM), additional DCB information such as hotspots and congestion level indicators, etc. The information (provided either for the trajectory planned by the AU as part of a submitted flight plan or for alternative trajectories considered in the context of advanced what-ifs) can be used in different use cases: proactive management of fleet delays by AUs, collaborative decision making (CDM) processes triggered by flow managers (e.g. STAM/cherry-picking measures), etc. (PJ.07-W2-38, AAS TP Milestone 4: gradual transition towards higher levels of automation supported by SESAR solutions).
• Improving the connectivity between regional airports and the NM. This can be achieved thanks to the provision of departure planning information messages based on target times and a reduced set of turnaround milestones compared with full airport collaborative decision making (A-CDM) implementation. This reduced set of milestones is calculated quasi-automatically, reducing the need for airline / ground handler input. The expected benefits relate to predictability, flexibility and efficiency for all airport stakeholders, while improving stability, predictability and resilience at network level. The demonstration is expected to cover a significant number of regional airports. Note that the airports under scope are beyond those listed in Common Project One (CP1) regulation (AAS TP Milestone 4: gradual transition towards higher levels of automation supported by SESAR Solutions).
• Operating a multilink communications infrastructure. This must include several elements, the Enhanced air-ground datalink capabilities beyond controller-pilot datalink communications services, the testing of a multilink environment and the assessment of the operational benefits of the higher performance of LDACS within that environment.
  • Firstly, the Enhanced air-ground datalink capabilities beyond controller–pilot datalink communications service is a key enabler of automation. This addresses the need of airborne users to connect to the ground by different means to support ATS B1 and in particular the B2 communication services in an operational environment with representative traffic scenarios, hence demonstrating a seamless and automatic switch between different technologies in the air and in ground, based on availability and performance needs. The demonstration shall address the prioritisation of air traffic service (ATS) messages over any other data traffic over the same link, which is not possible via VDL2.
  • Secondly, the testing of the multilink environment must include the combination of at least a terrestrial and satellite technologies from those within the Future Communication Infrastructure (FCI): namely Terrestrial L-Band Digital Aeronautical Communication System (LDACS), Satellite Satcom (ATN/IPS and OSI (Aeronautical Telecommunications Network Internet Protocol Suite / Open Systems Interconnection) and Aerodrome Technologies in an ATN IPS/OSI environment. It should address where possible both Datalink and Digital Voice. Projects may include test bed platforms, to appropriately stress test avionics equipment, space and ground systems and support validation of standards as well as certification of equipment. The end to end demonstration must include the ground, space and the aircraft components, validation of the operational interface with pilots and air traffic controllers (ATCOs) (AAS TP Milestone 6: trajectory-based operations).
  • Thirdly, the demonstration of the next generation of air–ground datalink via LDACS. This will include within a multilink environment, the assessment of the operational benefits of the higher performance of LDACS (in particular the lower latency in combination with higher data capacity thanks to prioritisation of ATS traffic over any other traffic over the same link). Although the focus of this demonstration is datalink communications, the LDACS technology is part of the advanced integrated CNS concept; as a complement to the demonstration of the datalink aspects, the demonstration may also address the use of LDACS for alternative position, navigation and timing (A-PNT) and/or surveillance aspects, as well as digital voice via LDACS options (AAS TP Milestone 6: trajectory-based operations).
• Integrated ground–ground back-up voice between remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS) pilots and ATC. The demonstration should include the retransmission of voice communications over the VHF channel in support of the seamless integration of RPAS into the European airspace (AAS TP Milestone 6: trajectory-based operations).
• The initial demonstration of the next generation of air–ground datalink via LDACS. Nominal communications between RPAS pilots and ATC are via VHF relay to the RPAS, which means that in the event of a lost-link contingency, the remote-pilot ATC communication is also disrupted. The establishment of a back-up communication (typically phone connection) entails some delay at this critical contingency time; once established, the back-up connection via phone poses safety challenges due to the increased controller workload at a critical contingency time due to its lack of integration in the ATC communications system. The objective of this demonstration is to establish a reliable backup voice communication between the remote pilot and ATC, e.g. via phone or internet VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) that is fully integrated into the ATC communications system. The demonstration should include the retransmission of backup with party-line voice communications over the very high frequency (VHF) channel in support of the seamless integration of RPAS into the European airspace, and could also address ground-ground backup CPDLC communications (AAS TP Milestone 6: trajectory-based operations).

Activities that can be funded:

Target maturity levels required

The demonstrations under this topic shall address a Technical Readiness Level 8 (TRL8) maturity level (‘actual system completed and mission qualified through test and demonstration in an operational environment’) for a number of SESAR solutions delivered at TRL6 level by SESAR 1 and SESAR 2020 and which will contribute to increasing the level of automation support in ATM. This covers TRL-8 Actual system completed and "mission qualified" through test and demonstration in an operational environment (ground or airborne): end of system development, fully integrated with relevant operational systems (people, processes, hardware and software), most user documentation, training documentation, and maintenance documentation completed. All functionalities are tested in simulated and operational scenarios. Verification, Validation (V&V) and Demonstration completed, regulatory needs and standards are finalised.

Standardisation and Regulatory activities

The demonstrators must be closely connected to the standardisation and regulatory activities. Early engagement with the regulator during the demonstration process can significantly de-risk subsequent issues related to regulatory needs, approvals, safety assessments etc. for the SESAR solutions under scope. With this in mind, European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and/or National Supervisory Authority (NSA) involvement through the partners must be envisaged at the level of advising on the suitability of the safety assessments as well as risk and hazard identification and mitigation approaches required for the solution. The potential need for future rulemaking to support the eventual implementation of the solution must be identified in the European ATM Standards Coordination Group (EASCG) rolling plan. The work of the project must then be appropriately focused on delivering the material that is required (if applicable)for finalising regulatory needs and standards.

The following two specific deliverables addressing the regulatory activities and standards will have to be provided by the Digital Sky Demonstrators in order to guarantee the adequate consideration by the projects of the needs to coordinate closely with EASA and EASCG:

• REG: proposed SESAR Acceptable Means of Compliance to EASA to illustrate means to establish compliance with the SES Regulations, EASA Basic Regulation and its Implementing Rules;
• STAND: proposed SESAR Input to EASCG standardisation activities.