The
newly renovated MITRE Aviation IDEA Laboratory in McLean, Va., has
been instrumental in the ongoing development and deployment of air
traffic management systems. This integrated environment can support
the assessment of many capabilities. (IDEA stands for Integration
Demonstration and Experimentation for Aeronautics.)
Our
Consensus-Building Process—an Integrated Approach
Air
traffic management (ATM) concepts are often described using reports
and briefings; and regardless of how well written or presented,
these methods may fall short in clearly explaining complex concepts
to key stakeholders. In the MITRE Aviation IDEA Lab, pilots, controllers,
airlines, and other key stakeholders can work with and view simulated
concepts individually, side-by-side, or in an integrated format.
These concepts can evolve along a path from lower fidelity storyboards
through the development of prototypes, demonstrations, and evaluations
to field implementation. The lab provides an enviroment for all
parties to share the experience of a proposed concept change, discuss
concerns on work-load, communication, safety, security, and roles
and responsibilities, as well as help formulate common views.
Simulation
Testing Leads to ATM Advances
The
MITRE Aviation IDEA Lab provides an extensive, real-time, distributed
simulation environment to explore and develop future concepts. It
gathers a broad set of integrated ATM assets for modeling, simulation,
and visualization of gate-to-gate operations. Assets are designed
to foster interoperability in simulations. Through the lab framework,
asset capabilities can be used in specific domains or brought together
for multiple domain studies.
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The
MITRE Aviation IDEA Laboratory in McLean, Virginia |
Integrated
Concepts for Far-Reaching Results
In
cooperation with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), National
Air Traffic Controller's Association, Airline Pilots Association,
civil aviation authorities in countries outside the United States,
and other aviation-related organizations, MITRE has helped improve
ATM systems through demonstrations and experiments in these key
areas:
- Runway
safety
- Airspace
redesign
- Traffic
Flow Management (TFM)
- En
route decision support
- Definition
and assessment of proposed area navigation (RNAV) routes
- Applications
of the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast/Cockpit Display
of Traffic Information (ADS-B/CDTI) to procedural applications
- Evaluating
sites for new and reconfigured airports.
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Demonstrating
the cockpit simulator, which is one of two such simulators
in the MITRE Aviation IDEA Lab |
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Using
sector controller positions for a terminal and en route
cross-domain experiment |
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Leading
a team in a dry run using the tower simulator |
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| Evaluating
candidate technologies for an airspace security experiment |
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Demonstration
and Experimentation Capabilities
The
Aviation IDEA Lab offers many integrated capabilities:
- Cockpit
simulation software has high-resolution
flight dynamics that enable pilots to experience lifelike demonstrations
with environmental effects like wind, turbulence, runway contamination,
and strut and tire effects.
- En
route simulation sector suite software enables
air traffic controllers to experiment with new and enhanced concepts
and tools, such as emulated radar display, flight plan processing;
and strategic-planning and decision-support tools, including conflict
detection, trial planning, flight information management, and
problem resolution.
- Terminal
simulation software is used to
devise navigation routes and redesign airspace for publication
and aircraft navigation. Users can easily define and assess proposed
RNAV routes to allow controller familiarity with new procedures.
- Tower/surface
simulation software drives the
new airport tower simulator by providing surface movement of aircraft
flying on approach, landing, and taxiing phases. Additionally,
this capability can be used to look at future airport configurations
or procedures.
- TFM
simulation software has high-fidelity
traffic management decision support capabilities, which allow
for the investigation of aircraft demand on an airspace volume
and to perform an impact assessment of specific traffic management
initiatives.
- Airspace
security simulation software
is used to experiment with improved airspace security situational
awareness. The capability provides a vehicle to evolve airspace
security capabilities within the FAA and across other government
agencies that share responsibility for the airspace security mission.
MITRE
Aviation
IDEA Lab
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