Flight deck automation: Promises and realities

Issues of flight deck automation are multifaceted and complex. The rapid introduction of advanced computer-based technology onto the flight deck of transport category aircraft has had considerable impact both on aircraft operations and on the flight crew. As part of NASA's responsibility to facilitate an active exchange of ideas and information among members of the aviation community, a NASA/FAA/Industry workshop devoted to flight deck automation, organized by the Aerospace Human Factors Research Division of NASA Ames Research Center. Participants were invited from industry and from government organizations responsible for design, certification, operation, and accident investigation of transport category, automated aircraft. The goal of the workshop was to clarify the implications of automation, both positive and negative. Workshop panels and working groups identified issues regarding the design, training, and procedural aspects of flight deck automation, as well as the crew's ability to interact and perform effectively with the new technology. The proceedings include the invited papers and the panel and working group reports, as well as the summary and conclusions of the conference

Towards an Open, Distributed Software Architecture for UxS Operations

To address the growing need to evaluate, test, and certify an ever expanding ecosystem of UxS platforms in preparation of cultural integration, NASA Langley Research Center's Autonomy Incubator (AI) has taken on the challenge of developing a software framework in which UxS platforms developed by third parties can be integrated into a single system which provides evaluation and testing, mission planning and operation, and out-of-the-box autonomy and data fusion capabilities. This software framework, named AEON (Autonomous Entity Operations Network), has two main goals. The first goal is the development of a cross-platform, extensible, onboard software system that provides autonomy at the mission execution and course-planning level, a highly configurable data fusion framework sensitive to the platform's available sensor hardware, and plug-and-play compatibility with a wide array of computer systems, sensors, software, and controls hardware. The second goal is the development of a ground control system that acts as a test-bed for integration of the proposed heterogeneous fleet, and allows for complex mission planning, tracking, and debugging capabilities. The ground control system should also be highly extensible and allow plug-and-play interoperability with third party software systems. In order to achieve these goals, this paper proposes an open, distributed software architecture which utilizes at its core the Data Distribution Service (DDS) standards, established by the Object Management Group (OMG), for inter-process communication and data flow. The design decisions proposed herein leverage the advantages of existing robotics software architectures and the DDS standards to develop software that is scalable, high-performance, fault tolerant, modular, and readily interoperable with external platforms and software

Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 320)

This bibliography lists 125 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System during January, 1989. Subject coverage includes: aerospace medicine and psychology, life support systems and controlled environments, safety equipment, exobiology and extraterrestrial life, and flight crew behavior and performance

Development of Advanced Verification and Validation Procedures and Tools for the Certification of Learning Systems in Aerospace Applications

Adaptive control technologies that incorporate learning algorithms have been proposed to enable automatic flight control and vehicle recovery, autonomous flight, and to maintain vehicle performance in the face of unknown, changing, or poorly defined operating environments. In order for adaptive control systems to be used in safety-critical aerospace applications, they must be proven to be highly safe and reliable. Rigorous methods for adaptive software verification and validation must be developed to ensure that control system software failures will not occur. Of central importance in this regard is the need to establish reliable methods that guarantee convergent learning, rapid convergence (learning) rate, and algorithm stability. This paper presents the major problems of adaptive control systems that use learning to improve performance. The paper then presents the major procedures and tools presently developed or currently being developed to enable the verification, validation, and ultimate certification of these adaptive control systems. These technologies include the application of automated program analysis methods, techniques to improve the learning process, analytical methods to verify stability, methods to automatically synthesize code, simulation and test methods, and tools to provide on-line software assurance

Decision Analytics and Decentralized Ledger Technologies for Determination and Preservation of Spare Part Value in Aircraft Maintenance

Aircraft spare parts are used to quickly replace defective parts and ideally avoid expensive aircraft-on-ground situations. Understanding the Fair Market Value of surplus parts is of eminent importance for the competitive advantage of a company. Decisions such as purchase, sale, storage or scrapping are made on the basis of the determined value. Domain experts state that the value of a part depends significantly on its specific characteristics, condition and workshop event history. If the documentation of this history is incomplete, this can lead to a complete loss of value of the part, since, for example, safety-relevant parts may no longer be used without complete documentation. For companies that want to be able to survive in the highly competitive Maintenance Repair and Overhaul market, the use of digital technologies for data-based decision making has become unavoidable. The drowning of data while at the same time thirsting for information affects all market participants who manage their spare parts using digital technologies. The competitive advantage over others is now to use this data efficiently and make decisions based on data rather than experience and instinct. On the other hand, processes still exist in this industry that require documentation in paper form. One such process is the documentation of workshop events for safety-relevant spare parts by means of certificates. Low mutual trust and the heterogeneity of regional requirements in a global market prohibit the establishment of a central instance for data management. The determination of a Fair Market Value was carried out manually for a long time, with great personnel effort and low reliability. The design of an Automated Spare Part Valuation concept provides a basis for data owners to use the amount of data reliably. Similar implementations in industry and with integrated automated evaluation prove the usability. The problem of incomplete certificates of workshop events is addressed and solved by the conception, implementation and evaluation of a Blockchain-based Certification System. The characteristics of a blockchain, in particular its decentralization and persistence, meet the requirements that could not previously be met in an environment with a lack of trust and due to the danger of a single point of failure.Flugzeugersatzteile dienen dem schnellen Austausch von defekten Teilen und vermeiden im Idealfall teure Aircraft-on-Ground-Situationen. Das Verständnis für einen Fair Market Value der überschüssigen Teile ist von eminenter Bedeutung für den Wettbewerbsvorteil eines Unternehmens. Entscheidungen wie Kauf, Verkauf, Einlagerung oder Verschrottung werden auf Basis des ermittelten Werts getroffen. Domänenexperten geben an, dass der Wert eines Teils maßgeblich von seinen spezifischen Charakteristika, seinem Zustand und seiner Werkstattereignishistorie abhängt. Ist der Nachweis dieser Historie lückenhaft, so kann es zum vollständigen Wertverlust des Teils kommen, da etwa sicherheitsrelevante Teile ohne lückenlose Nachweise nicht weiter verwendet werden dürfen. Für Unternehmen, die in der Lage sein wollen im starken Wettbewerb des Maintenance Repair and Overhaul Markts zu bestehen ist der Einsatz digitaler Technologien zur datenbasierten Entscheidungsfindung mittlerweile unumgänglich. Das Ertrinken an Daten bei gleichzeitigem Verdursten an Informationen trifft alle Marktteilnehmer, die ihre Ersatzteile mittels digitaler Technologien verwalten. Der Wettbewerbsvorteil gegenüber anderen besteht nun darin, diese Daten effizient zu nutzen und Entscheidungen weniger nach Erfahrung und Instinkt, sondern datenbasiert zu treffen. Andererseits existieren auch in dieser Branche immer noch Prozesse, die eine Dokumentation in Papierform erfordern. Ein solcher Prozess ist die Dokumentation von Werkstattereignissen für sicherheitsrelevante Ersatzteile durch Zertifikate. Ein geringes Vertrauen untereinander und die Heterogenität regionaler Anforderungen in einem globalen Markt verbieten die Etablierung einer zentralen Instanz zur Verwaltung der Daten. Die Ermittlung eines Fair Market Value erfolgte lange Zeit manuell, unter großem personellen Aufwand und geringer Zuverlässigkeit. Die Konzeption eines Automated Spare Part Valuation Konzepts bildet eine Grundlage für Inhaber von Daten, um die Menge an Daten verlässlich zu nutzen. Ähnliche Umsetzungen in der Industrie und mit integrierter automatisierter Bewertung belegen die Einsatzfähigkeit. Das Problem der lückenhaften Zertifikate von Werkstattereignissen wird durch die Konzeptionierung, Implementierung und Evaluation eines Blockchain-based Certification System adressiert und gelöst. Die Eigenschaften einer Blockchain, insbesondere die Dezentralität und Persistenz, erfüllen die Anforderungen, die in einem Umfeld mit mangelndem Vertrauen und aufgrund der Gefahr eines Single Point of Failure, bisher nicht zu erfüllen waren

NASA Technology Plan 1998

This NASA Strategic Plan describes an ambitious, exciting vision for the Agency across all its Strategic Enterprises that addresses a series of fundamental questions of science and research. This vision is so challenging that it literally depends on the success of an aggressive, cutting-edge advanced technology development program. The objective of this plan is to describe the NASA-wide technology program in a manner that provides not only the content of ongoing and planned activities, but also the rationale and justification for these activities in the context of NASA's future needs. The scope of this plan is Agencywide, and it includes technology investments to support all major space and aeronautics program areas, but particular emphasis is placed on longer term strategic technology efforts that will have broad impact across the spectrum of NASA activities and perhaps beyond. Our goal is to broaden the understanding of NASA technology programs and to encourage greater participation from outside the Agency. By relating technology goals to anticipated mission needs, we hope to stimulate additional innovative approaches to technology challenges and promote more cooperative programs with partners outside NASA who share common goals. We also believe that this will increase the transfer of NASA-sponsored technology into nonaerospace applications, resulting in an even greater return on the investment in NASA

Aeronautical Engineering: A continuing bibliography, supplement 120

This bibliography contains abstracts for 297 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in February 1980

Створена система оцінки якості техніки пілотування екіпажу польоту різної складності

Робота публікується згідно наказу ректора від 27.05.2021 р. №311/од "Про розміщення кваліфікаційних робіт вищої освіти в репозиторії НАУ". Керівник дипломної роботи: доцент кафедри авіоніки, Грищенко Юрій ВіталійовичDetermining the totality of erroneous actions of aviation specialists is an essential and noticeably important process in the implementation of the principles of a high degree of flight safety. Ensuring the localization of erroneous actions of aviation specialists can be done using many tools and methods. Among them - the method of training operators to counteract factor load in anti-stress training in order to improve their psychophysical qualities. Determining the psycho-physiological qualities of a person during the selection and training of aviation specialists is one of the ways to improve safety, reliability and efficiency, as well as change for the better the number of aviation accidents. The process of psychophysiological selection in civil aviation is the identification of a set of processes aimed at assessing the degree of development of professionally significant abilities and efficiency of work in the cabin. The nature of psychophysiological selection arises from predicting the effectiveness of training and professional functioning of operators on the basis of their personal psychophysiological characteristics. Then, depending on the requirements for anti-stress training, during psychophysiological selection are: - selection of persons who have such qualities that allow the implementation of professional obligations with a high level of reliability in extremely difficult and responsible conditions; - identification of persons on their psycho-physiological characteristics and mental state, incapable of training and activities in civil aviation and who pose a serious threat to flights; - training of the operator to function under the simultaneous influence of several failures for anti-stress training;Важливим є встановлення сукупності помилкових дій авіаційних спеціалістів і помітно важливий процес у реалізації принципів високого ступеня безпеки польотів. Забезпечення локалізації помилкових дій авіаційних спеціалістів може можна зробити за допомогою багатьох інструментів і методів. Серед них - методика підготовки операторів до протидіяти факторному навантаженню в антистресовому тренінгу з метою покращення їх психофізичного стану якості. Визначення психофізіологічних якостей особи під час відбору і підготовка авіаційних спеціалістів є одним із шляхів підвищення безпеки, надійності та ефективності, а також зміни на краще кількості авіаційних подій. Процесом психофізіологічного відбору в цивільній авіації є ідентифікація сукупність процесів, спрямованих на оцінку ступеня розвитку професійно значні здібності та ефективність роботи в салоні. Природа психофіз Відбір виникає на основі прогнозування ефективності навчання та професійної діяльності операторів на основі їх особистих психофізіологічних особливостей. Потім, залежно від вимог до антистресової підготовки, під час психофіз вибір є: - відбір осіб, які володіють такими якостями, що дозволяють реалізацію професійні зобов'язання з високим рівнем надійності в надзвичайно складних і відповідальні умови; - ідентифікація осіб за їх психофізіологічними та психічними ознаками держави, нездатні до навчання та діяльності в цивільній авіації та які становлять серйозну загрозу для польоти; - навчання оператора функціонуванню під одночасним впливом кількох невдачі на антистресових тренуваннях

Comparative Analysis of Different Classes of On-line State Estimators for Aerodynamics Angles and True Airspeed Sensors for Applications to the Sensor Failure Problem

Throughout aviation history, there have been numerous incidents due to sensor failure that have caused a range of issues from loss of control of the aircraft to crashes resulting in loss of human life. Although there are many hardware-based solutions to this problem, the threat of control hardware failure still exists. This work investigates the efficacy of implementing neural networks (NN) and Kalman filters (KF) to solve the accommodation portion of the sensor failure detection, identification, and accommodation (SFDIA) problem through on-line real-time estimation of specific aircraft dynamic parameters. The implementation of on-line estimation architectures into the aircraft flight control system provides multiple advantages such as cost effectiveness and drastic decrease in weight. The multilayer perceptron (MLP) NN, extended minimal resource allocation (neural) network (EMRAN), extended KF (EKF), and unscented KF (UKF) have been evaluated in this effort for the purpose of providing analytical redundancy (AR) for estimating the parameter of the ‘failed’ sensor in lieu of physical redundancy. Each NN-based and KF-based estimator was compared using preset criteria including estimation accuracy, time to perform, and complexity of the model. The overall results have shown that the NN-based sensor failure accommodation (SFA) schemes outperform the KF-based SFA schemes with no undetected faults nor false alarms and significantly smaller estimation errors. More specifically, the EMRAN-based neural estimator has the best performance of all four schemes followed by the MLP NN, UKF, and EKF, respectively. This research shows the great potential of analytical redundancy-based approaches as opposed to physical or hardware redundancy to improved aviation safety for preventing future crashes due to sensor failures

Joint University Program for Air Transportation Research, 1989-1990

Research conducted during the academic year 1989-90 under the NASA/FAA sponsored Joint University Program for Air Transportation research is discussed. Completed works, status reports and annotated bibliographies are presented for research topics, which include navigation, guidance and control theory and practice, aircraft performance, human factors, and expert systems concepts applied to airport operations. An overview of the year's activities for each university is also presented