Machine Learning Applied to Airspeed Prediction During Climb

International audienceIn this paper, we apply Machine Learning methods to improve the aircraft climb prediction in the context of groundbased applications. Mass and speed intent are key parameters for climb prediction. As they are considered as competitive parameters by many airlines, they are currently not available to groundbased trajectory predictors. Consequently, most predictors today use reference parameters that may be quite different from the actual ones. In our most recent paper ([1]), we have demonstrated that Machine Learning techniques provide a mass estimation significantly more precise than two state-of-the-art mass estimation methods. In this paper, we apply similar techniques to the speed intent. We first build a set of examples by adjusting CAS/Mach speed profile to each climb trajectory in our database. Then, using the adjusted values (ccas; cM) in this database, we learn a model able to predict the (cas;M) values of a new trajectory, using its past points as input. We apply this technique to actual Mode-C radar data and we consider 9 different aircraft types. When compared with the reference speed profiles provided by BADA, the reduction of the speed RMSE ranges from 36 % to 79 %, depending on the aircraft type. Using the predicted mass and speed profile, BADA is used to compute the predicted future trajectory with a 10 minute horizon. When compared with BADA used with the reference parameters, the reduction of the future altitude RMSE ranges from 45 % to 87 %

Apprentissage artificiel appliqué à la prévision de trajectoire d'avion

The Eurocontrol organization forecasts a strong increase of the European air traffic till the year 2035. This growth justifies the development of new concepts and tools in order to ensure services to airspace users. Trajectory prediction is at the core of these developments. Among these tools, conflict detection and resolution tools use trajectory predictions to anticipate losses of separation between aircraft and propose solutions to air traffic controllers. For such applications, the time horizon of the prediction is about ten to twenty minutes. Among conflict detection and resolution algorithms, some are operated in ground-based systems. The trajectory predictions must then be computed using only the information that is available to ground systems. In these systems, the mass, the speed profile and the thrust setting are unknown. Thus, using a physical model, the trajectory predictions are computed using reference values for unknown parameters. In this context, we are focusing on the climb phase. In this phase these unknown parameters have a great influence on the aircraft trajectory. This work relies on a physical model of the aircraft performances : BADA, developed and maintained by Eurocontrol. It also provides reference values for unknown parameters such as the mass, the speed profile and the thrust setting. This widely used model is particularly inaccurate for the climb phase as the actual values for the unknown parameters might be very different from the reference values. In this thesis, we propose to estimate directly the mass, an unknown parameter, using a physical model and past points of the trajectory. We also use supervised learning methods in order to learn, from examples, some models predicting the unknown parameters (mass, speed profile and thrust setting). These different approaches are tested using Mode-C Radar data and Mode-S Radar data with different aircraft types. The obtained predictions are compared with the ones obtained with the BADA reference values. These predictions are also compared with predictions obtained by directly predicting the future altitude instead of the unknown parameters of the physical model. These methods, depending on the aircraft type, reduces the root mean square error on the predicted altitude at a 10 min horizon by 50 % to 85 % when compared to the root mean square error obtained using BADA with the reference values.L’organisme Eurocontrol prévoit une forte hausse du trafic aérien européen d’ici l’année 2035. Cette hausse de trafic justifie le développement de nouveaux concepts et outils pour pouvoir assurer les services dû aux usagers de l’espace aérien. La prévision de trajectoires d’avion est au cœur de ces évolutions. Parmi ces outils, les outils de détection et résolution de conflits utilisent les trajectoires prédites pour anticiper les pertes de séparation entre avions et proposer des solutions aux contrôleurs aériens. L’horizon de prédiction utilisé pour cette application est de l’ordre de dix à vingt minutes. Parmi les algorithmes réalisant une détection et résolution de conflits, certains sont mis en œuvre au sol, obligeant ainsi les prédictions à être calculées en n’utilisant que les informations disponibles dans les systèmes sols. Dans ces systèmes, la masse des avions ainsi que les profils de vitesse ou de poussée des moteurs ne sont pas connus. Ainsi, le calcul d’une trajectoire prédite avec un modèle physique se fait en utilisant des valeurs de référence pour les paramètres inconnus. Dans ce cadre, on s’intéresse à la phase de montée pour laquelle ces paramètres influent grandement sur la trajectoire de l’avion. Ce travail s’appuie sur le modèle physique Base of Aircraft DAta (BADA) développé et maintenu par Eurocontrol. Ce modèle physique modélise, entre autres, les performances des avions. Il fournit également des valeurs de référence pour les paramètres inconnus comme la masse de l’avion, son profil de vitesse en montée, ou la commande de poussée des moteurs. Ce modèle, largement utilisé dans le monde entier, est particulièrement imprécis pour la phase de montée, car les valeurs réelles de ces paramètres sont parfois très éloignées des valeurs de référence. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons soit d’estimer directement certains paramètres, nommément la masse, à partir des points passés de la trajectoire, soit d’utiliser des méthodes d’apprentissage supervisé afin d’apprendre, à partir d’exemples, des modèles prédisant les valeurs des paramètres manquants (masse, loi de poussée, vitesses cibles). Ces différentes méthodes sont testées sur des données radar Mode-C et Mode-S sur différents types d’avions. Les prédictions obtenues avec ces méthodes sont comparées à celles obtenues avec les paramètres de référence. Elles sont également comparées avec les prédictions obtenues par des méthodes de régression prédisant directement l’altitude de l’avion plutôt que les paramètres du modèle physique. Nos méthodes permettent de réduire, suivant le type de l’avion, de 50 % à 85 % par rapport à la méthode BADA de référence, la racine de l’erreur quadratique moyenne sur l’altitude prédite à un horizon de 10 min

Predicting Aircraft Descent Length with Machine Learning

International audiencePredicting aircraft trajectories is a key element in the detection and resolution of air traffic conflicts. In this paper, we focus on the ground-based prediction of final descents toward the destination airport. Several Machine Learning methods – ridge regression, neural networks, and gradient-boosting machine – are applied to the prediction of descents toward Toulouse airport (France), and compared with a baseline method relying on the Eurocontrol Base of Aircraft Data (BADA). Using a dataset of 15,802 Mode-S radar trajectories of 11 different aircraft types, we build models which predict the total descent length from the cruise altitude to a given final altitude. Our results show that the Machine Learning methods improve the root mean square error on the predicted descent length of at least 20 % for the ridge regression, and up to 24 % for the gradient-boosting machine, when compared with the baseline BADA method

Machine Learning and Mass Estimation Methods for Ground-Based Aircraft Climb Prediction

International audienceIn this paper, we apply Machine Learning methods to improve the aircraft climb prediction in the context of ground-based applications. Mass is a key parameter for climb prediction. As it is considered a competitive parameter by many airlines, it is currently not available to ground-based trajectory predictors. Consequently, most predictors today use a reference mass that may be different from the actual aircraft mass. In previous papers, we have introduced a least square method to estimate the mass from past trajectory points, using the physical model of the aircraft. Another mass estimation method, based on an adaptive mechanism, has also been proposed by Schultz et. al. We now introduce a new approach, where the mass is considered as the response variable of a prediction model that is learned from a set of example trajectories. This Machine Learning approach is compared with the results obtained when using the BADA (Base of Aircraft Data) reference mass or the two state-of-the-art mass estimation methods. In these experiments, 9 different aircraft types are considered. When compared with the baseline method (resp. the mass estimation methods), the Machine Learning approach reduces the RMSE (Root Mean Square Error) on the predicted altitude by at least 58 % (resp. 27 %) when assuming the speed profile to be known, and by at least 29 % (resp. 17 %) when using the BADA speed profile except for the aircraft types E145 and F100. For these types, the observed speed profile is far from the BADA speed profile

Energy rate prediction using an equivalent thrust setting profile

International audienceGround-based aircraft trajectory prediction is a major concern in air traffic management. A safe and efficient prediction is a prerequisite for the implementation of automated tools that detect and solve conflicts between trajectories. This paper focuses on the climb phase because predictions are less accurate in this phase. The Eurocontrol BADA1 model, as a total energy model, relies on the prediction of energy rate. In a kinetic model, this energy rate comes from the power provided by the forces applied to the aircraft. Computing these forces requires knowledge of the aircraft state (mass, airspeed, etc), atmospheric conditions (wind, temperature) and aircraft intent (maximum climb thrust or reduced climb thrust, for example). Some of this information like the mass and thrust setting are not available to ground-based systems. In this paper, we try to infer an equivalent weight and an equivalent thrust profile. These parameters are not meant to be true, however they are designed to improve the energy rate prediction. One common thrust setting profile for all the trajectories is built. This thrust profile is designed in such a way that the estimated equivalent weight provides a good energy rate prediction. We have compared the energy rate prediction using these equivalent parameters and BADA standard parameters

High Confidence Intervals Applied to Aircraft Altitude Prediction

International audienceThis paper describes the application of high confidence interval prediction methods to the aircraft trajectory prediction problem, more specifically to the altitude prediction during climb. We are interested in methods for finding twosided intervals that contain, with a specified confidence, at least a desired proportion of the conditional distribution of the response variable. This paper introduces Two-sided Bonferroni-Quantile Confidence Intervals (TBQCI), which is a new method for obtaining high confidence two-sided intervals in quantile regression. The paper also uses the Bonferroni inequality to propose a new method for obtaining tolerance intervals in least-squares regression. This latter has the advantages of being reliable, fast and easy to calculate. We compare physical point-mass models to the introduced models on an Air Traffic Management (ATM) dataset composed of traffic at major French airports. Experimental results show that the proposed interval prediction models perform significantly better than the conventional pointmass model currently used in most trajectory predictors. When comparing with a recent state-of-the-art point-mass model with adaptive mass estimation, the proposed methods giv

Ground-based prediction of aircraft climb : point-mass model vs regression methods

Predicting aircraft trajectories with great accuracy is central to most operational concepts ([1], [2]) and automated tools that are expected to improve the air traffic management (ATM) in the near future. On-board flight management systems predict the aircraft trajectory using a point-mass model describing the forces applied to the center of gravity. This model is formulated as a set of differential algebraic equations that must be integrated over a time interval in order to predict the successive aircraft positions in this interval. The point-mass model requires knowledge of the aircraft state (mass, thrust, etc), atmospheric conditions (wind, temperature), and aircraft intent (target speed or climb rate, for example)

Comparison of Two Ground-based Mass Estimation Methods on Real Data

International audienceThis paper focuses on the estimation of the aircraft mass in ground-based applications. Mass is a key parameter for climb prediction. It is currently not available to groundbased trajectory predictors because it is considered a competitive parameter by many airlines. There is hope that the aircraft mass might become widely available someday, but in the meantime it is possible to estimate an equivalent mass from the data already available, assuming the thrust to be known (maximum or reduced climb thrust for example). In a previous paper ([1]), two mass estimation methods were compared using simulated data. In this paper, we compare these two mass estimation methods using Mode-C radar data. Both methods estimate the aircraft mass by fitting the modeled energy rate (i.e. the power of the forces acting on the aircraft) with the energy rate observed at several points of the past trajectory. The first method, proposed by Schultz et al. ([2]), dynamically adjusts the weight parameter so as to fit the energy rate, using an adaptive sensitivity parameter to weight each observation. The second method, introduced in one of our previous publications ([1]), estimates the mass by minimizing the quadratic error on the observed energy rate, taking advantage of the polynomial expression of the modeled power when using the BADA model. The actual mass is unavailable in our radar data. However, we can use the estimated mass to compute a trajectory prediction. This prediction is then compared to the actual trajectory giving us some insight on the accuracy of the estimated mass. We have compared the obtained predictions with the ones obtained using the BADA reference mass. The root mean square error on the predicted altitude is reduced by 45 % using the least squares method. With the adaptive method this error is divided by two

Predicting Aircraft Descent Length with Machine Learning

Predicting aircraft trajectories is a key element in the detection and resolution of air traffic conflicts. In this paper, we focus on the ground-based prediction of final descents toward the destination airport. Several Machine Learning methods – ridge regression, neural networks, and gradient-boosting machine – are applied to the prediction of descents toward Toulouse airport (France), and compared with a baseline method relying on the Eurocontrol Base of Aircraft Data (BADA). Using a dataset of 15,802 Mode-S radar trajectories of 11 different aircraft types, we build models which predict the total descent length from the cruise altitude to a given final altitude. Our results show that the Machine Learning methods improve the root mean square error on the predicted descent length of at least 20 % for the ridge regression, and up to 24 % for the gradient-boosting machine, when compared with the baseline BADA method

Learning the aircraft mass and thrust to improve the ground-based trajectory prediction of climbing flights

Ground-based aircraft trajectory prediction is a major concern in air traffic control and management. A safe and efficient prediction is a prerequisite to the implementation of automated tools that detect and solve conflicts between trajectories. This paper focuses on the climb phase, because predictions are much less accurate in this phase than in the cruising phase. Trajectory prediction usually relies on a point-mass model of the forces acting on the aircraft to predict the successive points of the future trajectory. The longitudinal acceleration and climb rate are determined by an equation relating the modeled power of the forces to the kinetic and potential energy rate. Using such a model requires knowledge of the aircraft state (mass, current thrust setting, position, velocity, etc.), atmospheric conditions (wind, temperature) and aircraft intent (thrust law, speed intent). Most of this information is not available to ground-based systems. In this paper, we improve the trajectory prediction accuracy by learning some of the unknown point-mass model parameters from past observations. These unknown parameters, mass and thrust, are adjusted by fitting the modeled specific power to the observed energy rate. The thrust law is learned from historical data, and the mass is estimated on past trajectory points. The adjusted parameters are not meant to be exact, however they are designed so as to improve the energy rate prediction. The performances of the proposed method are compared with the results of standard model-based methods relying on the Eurocontrol Base of Aircraft DAta (BADA), using two months of radar track records and weather data