Effects of Lower Frame Rates in a Remote Tower Environment

In the field of aviation, Remote Tower is a current and fast-growing concept offering cost-efficient Air Traffic Services (ATS) for aerodromes. In its basics it relies on optical camera sensor, whose video images are relayed from the aerodrome to an ATS facility situated anywhere, to be displayed on a video panorama to provide ATS independent on the out-of-the-tower-window view. Bandwidth, often limited and costly, plays a crucial role in such a cost-efficient system. Reducing the Frame Rate (FR, expressed in fps) of the relayed video stream is one parameter to save bandwidth, but at the cost of video quality. Therefore, the present article evaluates how much FR can be reduced without compromising operational performance and human factor issues. In our study, seven Air Traffic Control Officers watched real air traffic videos, recorded by the Remote Tower field test platform at the German Aerospace Center (DLR e.V.) at Braunschweig-Wolfsburg Airport (BWE). In a passive shadow mode, they executed ATS relevant tasks in four different FR conditions (2 fps, 5 fps, 10 fps & 15 fps) to objectively measure their visual detection performance and subjectively assess their current physiological state and their perceived video quality and system operability. Study results have shown that by reducing the FR, neither the visual detection performance nor physiological state is impaired. Only the perceived video quality and the perceived system operability drop by reducing FR to 2 fps. The findings of this study will help to better adjust video parameters in bandwidth limited applications in general, and in particular to alleviate large scale deployment of Remote Towers in a safe and cost-efficient way

Design Study for a Virtual Work Station for Aerodrome Air Traffic Service Officers

Design Study for a Virtual Work Station for Aerodrome Air Traffic Service Officer

Remote AFIS: Development and Validation of low-cost Remote Tower Concepts for uncontrolled Aerodromes

Remote tower systems are widely established as a means to provide efcient air trafc control (ATC) from a remote location. However, even these cost-efective systems cause procurement, implementation, and maintenance costs, which make them unafordable for non-ATC aerodromes with low revenues, often only ofering an aerodrome fight information service (AFIS) or UNICOM information service. In this paper, two more inexpensive concepts enabling remote control at these aerodromes are presented. They are based on a simplifed camera set-up comprising a pan-tilt-zoom-camera (PTZ-camera) and a simple panoramic camera. A virtual reality-headset (VR-headset) is used to display the video streams and to control the PTZ-camera. The results of a validation study with nine ATC and AFIS ofcers using live trafc at the Braunschweig-Wolfsburg aerodrome (BWE) are presented. They are discussed with respect to perceived usability, virtual reality induced cybersickness, and operator acceptance. The system’s cost is compared to that of a conventional remote tower set-up. Furthermore, measured objective data in the form of angular head rotation velocities are presented and requirements for the camera set-up are deduced. In conclusion, the developed concept utilizing both the panorama camera and PTZ-camera was found to be sufciently usable and accepted by the validation participants. In contrast, the concept based only on the PTZ-camera sufered from jerky and delayed camera movements leading to considerable cybersickness and making it barely usable

Test Sites Operations Document for Prague-Ruzyne, Toulouse-Blagnac and Milan-Malpensa

The scope of the EMMA D1.6.1_TSOD (Test Sites Operations Document for Prague-Ruzyne, Toulouse-Blagnac and Milan-Malpensa) is to provide readers with a global view of each Test-Site first and then both to describe the current way of operating at these three Airports and the new implementing Equipments and Operational Procedures that will be tested through the Validation Activities. Information contained in this document will be consistent with the EMMA Operational Requirements Document and to plan the V and V activities with SP6

Manned and Unmanned Space Vehicles: Air Traffic Insertion & SESAR Requirements

Space Traffic Management, SESA

Manned and Unmanned Space Vehicles: Air Traffic Insertion & SESAR Requirements

Space Traffic Management, SESA

Controller-Pilot Data Link Communication – (TAXI-CPDLC)

Increasing traffic rates in aviation cause bottlenecks in safety and efficiency, particularly on the ground at major airports. Voice communication radio channels are often overloaded and pilots are less supported to find their way and to avoid other traffic. Controller-Pilot Data Link Communication during taxi (TAXI-CPDLC) is one promising service to bring benefits in terms of unload the radio channel by taking over ‘routine communication’ and to enable the transfer and representation of the cleared taxi route in the cockpit. This paper details the concept and results of a new TAXI-CPDLC service and provides recommendations for its future use and implementation

A-SMGCS VERIFICATION AND VALIDATION RESULTS FROM THE PROJECT EMMA (LEVEL 1 and 2)

A-SMGCS is a modular system defined in the ICAO Manual on Advanced Surface Movement Guidance and Control Systems (A-SMGCS). Such systems aim to “maintain the declared surface movement rate under all weather conditions within the aerodrome visibility operational level (AVOL) while maintaining the required level of safety”. With the complete concept of an A-SMGCS, air traffic controllers (ATCO), flight crews, and vehicle drivers are assisted with surface operations in terms of surveillance, control, routing/planning and guidance tasks. To harmonise the implementation of the first two levels of A-SMGCS, which focus on surveillance and conflict monitoring, and to further mature the necessary technology and operating procedures, the European Commission funded the project EMMA (European airport Movement Management by A-SMGCS) within the sixth framework programme. Within EMMA, A-SMGCS level 1 and 2 systems were installed at three European mid-size airports: Milan-Malpensa, Prague-Ruzynĕ, and Toulouse-Blagnac. Technical and operational trials were conducted at all three sites to verify the technical performance against the requirements and to prove operational feasibility. Additionally, real-time simulations were performed in order to tune parameters of the monitoring and alerting function and to also assess operational improvements under experimental conditions. This paper presents the EMMA validation approach, the main findings and results as well as lessons learnt of the first project phase (2004-2006)