Performance Evaluation of the Approaches and Algorithms for Hamburg Airport Operations

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have been independently developing and testing their own concepts and tools for airport surface traffic management. Although these concepts and tools have been tested individually for European and US airports, they have never been compared or analyzed side-by-side. This paper presents the collaborative research devoted to the evaluation and analysis of two different surface management concepts. Hamburg Airport was used as a common test bed airport for the study. First, two independent simulations using the same traffic scenario were conducted: one by the DLR team using the Controller Assistance for Departure Optimization (CADEO) and the Taxi Routing for Aircraft: Creation and Controlling (TRACC) in a real-time simulation environment, and one by the NASA team based on the Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA) in a fast-time simulation environment. A set of common performance metrics was defined. The simulation results showed that both approaches produced operational benefits in efficiency, such as reducing taxi times, while maintaining runway throughput. Both approaches generated the gate pushback schedule to meet the runway schedule, such that the runway utilization was maximized. The conflict-free taxi guidance by TRACC helped avoid taxi conflicts and reduced taxiing stops, but the taxi benefit needed be assessed together with runway throughput to analyze the overall performance objective

Looking into the Crystal Ball—How Automated Fast-Time Simulation Can Support Probabilistic Airport Management Decisions

Airport management plays a key role in the air traffic system. Introducing resources at the right time can minimize the effects of disruptions, reduce delays, and save costs as well as optimize the carbon footprint of the airport. Efficient decision-making is a challenge due to the uncertainty of the upcoming events and the results of the applied countermeasures. So-called "what-if" systems are under research to support the decision-makers. These systems consist of a user interface, a case management system, and a prediction engine. Within this paper, we evaluate different types of prediction engines (flow, event, and motion models) that can be used for airport management what-if systems by comparing them in terms of accuracy and calculation speed. Hence, two different operational situations are examined to evaluate the performance of the prediction engines. The comparison shows that accuracy and calculation speed are opposed. The flow model has the lowest accuracy but the shortest calculation time and the motion model has the highest accuracy but the longest calculation time. The event model lies between the other two models. The acceptable accuracy of a prediction tool is strongly dependent on the respective airport, whereas the calculation time is strongly dependent on the available decision time. Regarding airport management, this means that the selection of a prediction engine has to be made in dependence of the airport and the decision processes. The results show the advantages and disadvantages of each prediction engine and provide a first quantification by which a selection for what-if systems can happen

study protocol for a randomized-controlled trial

Background Functional abdominal pain (FAP) is not only a highly prevalent disease but also poses a considerable burden on children and their families. Untreated, FAP is highly persistent until adulthood, also leading to an increased risk of psychiatric disorders. Intervention studies underscore the efficacy of cognitive behavioral treatment approaches but are limited in terms of sample size, long-term follow-up data, controls and inclusion of psychosocial outcome data. Methods/Design In a multicenter randomized controlled trial, 112 children aged 7 to 12 years who fulfill the Rome III criteria for FAP will be allocated to an established cognitive behavioral training program for children with FAP (n = 56) or to an active control group (focusing on age-appropriate information delivery; n = 56). Randomization occurs centrally, blockwise and is stratified by center. This study is performed in five pediatric gastroenterology outpatient departments. Observer- blind assessments of outcome variables take place four times: pre-, post-, 3- and 12-months post-treatment. Primary outcome is the course of pain intensity and frequency. Secondary endpoints are health-related quality of life, pain- related coping and cognitions, as well as selfefficacy. Discussion This confirmatory randomized controlled clinical trial evaluates the efficacy of a cognitive behavioral intervention for children with FAP. By applying an active control group, time and attention processes can be controlled, and long-term follow-up data over the course of one year can be explored

METRICS TO EVALUATE MULTI-STAKEHOLDER AIRPORT CONTROL CENTER DECISION MAKING PROCESSES – A CRITICAL DISCUSSION

Since the beginning of the century, airport management decision-making processes have been under scientific discussion. The introduction of Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) has set an operational standard which is a about to be succeeded by Total Airport Management and Performance Based Airport Management. Within the design and validation of these concepts and the necessary tools multiple assessments of the decision-making processes have been made. Although being under research for almost 20 years, the right selection of metrics to evaluate the decision-making processes remains still a challenge. Reflecting the different stakeholder objectives and the intricate dependent working processes into metrics and performance indicators is complex and was in some cases not sensitive to the operational improvement. Summarizing the experiences of the past, this paper suggests a novel approach towards the evaluation of airport control centre decision-making processes. This approach assesses performance on bases of comprehensive indicators such as costs and decision time which are valid for all stakeholders. It allows the application of computational power to calculate reliable reference values as well as to identify optimization potentials. Moreover, this paper suggests to encounter objective metrics for human factors aspects as well as to consider additional communication and personality indicators. Last but not least recurrence analysis and cross-lagged panel designs are introduced to analyse effects over time and causal relationships between human factors and performance indicators. This novel approach to decision-making evaluation leads away from single performance indicator selection and assessment to a more comprehensive evaluation of the airport in connection with highly sophisticated communication pattern analysis

Verbundforschungsbericht WEHAM-Szenarien: Stakeholderbeteiligung bei der Entwicklung und Bewertung von Waldbehandlungs- und Holzverwendungsszenarien

Die Ausgestaltung der Waldklimapolitik in Deutschland ist mit zahlreichen Interessenskonflikten verbunden und bedarf Entscheidungshilfen zu derzeitigen und künftigen Handlungsoptionen. Eine Entscheidungsgrundlage für Handlungsoptionen zur zukünftigen Waldbehandlung und Holzverwendung sind die Ergebnisse der aktuellen Bundeswaldinventur (BWI 2012) und die darauf auf-bauende Waldentwicklungs- und Holzaufkommensmodellierung (WEHAM). Das von Bund und Ländern unter Anhörung der Verbände entwickelte WEHAM-Basisszenario beinhaltet die derzeitigen und erwarteten ökonomischen und legislativen Rahmenbedingungen der Waldbewirtschaftung und bildet die unter diesen Voraussetzungen zukünftig erwartete Waldbewirtschaftung ab. Im Verbundforschungsprojekt WEHAM-Szenarien wurden alternative Waldbehandlungs- und Holzverwendungsszenarien in einem Beteiligungsprozess mit Stakeholdern entwickelt und diese in einer Nachhaltigkeitsbewertung evaluiert. Im Rahmen einer Online-Befragung wurden Stakeholder unter anderem zu ihren Ansprüchen an die zukünftige Waldnutzung und Holzverwendung befragt. Zusätzlich wurden in drei Stakeholder-Workshops mögliche Zielgrößen der Waldnutzung und Holz-verwendung konkretisiert und diskutiert und Nachhaltigkeitskriterien erarbeitet. Die auf dieser Basis erarbeiteten Szenarien und Nachhaltigkeitskriterien fokussieren auf den Nutzungskonflikt zwischen Holznutzung und Naturschutz im Wald.The development of forest climate policy in Germany is associated with numerous conflicts of interest and requires decision-making on present and future courses of action. One basis for decision-making on options for future forest management and wood use are the results of the current Federal Forest Inventory (BWI 2012) and subsequently the forest development and wood resource modeling (WEHAM). The WEHAM basic scenario, developed by the Federal Government and the Länder, with the consultation of associations, includes the present and expected economic and legislative framework conditions for forest management, and represents the forest management expected under these conditions in the future. In the joint research project WEHAM-Scenarios alternative forest management and timber use scenarios were developed in a stakeholder process and evaluated in a sustainability assessment. Within the scope of an online survey, stakeholders were interrogated among other things about their demands on future forest and timber use. In addition, target values and sustainability criteria for forest management and timber use were concretized and discussed within three stakeholder workshops. The scenarios and sustainability criteria developed on this basis focus on the conflict of use between wood use and nature conservation in the forest

Urban Air Mobility Research at the DLR German Aerospace Center - Getting the HorizonUAM Project Started

Efficiency, safety, feasibility, sustainability and affordability are among the key characteristics of future urban mobility. The project “HorizonUAM - Urban Air Mobility Research at the German Aerospace Center (DLR)” provides first answers to this vision by pooling existing competencies of individual institutes within DLR. HorizonUAM combines research about urban air mobility (UAM) vehicles, the corresponding infrastructure, the operation of UAM services, as well as public acceptance and market development of future urban air transportation. Competencies and current research topics including propulsion technologies, flight system technologies, communication and navigation go along in conjunction with the findings of modern flight guidance and airport technology techniques. The project analyses possible UAM market scenarios up to the year 2050 and assesses economic aspects such as the degree of vehicle utilization or cost-benefit potential via an overall system model. Furthermore, the system design for future air taxis is carried out on the basis of vehicle family concepts, onboard systems, aspects of safety and security as well as the certification of autonomy functions. The analysis of flight guidance concepts and the sequencing of air taxis at vertidromes is another central part of the project. Selected concepts for flight guidance, communication and navigation technology will also be demonstrated with drones in a scaled urban scenario. This paper gives an overview of the topics covered in the HorizonUAM project, running from mid-2020 to mid-2023, as well as an early progress report

Can Urban Air Mobility become reality? Opportunities and challenges of UAM as innovative mode of transport and DLR contribution to ongoing research

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is a new air transportation system for passengers and cargo in urban environments, enabled by new technologies and integrated into multimodal transportation systems. The vision of UAM comprises the mass use in urban and suburban environments, complementing existing transportation systems and contributing to the decarbonization of the transport sector. Initial attempts to create a market for urban air transportation in the last century failed due to lack of profitability and community acceptance. Technological advances in numerous fields over the past few decades have led to a renewed interest in urban air transportation. UAM is expected to benefit users and to also have a positive impact on the economy by creating new markets and employment opportunities for manufacturing and operation of UAM vehicles and the construction of related ground infrastructure. However, there are also concerns about noise, safety and security, privacy and environmental impacts. Therefore, the UAM system needs to be designed carefully to become safe, affordable, accessible, environmentally friendly, economically viable and thus sustainable. This paper provides an overview of selected key research topics related to UAM and how the German Aerospace Center (DLR) contributed to this research in the project "HorizonUAM - Urban Air Mobility Research at the German Aerospace Center (DLR)". Selected research results on the topics of market potential and public acceptance, vehicle design (including battery degradation, onboard systems, cabin design, cabin simulation), infrastructure, operations (including U-space, safe autonomy, navigation, communication, cost modeling) and overall system modeling are briefly presented

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements