The capability of High Level Architecture (HLA) to support interaction between simulation models and real-world control, communication, and information systems provides the potential for future integration of fast-time simulation analysis not only with human performance models but also with such research resources as aircraft flight simulators, test aircraft, human-in-the-loop real-time simulations, and live NAS operations. While there will be some additional initial effort in configuring the air traffic simulation and human performance models to support HLA standards, the advantages of future interoperability and the ability to interface with a broader range of external models and data sources appears to justify the effort.
With this background, the third year of the research involved effecting a linkage between a fast-time traffic operations simulation model and a cognitive human performance model. In particular, primary research tasks accomplished included:
Identification of a scenario of air traffic in an en route sector with clear-air turbulence (CAT) and specification of an experimental design of simulation runs to assess the impacts of a CAT sensor technology in that sector. Traffic volumes and routes for the scenario were derived from Enhanced Traffic Management System (ETMS) data for an en route sector in the Boston Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC).
Specification of flight crew and controller procedures, including message communications, related to aircraft transit of an en route sector and encounter with clear-air turbulence events.
Development of an agent-based simulation model of air traffic in an en route sector with CAT. The model includes agents for controllers, flight crews, aircraft, radar surveillance, communication channels, CAT weather events, and sensors. The simulation was built using the Reconfigurable Flight Simulator (RFS) simulation technology, which implements agent-based, hybrid (continuous time/discrete event) simulations. The RFS-based model (i.e., without the MIDAS linkage) was executed to simulate a two-hour period in the sector, including 40 aircraft transiting the sector, some of which encountered turbulence and issued PIREPs. Evasive maneuvers were not simulated for this test.
Design of detailed specifications for human performance modeling, using the Man-machine Integration Design and Analysis System (MIDAS), of flight crew and controller behavior in an en route sector with CAT. These specifications were only partially coded into MIDAS due to effort required to design and implement the messaging and networking process necessary for the RFS-MIDAS linkage.
Linkage of the RFS and MIDAS simulations, with the MIDAS flight crews and controller providing micro-level representations of the corresponding RFS flight crews and controller, implemented on a suite of computer processors using the HLA interface standards and RTI software.
Demonstration of the RFS-MIDAS linkage by simulating the RFS controller of the non-subject sector and the RFS-wrapped MIDAS controller of the subject sector interacting with each other and with the RFS-wrapped MIDAS flight crew of a single, sensor-equipped aircraft being handed off into and transiting the subject sector, encountering turbulence events and issuing associated PIREPs, and being handed off out of the sector. The single-aircraft test demonstration highlighted the need, in order to fully simulate the sector traffic, for refinement of the RFS and MIDAS agent models and the networking interface procedures for improved runtime performance, resolution of synchronization issues, and completion of the human performance modeling of the flight crew and controller procedures.
Key conclusions from this final phase of the research project are:
The objectives of this final phase of the research were met, i.e., we achieved a dynamic linkage of a simulation of air traffic through a region of airspace and human performance models of pilot and controller behavior, and we demonstrated the linked simulation model for a clear-air turbulence sensor technology scenario.
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