Enabling SAT single pilot operations: tactical separation system design advancements in the COAST project

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to describe the advancements of the activities that have been carried out, in the Cost-Optimized Avionics SysTem (COAST) project, to complete the design and in-flight demonstration of the Tactical Separation System (TSS), which is an automatic support system to the pilot’s decision-making, onboard on small air transport (SAT) vehicles under single pilot operations, in the separation management. Design/methodology/approach In the framework of the Clean Sky 2 funded project COAST, some enabling technologies for single pilot operations in the EASA CS-23 category vehicles are designed and demonstrated in flight. Among the relevant flight management technologies addressed in the project, the specific one devoted to the real-time support to pilot’s decision-making in maintaining the vehicle self-separation is the TSS, designed by the Italian Aerospace Research Centre. Findings The TSS design started in the year 2016 and has been completed in the year 2021 after successful in-flight demonstration in the dedicated flight test campaign. The system has been validated by means of several simulation campaigns and finally demonstrated its effectiveness in providing its intended functionalities (situational awareness, conflict detection, conflict resolution) to the pilot in real flight trials, involving the presence of real conflicting aircraft. Originality/value The TSS contributes enabling the implementation of single pilot operations in CS-23 category vehicles, thanks to the possibility to support the pilot with provision of consolidated traffic picture, detection of conflicting surrounding traffic and suggestion of suitable conflict resolution manoeuvre real-time during the flight, through dedicated human–machine interface designed on purpose. The TSS supports the new separation modes that are envisaged in the future SESAR ATM target concept, with particular reference to the possible delegation of the separation responsibility to the pilot.

Evolution of the Tactical Separation System to support the Integrated Mission Management System in the COAST project

“…It showed its effectiveness in suggesting to the pilot and updating, when needed, correct manoeuvre to avoid the infringement of the SV around the intruder. This allowed the TSS to reach the TRL 6 through successful real flight demonstration, as documented in the previous works [24] and [25].…”

Design advancements for an integrated mission management system for small air transport vehicles in the COAST project

“…More details about the TSS are reported in the reference papers (Di Vito et al , 2017b, 2021c, 2021d).…”

Evolved version of Advanced Weather Awareness System in the COAST Project: latest developments and validation

“…Meanwhile, in 2020 the design of the Integrated Mission Management System (IMMS, [5]- [6]) started, devoted to automatically optimize the trajectory considering weather conditions, air-traffic, terrain and other kind of obstacles. To this aim, it was necessary to allow the interaction of three different COAST systems, individually developed since the beginning of the project: FRS (Flight Reconfiguration System [7], managing the flight path in case of pilot's incapacitation), TSS (Tactical Separation System [8]- [9], managing tactical traffic separation and enhanced situational awareness) and AWAS. This required to introduce new functionalities in each technology, leading to the development of their related evolved versions, Evolved-FRS (core of IMMS) [6], Evolved-TSS [10] and Evolved-AWAS [11], to be integrated into IMMS.…”