Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR AI Planning, Waiting for the Results? H.H. Hesselink R.R. Seljée 2nd Gap-Bridging Seminar PLANSIG 2002 TU Delft 21 November 2002

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR NLR is a non-profit foundation since 1937/1919 NLR provides technical and scientific contributions to activities in aerospace related areas NLR will independently serve public and private organisations NLR

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR NLR - Civil aerospace: 65%- Military aerospace: 35% - Aeronautics: 85%- Space: 15% - Operations: 60%- Development: 40% (non-aerospace: < 2%) Turn over: 70 MEuro.

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR NLR Large Wind Tunnels (2 low speed, 2 transonic, 1 supersonic, 50% shared in DNW) Simulators (flight, air traffic control, tower) Aircraft (Fairchild Metro II, Cessna Citation II) Computing environments (supercomputer, Network, middleware)

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR NLR NLR undertakes studies and implementations for Schiphol Safety cases Policy studies Simulator trials Implementations Co-operation with Dutch Industry (HITT) TCM (Taxiway Collision Monitoring) Triple-I: Intelligence Instead of Infrastructure Co-operation with Eurocontrol

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR MADS:Departure Planning Decision Support at Airports Runway Use Advisory and Inspection Systems: BGAS & BGCS Tools for Route Planning and Manoeuvre Planning Crew Assistant is a decision support system for a pilot Mission Support System Campal (MSS/C) is a powerful tool for military mission planning Planning in Air Traffic Management (ATM): the Big Picture Projects with AI Planning and Scheduling

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR ATM Planning: the Problem

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR Artificial Intelligence and Planning The traffic increase gives the operational need Problem not recognised by controllers (the end users) Academia wants to experiment new techniques Academia wants complex methods for operator modelling S ide effects: Establishing better collaboration Acceptance of new technology in an organisation Studying other solutions, e.g. use trains in case of Air Traffic Growth

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR The Problem: Division of ATM Arrival management Departure management Surface movement Stand allocation Flight management

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR The Problem: Many Actors Many actors involved: Airlines/AOC Pilots Air Traffic Controllers En-route ATC Approach ATC ATC Departure/Tower Other Airports ATC Apron Controllers Ground Movement Controllers CFMU Meteo Service Providers

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR Each airport is different but the same

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR Airport traffic management control loop Guidance control surveillance aircraft planning

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR Collaborate Decision Making (CDM)

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR How from FCFS to planning RESEARCH planning more advanced technology talk to operators increase efficiency OPERATORS first heard first served conservative (safety) no time / no interest one aircraft vs cowboys The GAP

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR How to bridge this gap? Start with foundations of the bridge Finances Interest from operators prototypes

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR Foundation: finances Contributions from research (NLR itself) Contributions from subsidiary projects (EC) Contributions from Eurocontrol Where is industry to subsidise this work?

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR Foundation: interest Make operators aware of their problem Make operators aware of solutions Convince operators that they will not be replaced (by automation) Convince operators of new challenges Convince airport managers of the need

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR Foundation: prototypes Build realistic prototypes Give operators the possibility to interact Large simulators, with controller-n-the-loop

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR The bridge Integration projects Demonstrations Emotional response to new things must be broken => give the operator a “positive feeling” about our work

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR Where is industry? Industry is waiting for results (to sell) Operators are waiting (if at all)...

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR NLR work to demonstrate to planners Introduce a planning and scheduling function at airports for scheduling traffic and assist traffic controllers Evaluate the use and benefit of the tool We build a planner with constraint reasoning (ILOG Solver and Scheduler) Symbolic representation of the problem based on the “flight”abject Constraints: separation, meteo, runway length, traffic distribution,...

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR Simplified model runway assignment runway SID structure 2 min. 5 min. exit A runway holdingA 2 min. 5 min. intersection take-off take-off time (sequences) SID allocation

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR HMI

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR The result of our work Operators start to understand the idea of planning Operators are willing to express their knowledge Industry has been invited to participate and show their operational products (radars and HMIs) Industry was invited for a “picnic day” => We brought industry in contact with end users

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR And further... More experiments in our tower simulator More demonstrations in real control towers Bring results to airport decision makers (presentations) Bring results to industry (software and design) … and sell it!

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium National Aerospace Laboratory NLR Questions ?