As it was originally envisioned, Nowinski said, the SMART-NAS project was to focus primarily on how the introduction of a new technology – an integrated arrival/departure management tool, for example, or the assimilation of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) – might influence the system as a whole. But NASA investigators quickly realized the potential of such a network to mine real-time data and prevent safety incidents.
“The monitoring system itself is not useful unless we can understand what it is we’re looking for – the precursors, not the incidents themselves,” she said. “The goal is eventually to be able to monitor the data as operations are occurring and to identify problems as they begin to develop, rather than just being able to identify a problem as it’s occurring. That’s already too late.”
The SMART-NAS Test Bed architecture design is scheduled for completion in December 2015.
A Smarter NAS for the Future
The SMART-NAS project is aimed, ultimately, at easing pressures and assuring safety and efficiency in a system that must, out of necessity, become increasingly less dominated by human presence: “Humans are important to the system,” said Cavolowsky, “because they provide oversight and ability to detect anomalous situations, non-normal situations. And when the system is not complex – i.e., there aren’t a lot of aircraft in the air, or there aren’t a lot of weather problems, or other things that add stress and complexity to the system – they can solve problems very well. However, as demand grows and complexity increases, the ability for humans to deal with situations of much greater demand and higher density becomes more troublesome.”
DWR in use at American Airlines’ Integrated Operations Center. Courtesy NASA
Some 87,000 flights occur daily in the NAS, and NASA estimates that future increases, accompanied by the operation of unmanned aircraft in low-altitude airspace, could as much as triple air traffic by 2025. Air traffic controller and airline pilot regularly rank among the nation’s most stressful jobs, and a threefold increase in their burdens could extend beyond the capabilities of even the most skilled and experienced professionals.
The SMART-NAS project, in developing a simulation of networked airspace, offers a gateway to this future, integrating NextGen technologies into a coherent, self-monitoring, and self-adjusting system. It’s a step toward the “big idea” that NASA’s Airspace Operations and Safety Program is aimed at – Safe, Autonomous Systems Operations (SASO), a conceptualization that looks beyond NextGen to technologies and solutions that haven’t been developed yet, to ensure efficiency and safety in a sky filled to capacity.
This article first appeared in the NACA/NASA: Celebrating a Century of Innovation, Exploration, and Discovery in Flight and Space publication.