Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic Management Pilot Program (UPP)

FAA's UPP website

Purpose

The Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) Pilot Program (UPP) was established in April 2017 per Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Extension, Safety and Security Act of 2016, Sec. 2208 as an important component for identifying the initial set of industry and FAA capabilities required to support UTM operations. Analysis of test and demonstration results will provide an understanding of the level of investment required for each stakeholder's implementation. On January 14, 2019, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary, Elaine L. Chao, announced the FAA's selection of three FAA UAS Test Sites (listed below) to partner with the agency in the UPP.

As the FAA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and our new industry partners move forward, the primary goal for the UPP is to develop, demonstrate, and provide enterprise services, using a cloud service infrastructure, which will support the implementation of initial UTM operations. These enterprise services will support the sharing of information that promotes cooperative separation and situational awareness. UTM services to be demonstrated in the UPP include sharing of flight intent between operators, the ability for a UAS Service Supplier (USS) to generate a UTM Volume Reservation (UVR) — a capability providing authorized USSs the ability to issue notifications to UAS Operators regarding air or ground activities relevant to their safe operation — and share it with stakeholders (e.g., other USSs and FIMS).

The three partners are:

• Nevada UAS Test Site Smart Silver State
• Northern Plains Unmanned Aircraft Systems Test Site
• Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership

UPP Demonstration Shakedown

April – July 2019

UPP Demonstration

July 2019

Sponsor Name and Organization

Praveen Raju, FAA

Technical Partners

NASA

NIEC Project Lead

Daniel Fumosa

NIEC capabilities and/or suites used

software development, cloud infrastructure setup

UAS Contingency Procedures & Requirements (CPAR) HITL 2

Purpose

The main objective is to determine the level of automation needs for UAS contingency operation in the en route environment

Sponsor Name and Organization

Lacey Thompson, FAA

Principal Investigator

Sherri Magyarits, FAA and Sherry Chappell, FAA

Technical Partners

UAS inter-agency and industry partners, TGF, Communications Maintenance Section

NIEC Project Lead

Robin Peterson-Brown

NIEC capabilities and/or suites used

DESIREE, TGF, RCS Alcove (TRACON and Ghost controller), audio, video, and data recording

Shakedown

• September 17–21, 2018
• September 27, 2018
• October 2–4, 2018

Simulation

• October 16–18, 2018
• October 23–25, 2018
• October 30–November 1, 2018
• November 6–8, 2018
• December 4–6, 2018

Angle of Attack (AoA)

Purpose

Study and document the benefits, in terms of human performance, of using various forms of angle-of-attack display indicators to aid in upset recovery and diagnosis of air data system failures in transport category airplanes. This research requirement stems from the Commercial Aviation Safety Team Safety Enhancement 207 Output 1. For this project, scenarios and metrics for testing and evaluating the effectiveness of the angle-of-attack indicators will be developed using the NIEC Reconfigurable Cockpit Simulator (RCS). In order to evaluate the usage of an AoA indicator during the scenarios, an AoA indicator will be installed in the NIEC RCS. A type-rated pilot will evaluate candidate scenarios and the performance of the AoA indicator using the simulator. The output will be details for a written test plan for an experiment that will take place in Level D simulators with line pilots.

Sponsor Name and Organization

John Stuber, FAA

Principal Investigator

Angela Campbell, FAA

Technical Partners

L3

NIEC Project Lead

Robin Peterson-Brown

NIEC capabilities and/or suites used

RCS and data recording

Snapshot Capture

October 18–19, 2017

RE-Categorization of Separation Standards (RECAT) HITL TRACON HITL part 2

Purpose

The main objective is to conduct a Human-in-the-Loop simulation to evaluate the feasibility, safety, and complexities of the additions of the new RECAT categories as well as the level of controller workload and situational awareness compared to current operations under RECAT today. The NIEC provided Workload Assessment Keyboards (WAKs) for the Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) HITL part 2 in the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) laboratory at the WJHTC.

Sponsor Name and Organization

Paul Stramde, FAA

Principal Investigator

Victor Quach, Human Solutions, Inc.

Co Investigators

Jeffrey Tittsworth and Jillian Cheng, FAA

Technical Partners

TGF, Communications Maintenance Section

NIEC Project Lead

Mary Delemarre

TRACON Shakedown

February 20–21, 2018

TRACON Simulation

February 27–March 1, 2018

UAS Contingency Procedures & Requirements (CPAR) HITL 1

Purpose

Examine procedural solutions to three types of UAS lost link events focusing on the terminal environment. This simulation will also address the impacts of using these standardized procedures on Air Traffic Controller (ATC) personnel.

Sponsor Name and Organization

Lacey Thompson, FAA

Principal Investigator

Sherri Magyarits, FAA and Sherry Chappell, FAA

Technical Partners

UAS inter-agency and industry partners, TGF, Communications Maintenance Section

NIEC Project Lead

Robin Peterson-Brown

NIEC capabilities and/or suites used

DESIREE, TGF, RCS Alcove (TRACON and Ghost controller), audio, video, and data recording

Shakedown

• April 9–13, 2018
• April 16–20, 2018
• May 10–11, 2018

Simulation

• May 14–17, 2018
• June 4–8, 2018
• June 12–14, 2018
• June 26–28, 2018
• July 10–12, 2018

Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic Management Pilot Program (UPP)

Purpose

The NIEC team supported the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) Pilot Program (UPP) project. UTM is a separate, but complementary system to the Air Traffic Management (ATM) system that utilizes industry's ability to supply services under the FAA's regulatory authority where these services do not exist. UTM is designed to support the real-time or near-real-time organization, coordination, and management of primarily low-altitude (<400 ft. above ground level [AGL]) multiple BVLOS UAS operations. With UTM, the FAA makes real-time constraints available to the UAS operators, who are responsible for managing their operation safely within these constraints without receiving positive Air Traffic Control (ATC) services from the FAA. Interactions under UTM are more indirect than with the ATM system and are based on the sharing of information on airspace constraints, flight intent, etc. between applicable participating entities. The primary means of communication and coordination between the FAA, operators, and other stakeholders is through a distributed network of highly automated systems via application programming interfaces (API), and not between pilots/operators and air traffic controllers via voice.

The primary goal of the UPP is to develop, demonstrate, and provide an enterprise service to support UAS Traffic Management operations. UPP will be an important component of the initial transfer of NASA's UTM research technologies to FAA and Industry. The NIEC integrated and modified NASA's UTM code to provide additional Flight Information Management Services to the UAS service suppliers. The NIEC setup the integration and testing environment to demonstrate the integration of the UTM with National Airspace Systems (NAS) using the Federal Cloud Service. The NIEC used the FAA's DevOps toolchain (bitbucket, jenkins, and artifcatory) along with ansible scripts to build and deploy UPP for the demonstration.

UPP Demonstration

TBD 2019

Sponsor Name and Organization

Biruk Abraham, FAA

Technical Partners

NASA

NIEC Project Lead

Daniel Fumosa

NIEC capabilities and/or suites used

software development, cloud infrastructure setup

Established on Departure Operations (EDO) HITL

Purpose

Conduct a Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) simulation to study the impact of EDO procedures on En Route and Terminal Radar Approach Control Facilities (TRACON) Air Traffic Controller (ATC) personnel. During EDO, Air Traffic Controller (ATC) personnel can maintain aircraft separation using the EDO standard. Once aircraft are flying their Standard Instrument Departure (SID) route using EDO, ATC personnel will achieve minimum separation when aircraft are on diverging courses as specified in the EDO standard.

Sponsor Name and Organization

Robert Novia, FAA

Principal Investigator

Ben Willems, FAA

Technical Partners

TGF, Communications Maintenance Section

NIEC Project Lead

Mary Delemarre

NIEC capabilities and/or suites used

DESIREE, TGF, ATM Area (ERAM-R and D sides, SmartEye), Multi-purpose Area (simulation control), audio, video, and data recording

Shakedown

• November 8–9, 2016
• November 22, 2016
• November 29–December 2, 2016
• January 19, 2017

Simulation

• December 13–15, 2016
• January 24–26, 2017
• January 31–February 2, 2017

UAS Low Altitude Operating Concepts HITL 1

Purpose

To conduct a Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) simulation to assess the impacts of Low-Altitude UAS missions on Air Traffic Management (ATM) operations. Missions using the ScanEagle UAS are projected to be below 2500 feet, using the Northern California TRACON (NCT) airspace. This is the first of three HITLs. Three scenarios will be conducted in succession.

Sponsor Name and Organization

Maureen Keegan, FAA

Principal Investigator

Lacey Thompson, FAA; and Carolina Zingale, FAA

Technical Partners

inter-agency and industry partners, TGF, Communications Maintenance Section

NIEC Project Lead

Robin Peterson-Brown

NIEC capabilities and/or suites used

DESIREE, TGF, RCS Alcove TRACON and Ghost controller), UAS Area (ScanEagle), audio, video, and data recording

Shakedown

• October 11–14, 2016
• October 26–27, 2016
• January 17–18, 2017

Simulation

• December 7–8, 2016
• January 24–27, 2017

UAS Low Altitude Operating Concepts HITL 2

Purpose

To conduct a Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) simulation to assess the impacts of Low-Altitude UAS missions on Air Traffic Management (ATM) operations. Missions may use the ScanEagle or Predator UAS, and are projected to be below 2500 feet, using the Northern California TRACON (NCT) airspace.

Sponsor Name and Organization

Maureen Keegan, FAA

Principal Investigator

Carolina Zingale, FAA

Technical Partners

inter-agency and industry partners, TGF, Communications Maintenance Section

NIEC Project Lead

Robin Peterson-Brown

NIEC capabilities and/or suites used

DESIREE, TGF, RCS Alcove (TRACON and Ghost controller), UAS Area (ScanEagle), audio, video, and data recording

Shakedown

• March 3, 2017
• March 16-17, 2017
• March 24, 2017

Simulation

March 28–30, 2017

UAS Low Altitude Operating Concepts HITL 3

Purpose

To conduct a Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) simulation to assess the impacts of Low-Altitude UAS missions on Air Traffic Management (ATM) operations. Missions will use UAS and global observers within Genera En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) airspace.

Sponsor Name and Organization

Maureen Keegan, FAA

Principal Investigators

Carolina Zingale and Todd Truitt, FAA

Technical Partners

TGF, Communications Maintenance Section

NIEC Project Lead

Robin Peterson-Brown

NIEC capabilities and/or suites used

DESIREE, TGF, ATM (ERAM) RCS Alcove (NIEC dashboard and Ghost controller), audio, video, and data recording

Shakedown

• June 13-14, 2017
• June 22, 2017
• July 6,2017

Simulation Demonstration

July 11–13,2017

NextGen Advanced Trajectory Modeling (ATM)

Purpose

The purpose of this joint NIEC FTB project was to deliver aircraft intent and state data from different Flight Management Systems (FMS) to ground systems, and analyze the trajectory modelling improvements observed in those ground systems. The trajectory enhancements were captured and analyzed to quantify the level of improvements to the ground system modeling. NIEC personnel incorporated the data and integrated it into the FTB En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) and the FTB Time-Based Flow Management (TBFM) systems. The demonstration using Denver, Colorado (ZDV) airspace.

Sponsor Name and Organization

Biruk Abraham, FAA

Principal Investigator

Gary Mueller, FAA

Technical Partners

Embry-Riddle, MITRE, FTB

NIEC Project Lead

Gary Mueller, FAA

NIEC capabilities and/or suites used

software development

RE-Categorization of Separation Standards (RECAT) HITL

Purpose

The main objective is to conduct a Human-in-the-Loop simulation to evaluate the feasibility, safety, and complexities of the additions of the new RECAT categories as well as the level of controller workload and situational awareness compared to current operations under RECAT today. The evaluation aims to discover the impacts of the new proposed separation changes using Memphis airspace in the Tower Suite within the NIEC. A secondary purpose of the HITL simulation is to evaluate the feasibility, safety, and complexities of controller decision support tools that could display RECAT separation distances (for example: an Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model X [ASDE-X] displaying RECAT separation distances, a capture box, and an Information Display System (IDS)). The NIEC provided Workload Assessment Keyboards (WAKs) for the Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) HITL in the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) laboratory at the WJHTC.

Sponsor Name and Organization

Paul Stramde, FAA

Principal Investigator

Victor Quach, Human Solutions, Inc.

Co Investigators

Jeffrey Tittsworth and Jillian Cheng, FAA

Technical Partners

TGF, Communications Maintenance Section

NIEC Project Lead

Mary Delemarre

NIEC capabilities and/or suites used

DESIREE, TGF, Tower Area (ASDE-X, DBRITE, OTW visual system), Multi-purpose Area (simulation control), audio, video, and data recording

Tower Shakedown

• September 5–7, 2017
• September 26–28, 2017

Tower Simulation

• October 17–19, 2017
• October 24–26, 2017
• October 31–November 2, 2017

TRACON Shakedown

• August 8–10, 2017
• August 29–31, 2017

TRACON Simulation

September 12–14, 2017