pyModeS: Decoding Mode-S Surveillance Data for Open Air Transportation Research

The availability of low-cost automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) receivers has given researchers the ability to make use of large amounts of aircraft state data. This data is being used to support air transportation research in performance study, trajectory prediction, procedure analysis, and airspace design. However, aircraft...

Three-dimensional conflict count models for unstructured and layered airspace designs

This paper presents analytical models that describe the safety of unstructured and layered en route airspace designs. Here, ‘unstructured airspace’ refers to airspace designs that offer operators complete freedom in path planning, whereas ‘layered airspace’ refers to airspace concepts that utilize heading-altitude rules to vertically separate...

Effect of Popup Flights on the Extended Arrival Manager

To assess the effect of flights departing within the horizon of the extended arrival manager (so-called popup flights), fast-time simulations are performed using an arrival manager research model. This model is tailored for operations at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and integrated in BlueSky, which is an open-source air traffic management...

Aircraft initial mass estimation using Bayesian inference method

Aircraft mass is a crucial piece of information for studies on aircraft performance, trajectory prediction, and many other topics of aircraft traffic management. However, It is a common challenge for researchers, as well as air traffic control, to access this proprietary information. Previously, several studies have proposed methods to estimate...

Weather field reconstruction using aircraft surveillance data and a novel meteo-particle model

Wind and temperature data are important parameters in aircraft performance studies. The lack of accurate measurements of these parameters forces researchers to rely on numerical weather prediction models, which are often filtered for a larger area with decreased local accuracy. Aircraft, however, also transmit information related to weather...

Simulation Model to Calculate Bird-Aircraft Collisions and Near Misses in the Airport Vicinity

Annually, thousands of birds collide with aircraft. The impact usually has lethal<br/>consequences for the bird, the involved aircraft can experience severe damage. The highest bird strike risk occurs at low altitudes. Therefore, aircraft within the airport area as well as the adjacent approach and departure corridors are especially vulnerable...

Flight Extraction and Phase Identification for Large Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast Datasets

AUTOMATIC dependent surveillance–broadcast (ADS-B) [1,2] is widely implemented in modern commercial aircraft and will become mandatory equipment in 2020. Flight state information such as position, velocity, and vertical rate are broadcast by tens of thousands of aircraft around the world constantly using onboard ADS-B transponders. These data...

Analysis of Airspace Structure and Capacity for Decentralized Separation Using Fast-Time Simulations

The work that is presented in this paper is part of an ongoing study on the relationship between airspace structure and capacity. The present paper investigates the degree of structuring needed to maximize capacity for decentralized en-routeairspace. To this end, four decentralized en-route airspace concepts,...

Three-Dimensional Velocity Obstacle Method for Uncoordinated Avoidance Maneuvers of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

This paper proposes a novel avoidance method called the three-dimensional velocity obstacle method. The method is designed for unmanned aerial vehicle applications, in particular to autonomously handle uncoordinated multiple encounters in an integrated airspace, by exploiting the limited space in a three-dimensional manner. The method is a three...

Taxonomy of Conflict Detection and Resolution Approaches for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle in an Integrated Airspace

This paper proposes a taxonomy of Conflict Detection and Resolution (CD&amp;R) approaches for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) operation in an integrated airspace. Possible approaches for UAVs are surveyed and broken down based on their types of surveillance, coordination, maneuver, and autonomy. The factors are combined back selectively, with...