ESCAPE and Pre-operational Trials
The EEC’s
ESCAPE ATC/ATM simulator is now used almost routinely for Pre-operational
Trials. These are validation exercises for testing new tools and concepts in an
operational Air Traffic Control Centre. The simulator hardware and software are
installed at the ATC site and connected to the operational networks. ESCAPE
comprises a full ATC functionality and two modes of operation can be used in
these trials. The ‘Shadow mode’ has the simulator following the live system using
the same radar and flight data. This is in order to give controllers experience
in using a new tool and obtain from them operational feedback. In the ‘Advanced
mode’ ESCAPE is used actually to control traffic. This is to prove the
suitability of new tools in a live situation. On 28th March this
year the Medium-Term Conflict Detection (MTCD) project registered a European
‘first’. Advanced mode was used in Rome ACC for 2 hours for live ATC on the
MIEW sector.
The PROVE
project started in 1998 and set out to put ESCAPE into a live situation with
the minimum of impact to the system. The component-based principles of ESCAPE’s
design have proved their worth in this respect. The new gateways and functions
for PROVE could be designed, developed and added to ESCAPE using existing
interfaces. These benefits are equally valid for any new component of the
system. The gateways for radar tracks, flight plans, ADS-B and correlation data
receive and process information from the live networks. The data formats are
converted and the information fed to the relevant components of the ESCAPE
Ground sub-system. The provision of gateways is necessary but not sufficient to
allow ESCAPE to be used in a live situation.
A
‘laboratory’ simulation, such as in the EEC OPS Room, processes a known and
valid set of data at times and conditions fully under the control of engineers.
A live trial introduces a considerable element of uncertainty. As an example,
Eurocontrol’s Integrated Flight Plan Processing Units distribute live flight
plans. These may be received well in advance of the live trial period and will
comprise the entire flight from the departure to destination aerodromes. They
have to be stored, filtered and corrected as needed for the live trial
configuration. Also, in the laboratory, ESCAPE runs with its own Air component
to simulate aircraft behaviour. In a live trial it has to take the situation in
the air as it finds it. The behaviour of the aircraft is not determined by the
system and there is no traffic sample to be used for repeated tests. Dealing
with uncertainty in a system is never easy, and the PROVE system designers and
developers have provided new tools and functions to do so.
To
support Advanced mode the simulator platform has also to demonstrate a level of
reliability, robustness and performance considerably higher than what would be
acceptable in the lab. The Advanced mode operation at Rome was possible because
of ESCAPE’s ‘operational’ quality. This quality is also demonstrated in UAC
Maastricht and IANS Luxembourg , where
ESCAPE is used for training of controllers throughout the year. Intensive
training plans call for guaranteed availability of simulator time and
robustness in use. ESCAPE passes these tests mainly because its design,
development, testing and validation are done in a professional way. The
Software Engineering processes are under continuous improvement and Industry
standards are increasingly being adopted (e.g. Avenue).
The
mission of the EEC’s ERIS Business Area is to deliver an integration platform for the validation of results from
ATM2000+ Research and Development. Pre-operational trials of new concepts in live conditions are essential
elements of validation. The ‘live
trial’ capabilities of ERIS’s ESCAPE platform are now taken for granted. They
have been achieved after 4 years’ work by the PROVE project. During 2002 the PROVE project
concluded successfully and its functionality is fully incorporated in the
standard version of ESCAPE. Although each live trial is different in its own
way and needs some on-site configuration, one simulator is now used in both
‘laboratory’ and ‘live’ conditions.
For
further information please contact Roger
Jerram, ERIS Business Area Manager.
Automated Support to Air Traffic
Services Programme / MTCD Field Trials