Demonstration of the Traffic Aware Planner

Abstract

NASA has been developing and testing the Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests (TASAR) concept for aircraft operations featuring a NASA-developed cockpit automation tool, the Traffic Aware Planner (TAP), which computes traffic/hazard-compatible route changes to improve flight efficiency. The TAP technology is anticipated to save fuel and flight time and thereby provide immediate and pervasive benefits to the aircraft operator, as well as improving flight schedule compliance, passenger comfort, and pilot and controller work-load. Previous work has indicated the potential for significant benefits for TASAR-equipped aircraft, and a flight trial of the TAP software application in the National Airspace System has demonstrated its technical viability. As part of ongoing software research, development, and testing of the TAP software, we developed the capability to run the current build of the TAP software using the NASA Airspace and Traffic Operations Simulator (ATOS) with preloaded flight scenarios. Our demonstration is fully interactive and will allow participants to operate the TAP software on an iPad Air themselves, or observe the demonstrators operating it. The purpose of developing this capability is not only to assist with testing during software development, but also to acquaint researchers and potential stakeholders with the TAP human machine interface and the functionality and capabilities of the software itself.