As for the Engage XYZ. Several PhD students are working on how to use radar data and flight plans to improve ATM management. Mostly, the projects seemed a bit immature (including our Diapason). Nevertheless, there is large potential to make fairly accurate predictions already at a tactical and pre-tactical level. Indeed, some of these “Data-driven trajectory predictions” models are able to predict take-off and landing times for a percentage up to 90% of flights in a day. Obviously, in order to obtain reliable results many conditions must ensue. For example, they can consider only some airports, at a specific date, and so on. But still, this is not a bad start.
Different research groups are making efforts to provide ANSPs with tools for effectively programming the allocation of personnel and the airspace division in the strategic and pre-tactical phases. The ultimate goal is to improve the ATM service and manage more flights by optimizing resources and limiting congestion.
In addition to the direct involvement in DIAPasON, that collects a bit of the legacy of ELSA and, more broadly, perhaps even of Giuseppe’s work in ADAPT, this concerns us in other ways. For example, optimal planning positively reflects on the Human Factors aspects of the whole system. Therefore, people have to endure less effort, stress, emergencies, etc.
Regarding the use of data, the session “Complexity, Data Science and Data Sources” was very interesting. Philippe Monmousseau, starting from Flightpath 2050’s goal of making 90% of intra-European journeys within 4 hours, showed models to calculate D2D travel time using nominal flight and train data, and average data of intra-city journeys published by Uber (for Paris, London, Amsterdam), showing among other things which are the time slot, the days of the week and the most convenient means to use to move between any pair of these three cities within 4 hours.
Also in this session, Gerald showed their super-fancy models of how delays are propagated in the network, what are the chances of recovering the system as a whole.
Regarding Human Factors, Carl Westin presented a support tool to help instructors teach air controllers the correct visual patterns to follow (what to look for, where and in what time).
Last but not least, the “Meteorology” section. Although it didn’t focus on meteorology so much. Still, it used statistical methods to predict possible conflicts (up to an hour in advance), calculate the probability of conflict, and what the best resolution strategy is.
For the rest, in my opinion the other presentations were interesting because in general the international community tends to set itself objectives in rather vague terms (such as “door-to-door trips within the four hours in the year two thousand” or ” ATM system innovation “) and in my opinion the presentations I told you had the great merit of” asking the right questions “and therefore bringing the discussion in very pragmatic terms: how to measure travel time; how to make a model of the European air transport network; how to predict when the network is going to get clogged; how to understand under what conditions instead it succeeds in reabsorbing the effects of a mishap / delay / etc; how to use weather forecasts to avoid congestion despite the uncertainty in the forecasts. And so on.