News & Analysis
Scientists develop automatic air navigation, collision avoidance model
Anne-Francoise Pele
3/14/2012 11:03 AM EDT
PARIS – Researchers at the Department of Artificial Intelligence of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), Spain, said they have developed an automatic air navigation and collision avoidance model using an automatic learning system.
The software solution, researchers claimed, aligns aircraft flight paths with other nearby aircrafts in a dense airspace such as an airport. If the aircraft is heading towards a building, it automatically avoids the obstacle. And, if several aircrafts are about to land on the same runway, the system prioritizes landing maneuvers without human intervention, they noted.
Scientists explained that the software solution is able to automatically navigate an aircraft and steer it to a target or consecutive targets. The aircraft automatically avoids collision with any physical obstacle, including other aircrafts, land, geographical features and buildings. It also avoids areas with adverse weather conditions, military operation areas, national airspace, etc.
The team indicated that the model implements automatic 3D maneuvers, where the aircraft performs all sorts of turns with ascents and descents. The model controls all the maneuvers from start to finish, without any pilot or air traffic control involvement or remote steering.
So far, researchers said the model has been used in a simulator but they expect to implement it physically in real air navigation systems as an additional safety measure against human error.
The research project was led by the UPM’s Facultad de Informátic, in partnership with the Escuela Superior de Ingenieros Aeronáuticos, EADS and AENA, literally Spanish Airports and Air Navigation.
The software solution, researchers claimed, aligns aircraft flight paths with other nearby aircrafts in a dense airspace such as an airport. If the aircraft is heading towards a building, it automatically avoids the obstacle. And, if several aircrafts are about to land on the same runway, the system prioritizes landing maneuvers without human intervention, they noted.
The team indicated that the model implements automatic 3D maneuvers, where the aircraft performs all sorts of turns with ascents and descents. The model controls all the maneuvers from start to finish, without any pilot or air traffic control involvement or remote steering.
So far, researchers said the model has been used in a simulator but they expect to implement it physically in real air navigation systems as an additional safety measure against human error.
The research project was led by the UPM’s Facultad de Informátic, in partnership with the Escuela Superior de Ingenieros Aeronáuticos, EADS and AENA, literally Spanish Airports and Air Navigation.
--------------------------
If you found this article to be of interest, visit Military/Aerospace Designline where you will find the latest and greatest design, technology, product, and news articles with regard to all aspects of military, defense and aerospace. And, to register to our weekly newsletter, click here.
|
|
|
|
|
Navigate to related information
chanj
3/15/2012 2:08 AM EDT
Excellent news. The technology keeps advanced in fast pace. When most people believe auto driving car is advance. Here comes 3D navigation. I can't imagine what is going to be invented if these 2 groups of scientists/ engineers work together. What's the world is going to be like 5/10 years from now?
Sign in to Reply
nicolas.mokhoff
3/15/2012 10:39 AM EDT
Great challenge for embedded designs, this is. At DESIGN West, week of March 26, there are plenty of opportunities to investigate all the angles: http://www.ubmdesign.com/sessions/esc
Sign in to Reply
wilber_xbox
3/15/2012 1:50 PM EDT
The air travel is already the safest way of transportation. Implementation of such systems will make it safe further. Hopefully we find and implement such systems for ground transportation to be able to save lives.
Sign in to Reply
agk
3/16/2012 4:48 AM EDT
Simulation is easy.When it comes to real time it needs lot of interfaces. This software needs various inputs from the airport base station. getting them in right time and the speed of processing this data by the software are highly crucial and similarly getting the use full output and sending them to all the flying objects are also delicate. Needs lot more work to be done.
Sign in to Reply
Duane Benson
3/16/2012 12:34 PM EDT
I would expect that such a system would lend itself to mixing UAV and piloted traffic. It sounds like it in fact treats piloted aircraft as if they are UAVs, leaving the pilot as just an emergency backup system.
Sign in to Reply
DrQuine
3/18/2012 4:20 PM EDT
How does the system handle bird strike hazards? Birds can be easily seen on radar, pose clear threats to aircraft, are often found in the vicinity of airports, and are not very cooperative in responding to requests to change their flight paths.
Sign in to Reply
MeirG
3/20/2012 6:49 AM EDT
If it can avoid bad weather (which it most probably detected by the radar) it can also avoid birds, isn't it?
Sign in to Reply
Dave.Dykstra
3/19/2012 12:51 AM EDT
This is more exciting news. Of course, there will still be a lot of work to be done in actual real-time implementation. And then there are the security issues as well. Hopefully those are being looked at and worked along with the software.
Sign in to Reply
karim10
3/19/2012 7:59 PM EDT
I wonder how the system will handle a swarm of aircrafts and UAVs which are ALL programmed the same way. Won't that lead to lead to deadlock all over again? A higher "cooperative" layer would need to be placed again.
Sign in to Reply
MeirG
3/20/2012 6:52 AM EDT
But I would think that if ALL are using the same software and algorithms, it would be easier to resolve than with a mix of unknown, and therefor unpredictable algorithms, isn't it?
Sign in to Reply