The Federal Aviation Administration is preparing to begin deploying an artificial intelligence system in the Washington, D.C., region that combines flight schedules, weather, runway capacity and other data to anticipate congestion and help controllers address problems before they spread across the national airspace.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
The Federal Aviation Administration is preparing to introduce a new artificial intelligence-powered air traffic management system in the Washington, D.C., area as soon as Monday, Sept. 21, marking the first operational step toward a planned nationwide deployment designed to predict congestion before flights leave the ground.
The system, known as SMART — Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories — is intended to give air traffic managers a more comprehensive picture of conditions across the aviation network by combining airline schedules, weather forecasts, airport runway capacity, airspace restrictions and other operational information.
Rather than waiting until congestion, severe weather or scheduling conflicts have already disrupted flights, SMART is designed to identify potential problems earlier and provide options for resolving them, according to reporting on the FAA rollout.
FAA materials say SMART will operate alongside existing systems and provide predictive information about demand, capacity and weather effects. Air traffic controllers will remain responsible for safely separating aircraft, while the new system will support planning and decision-making.
The Washington-area introduction is expected to begin on a limited basis rather than immediately handing broad scheduling authority to the software.
Controllers initially will use SMART as a decision-support tool when disruptions occur, allowing the FAA and airlines to evaluate how its predictions and recommendations perform under real-world conditions before expanding its responsibilities.
The initial deployment is expected to focus on three Washington-area airports during a test period, according to reporting on the rollout. The system will recommend possible alternative routes during disruptions while continuing to operate through the FAA’s existing air traffic management framework.
Federal aviation officials have said validation must occur before SMART can assume more ambitious functions, including coordinating departures and arrivals farther in advance and helping reshape flight trajectories before congestion develops.
The FAA has described the broader objective as moving air traffic management away from a primarily reactive system toward one capable of anticipating pressure on the national airspace before individual problems cascade into delays elsewhere.
SMART continuously analyzes airline schedules, weather, airport capacity, airspace conditions and operational constraints to predict traffic flows and identify conflicts early enough for air traffic managers and airlines to respond, according to the FAA.
The technology is being developed by Air Space Intelligence, a Boston-based aerospace and defense technology company.
Earlier this year, the FAA awarded the company a 12-year contract valued at $875 million to develop and deploy SMART along with another platform called Flow Management Data and Services, or FMDS.
FMDS is intended to become the technological foundation for the FAA’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center, bringing flight plans, schedules, aircraft-position information and capacity data into a common platform.
SMART serves as an additional planning layer built around that information.
The combination is designed to allow federal air traffic managers to compare demand with available capacity, identify potential bottlenecks and coordinate schedules and routes before aircraft depart rather than relying predominantly on adjustments after disruption has already begun.
The FAA has said its existing system has limited ability to anticipate the combined effects of future flight volumes, severe weather, runway closures and other capacity restrictions. Controllers and managers can also be required to work across numerous screens and information sources when assessing conditions.
SMART and FMDS are intended to consolidate that information and make it easier to identify both congestion and unused portions of available airspace.
The 12-year modernization project is part of a wider federal effort to upgrade an air traffic control network that has faced aging technology, growing flight demand, weather-related disruptions and persistent shortages of air traffic controllers.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford has argued that the agency needs to take a more strategic approach to determining how aircraft move through the system.
“The way we manage traffic today is chaotic, and we can do better,” Bedford told senators earlier this year.
Bedford has also argued that the FAA should have a larger role in coordinating schedules before airlines put large numbers of flights into congested portions of the national airspace.
“We need to manage that at the FAA, rather than rely on commercial airlines to simply schedule however they want,” Bedford said.
FAA testimony this week described SMART as a cloud-based system capable of using artificial intelligence to identify congestion and conflicts earlier and eventually recommend changes to departure times, routes and timing at specified points along a flight’s path.
That longer-term vision goes beyond responding to a thunderstorm or isolated airport disruption.
If the system performs as intended, FAA managers could eventually use it to examine anticipated traffic several days before flights depart, identify periods when demand is likely to exceed capacity and work with carriers on adjustments before passengers encounter delays at airports.
The agency also envisions the technology helping the aviation system recover more quickly after severe weather or periods of heavy congestion.
A major challenge will be coordinating the FAA’s objectives with airline schedules.
Carriers make commercial scheduling decisions based on passenger demand, aircraft availability, crew requirements, connecting flights, airport slots and competition with other airlines. Giving the federal government a larger role in coordinating when those flights enter constrained airports or airspace raises complicated operational questions for the industry.
FAA officials have consequently been meeting with airline executives and discussing how SMART will interact with existing scheduling and traffic-management practices.
Bedford met this month with executives from American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines to discuss the technology and the agency’s plans for deploying it.
The Washington-area rollout is narrower than some industry officials initially anticipated, but federal officials have said the limited introduction was intentional and that broader functionality will follow only after the system has been tested and validated.
The FAA’s rollout strategy keeps human controllers at the center of operational decisions while SMART supplies predictive analysis and possible solutions.
That distinction is significant because SMART is not being introduced as an autonomous replacement for air traffic controllers.
The FAA explicitly states that controllers remain responsible for maintaining safe separation between aircraft. SMART is intended to help them and air traffic managers see developing system-wide problems earlier and make more informed decisions about routing, timing and capacity.
Federal officials plan Monday to unveil a centralized office for the system at Department of Transportation headquarters in Washington.
The office is expected to serve as a central point for managing SMART’s deployment and coordinating the technology with airlines and the broader national airspace system.
The aviation industry has publicly supported the broader concept.
Airlines for America, which represents major U.S. passenger and cargo carriers, called the initiative “one of the most exciting and bold initiatives taken on by the FAA in decades.”
The endorsement comes as airlines have struggled with delays caused by severe weather, constrained airport capacity and shortages within the air traffic control workforce.
The administration has paired its technology investments with efforts to accelerate the hiring and training of new controllers and upgrade other portions of the air traffic infrastructure.
Congress previously provided $12.5 billion toward a broader modernization of the U.S. air traffic control system, and the administration has sought additional funding for the effort. The FAA is simultaneously replacing or upgrading radar, communications, runway-monitoring and other systems.
SMART represents a different part of that modernization strategy by addressing how information is processed and how traffic decisions are made.
The system’s goal is not simply to display more data but to analyze large amounts of information rapidly enough to recognize combinations of conditions that could create congestion later.
For example, airline schedules may indicate that several airports will send large volumes of aircraft toward the same region at the same time that storms are expected to close portions of usable airspace. SMART could flag the anticipated conflict before departures begin, allowing flight timing or routes to be adjusted earlier.
The FAA says that type of advance planning could reduce fuel consumption, improve on-time performance and shorten recovery periods following congestion and weather events.
The system is also intended to help the government use existing airspace more efficiently as aviation demand expands and new types of aircraft enter the national system.
Federal officials ultimately envision SMART working with a broader modernized platform capable of coordinating information throughout the National Airspace System, from high-altitude flights down to airport operations.
How quickly that vision becomes operational will depend on the results of the initial deployment.
The Washington introduction will allow federal officials and airlines to assess the accuracy of SMART’s forecasts, how effectively its recommendations fit into existing procedures and whether controllers and traffic managers can use the additional information without creating new operational complications.
For passengers, the technology’s most visible effect could eventually be fewer delays and cancellations if the FAA succeeds in resolving scheduling and routing conflicts before they spread through the aviation network.
For air traffic controllers, the changes could mean moving from multiple disconnected information sources toward a system that presents a more unified picture of what is occurring — and what is likely to occur next.
The planned national expansion will come only after the FAA evaluates the technology in its initial operating environment.
For now, SMART’s Washington debut represents the first operational test of a $875 million effort to use artificial intelligence and predictive software to shift U.S. air traffic management from reacting to congestion after it develops toward anticipating and addressing problems before aircraft take off.
Original article
Comments