Rapid Protoyping Software for Developing Next-Generation Air Traffic Management Algorithms

Research on next-generation air traffic control systems are being conducted at several laboratories. Most of this work is being carried out using custom software. In order to provide a more uniform research platform, NASA Ames Research Center has recently developed a software package called FACET for investigating future air traffic management concepts. While the FACET software incorporates all the features needed for conducting advanced air traffic control research, extending its capabilities require significant investment in programming. The proposed research will develop a scriptable software environment for accessing the capabilities of the FACET software. This interactive environment will enable users to readily build-in additional functionality and will allow integration with other commercial software packages. This will make the FACET capabilities accessible to a larger population of researchers, making it a powerful platform for rapid prototyping of air traffic management algorithms. Phase I research will develop an initial version of the software. The use of the software will then be illustrated by formulating several research problems. Integration of the software with commercial software packages will be demonstrated. Complete version of the proposed software will be developed during the Phase II work. Phase III will commercialize the software to the ATM community.