Aeronautical

Navigation & Air Traffic Control

Due to the continuing increase in air traffic over the last few years, and the fact that its control is basically based on operational concepts created for obsolete technology, the present system of Air Traffic Management (ATM) is close to reaching the limit of its capacity and will be unable to satisfy the prospective future demand.

The European initiatives (SESAR) and the North American (NextGen) for a future ATM system require a considerable increase in the levels of automation and its efficiency. Some aspects related to this future system, such as developing new methods, technology and systems for automating air navigation and air traffic management, including new methods for Flight Control Systems (FCS) and Flight Management Systems (FMS) are tackled in this area of knowledge.

AICIA is working on developing new methods, technologies and systems for authorizing air navigation and air traffic control, highlighting those related to flight control systems (FCS) and flight management systems (FMS).

Some of the most important lines of work of AICIA in this area are:

Modelling and computation of trajectories

“Sense and avoid” technology .Sensors and sensorial fusion in air navigation. Development of new techniques for air navigation based on trajectories. Techniques for estimating uncertainties in air navigation. Automatic landing. Methods of flight control systems (FCS) and flight management systems (FMS). Avionics technology for air traffic management.

Trajectory optimization

Trajectory optimization is tackled with a view to these objectives, taking into account the optimization of flight phases (take off, cruise, landing) as well as global trajectories (from airport to airport).

Conflict detection and solutions

Autonomous separation methods for aircrafts. Safe trajectory optimization. Negotiation methods in distributed air traffic management. User preference optimization.

SWIM based architecture is used for air traffic management. Ad-hoc mobile networks for air traffic management. Integration of unmanned autonomous vehicles in air traffic.