PJ.05-W2 Digital technologies for Tower - SESAR-IR-VLD-WAVE2-05-2019 deals with two main technical work packages: WP2: "Multiple Remote Tower and Remote Tower centre" and WP3: "HMI Interaction modes for Airport Tower". 14 SESAR members (in sum 31 legal beneficiaries) showed interest in this project. For WP2 cost-effectiveness is the principal key performance area (KPA). It proposes the development of a remotely provided aerodrome air traffic service by a "multiple" and/or "center" setting. Those settings help to combine ATS services from various aerodromes in a centralized control room independent on airport location in order to make use of the valuable resource ATS provider more efficiently. In the end, the passengers will benefit from by a better passenger comfort in terms of shorter travel times and better point to point connections. PJ.05-W2 will bring the multiple/center concept to such a matured level ready for industrialization. PJ.05-W2 WP3 aims to validate, in different Airport operating environments, innovative HMI modes and associated technologies. Those solutions are expected to positively contribute to the Safety and HP KPAs with reduced Controllers’ head down time and workload, as well as increased situation awareness and controllers' productivity. The PJ05-W2 DTT attracted plenty of European organisations to participate: ANSPs, industries, R&D and airport stakeholder intends to provide their specific competences to broaden the operational needs and technological expertises. The PJ.05-W2 variety of partners and validation activities will help to adequately reflect the variety of operational needs and technical solutions which in the end of the project will consolidate into a harmonized and widely accepted SESAR2020 PJ05 solution. The complete work is structured in a very collaborative way throughout all work packages and will ensure the transfer of knowledge and know-how between all participants and external to SESAR2020 projects.

Single European Sky – the vision is clearly described in the ATM Masterplan. Reaching the goals for the European Airspace is only possible with focused technical developments on European level. The air traffic controller is the main player in the traffic management at tactical level. This project aims at providing the air traffic controller with more automated tools, thus freeing capacity for situations where human intervention is crucial. This provides even safer service for an increasing amount of traffic and with lower costs, as required by airspace users. This project is a part of the SESAR programme and addresses separation management. It will not only improve current conflict detection tools, but also develop new tools aiding the air traffic controller with resolution advisory and monitoring of flight trajectory. The project also addresses new ways of working together. Air traffic controllers traditionally work in pairs and in specific airspace. Could we change this to multi-planner setup, sector less airspace and seamless cross-border operations? Our project will ensure the research is developed to a stage where it can be used in operational air traffic management systems in Europe. This ensures that anyone can fly safer, cheaper and quicker in Europe in 10 years. Another really important issue is the integration of “Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems” – drones. Drones are new to European Air Traffic Management, and it is urgent to address concepts and technological developments needed to handle this kind of traffic safely. The companies involved in this project are the only ones that can deliver this kind of result. Not on their own – but as the unique cooperation between air navigation service providers and air and ground industry. The capabilities to provide sustainable results usable throughout Europe by fast-time, real-time simulations and live trials ensures that developed prototypes are working in the context of future traffic and ATM systems.

Currently, both maritime and aviation sectors are lacking a systematic approach to collect and assess Human Factors information in normal and emergency conditions. There is also a lack of agreed methodology to assess human-related risks with the aim of influencing design and operation of aircraft and ships. Therefore, the research question being addressed in this project is “How to fully capture human elements and their interaction with the other system elements to enhance safety in maritime and aviation operations?” It is important to address Human Factors aspects in relation to risk-based design of system and operations in a measurable manner by taking the variation in human behaviour over time and the non-flexibility of machines into consideration. The main aim of SAFEMODE project is to develop a novel HUman Risk Informed Design (HURID) framework in order to identify, collect and assess Human Factors data to inform risk-based design of systems and operation. These aims have not been achieved previously at a desirable level due to the unavailability of systematically collected data and lack of cooperation between different transport modes. The focus will be to reduce risks for safety critical situations, (e.g. mid-air collisions, grounding, evacuation, runway excursions etc.) through the enhancement of human performance. This will be achieved through investigation of past accidents, incidents, near-misses, reports, data from everyday operations, including previously unknown uncertainties such as increasing levels of automation and increased number of drones in transportation. This information will be incorporated the HURID framework and tools and into SHIELD, the open data repository and the living database, that will be maintained and continuously updated.

This project is part of the Industrial Research & Validation phase, developed under the SJU Private Public Partnership and will contribute to the SESAR2020 Programme Lifecycle. It will build upon previous work in SESAR2020 Wave 1. The project will further mature the concept of “Flight Centric ATC” where an air traffic controller is responsible for a certain number of aircraft throughout their entire flight segment within a given airspace whereas other controllers are responsible for different aircraft within the same airspace. Another objective is to enable collaborative control operations, where ATCOs will be able to issue instructions to aircraft that involve out-of-sector manoeuvring, without the coordination required in conventional operations. This will be accompanied by an activity to identify and validate needs that might allow a Controller to operate in any airspace classified as a particular type. That is, the ATCO will be validated on method and tools rather than a geographic specified airspace. In addition, the project will investigate and develop the Contingency and Delegation of Airspace Operational Use Cases. It will identify the impacts on the services defined in the Virtual Centre concept and validate the concept within a realistic environment based on contingency needs or on organisation needs (either static, on a fixed-time transfer schedule, or dynamic, when the traffic density is below/above a certain level). In order to reduce the workload and mental strain on the controllers in the ATC centre, especially under high traffic density/complexity situations, the project will investigate new human machine interface interaction modes and technologies. This work will consider modern design and development approaches as well as methodologies such as modularity, service-oriented architecture, adaptive automation. The project will in particular address Automatic Speech Recognition, Attention Guidance and enhanced User Profile Management Systems.

PJ19 W2 CI is a transversal activity of the SESAR 2020 Programme in continuation of the SESAR Wave 1 PJ19 CI Content Integration project. It aims to integrate the SESAR Solutions into the integrated European ATM System in order to achieve the objectives set by the ATM Master Plan (MP). This integrated European ATM System provides the overall European ATM concept, the high-level architecture options, the services, the supporting solutions, and the performance achievements associated with them. As such, PJ.19 W2 does not create any specific ATM concept or solution but produces a set of deliverables which consolidate the SESAR 2020 Programme outcomes and provides yearly integrated reference material – the SESAR 2020 Architecture release (EATMA version) . This is done in close collaboration and coordination with all SESAR 2020 Solutions and the SJU through continuous, rolling and iterative content integration. PJ19-W2 allows the assessment of the overall performance of the SESAR Solutions compared with the performance improvements expected for the European ATM. Whilst the decisions are made by SJU management and SESAR governance, PJ.19 W2 activities support and guide the processes (e.g. safety, security assessment, human performance, performance assessment, cost benefit analysis (CBA), architecture, requirements) to bring the SESAR Solutions together and assess their maturity (completeness, consistency and coherency) from a holistic perspective represented in the SESAR 2020 Concept of Operations. The PJ.19 W2 activities provide major inputs for the ATM MP production (ATM architecture information (e.g. data set), performance and CBA consolidation, business case production), which are further consolidated at the time of the ATM MP update campaign by the PJ.20 W2 ‘Master Planning’ project). PJ19-W2 provides support for the SJU/SESAR governance decision-making and programme execution monitoring and also contributes to the realisation of the ATM MP.