Background
Mobility of goods and people is a basic need of the European Society in the age of sustainable growth and globalisation of the World economy. The Vision 2020 describes Air Transport and Aeronautics as 'Key Assets for the Future of Europe' and quantifies ambitious goals to meet society's needs and to win global leadership. It calls for an air transport system able to cope with a threefold air traffic demand with fivefold safety, halved cost, a 99% punctuality and limited environmental impact in 17 years from now.
The European way to reach these goals is outlined by the EUROCONTROL EATMP Programme (i.e. Airport Operations) and ATM2000+ Strategy as well as the ACARE SRA work. They identify airports as the future bottlenecks of air transport and see mid-term solutions in: '...enhanced operational concepts, supported by new decision-making or decision-support tools to ensure more efficient use of the airport infrastructure...'.
They say 'A-SMGCS are seen as key R&D topics' (ACARE). Holistic approaches like A-SMGCS are seen as the most promising way to achieve the necessary paradigm shift.
European Airport Movement Management by A-SMGCS
The A-SMGCS project 'EMMA' aims to become the most significant R&D contribution to these goals in the 2004 to 2008 timeframe by maturing and validating the A-SMGCS concept as an integrated air-ground system, seamlessly embedded in the overall ATM system. In a two-phase approach, EMMA will first consolidate the surveillance and conflict alert functions, and in the successor project of the second call focus on advanced onboard guidance support to pilots and planning support to controllers.
The European position in the global ATM market will be strengthened through EMMA by setting de facto standards for A-SMGCS systems and their operational usage and streamlining of existing products. The EMMA consortium is setting this frame of consolidated accepted standards for operational and technical concept, procedures, safety and interoperability by joining forces of highest A-SMGCS excellence from users, industry and R&D organisations. Extensive operational live trials proving the usefulness and completeness of the operational and technical requirements frame will form the basis for efficient A-SMGCS production and implementation throughout Europe in a time to market approach.
Objectives
The main objective of EMMA is to enable the harmonised A-SMGCS implementation at European airports. For this reason it is important to bring together the critical mass of users, research organisations and manufacturers. The EMMA consortium was build from significant Air Navigation Service Providers, Airport Operators, the biggest group of Airline Operators, an Airframe Manufacturer, Avionics Manufacturers, the main European ATM manufactures and research. A main extension of the A-SMGCS concept by EMMA will be the holistic, integrated airground approach, considering advanced aircraft with pilot assistance systems in a context of tower and apron controllers supported by A-SMGCS ground systems. A mature technical & operational concept as developed through EMMA will ensure consistency of traffic information given to controllers and pilots. This is the basis for a common situation awareness and safe ground operations. The associated operational concept will define the roles and tasks of the onboard and ground stakeholders and the procedures from an overall, holistic point of view. The development from reactive conflict detection and resolution towards pro-active conflict prevention will not only increase safety but also efficiency, as small plan deviations will be reduced instead of corrected. To achieve this superior goal, tactical sub-goals were defined, as shown in the following picture:
Based on an advanced operational concept a level 1 & 2 A-SMGCS will be implemented at three European airports (Prague Ruzyne, Milano Malpensa, Toulouse Blagnac) in the first project phase, which is to be used fully operationally for a relatively long time period. The systems implemented are to be verified and validated against the predefined operational and technical requirements. On-site long term trials at these test sites and additionally at the busiest European Hub at Paris are carried out. The issues of this test phase feed back to the concept of operations and are intended to fix standards for future implementation in terms of:
In order to meet the mentioned objectives EMMA is built upon the previous work - especially from the ICAO Doc. 9830 on A-SMGCS and from the EUROCONTROL. The harmonised concepts of operations will be applied and validated thanks to functional and operational testing under real operational conditions. Active participation of licensed controllers and pilots from different countries are foreseen. Finally the Integrated Project EMMA will lead to comprehensive results which will support the regulation and standardisation bodies as well as the industry in early and efficient implementation of A-SMGCS not only in Europe.
Information Material on EMMA
EMMA Video
1. DLR -- Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (Coordinator) 2. AENA -- Aeropuortos Espanoles y Navegacion Aerea (EPE) 3. AHA -- Aviation Hazard Analysis Limited 4. AI -- Airbus France 5. SELEX - System Integration 6. ANS -- Air Navigation Service of Czech Republic 7. AUEB -- Research centre of the Athens University of Economics 8. BAE -- BAE Systems Avionics Limited 9. CSL -- Ceska sprava letist s.p. 10. DAV -- Diehl Avionik Systeme 11. DFS -- Deutsche Flugsicherung 12. DNA -- Direction de la Navigation Aérienne 13. ENAV -- Italien Company for Air Navigation Services 14. ERA -- Radar Technologie 15. ETG -- Euro Telematik AG 16. Eurocontrol -- European Organisation for Safety of Air Navigation 17. MD -- Messier-Dowty Ltd 18. NLR -- Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium 19. PAS -- Park Air Systems 20. SICTA -- Consorzio Sicta 21. STAR -- Star Alliance Services Gmbh 22. TATM -- Thales Air Traffic Management S.p.A. 23. THAV -- Thales Avionics S.A. 24. TUD -- Technische Universität Darmstadt