Photo: DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH
The department of Controller Assistance develops and tests methods and procedures to support operators in the monitoring, planning and guidance of the parameters for safe and efficient functioning of the system. The system primarily under investigation is the traffic in the air and on the ground monitored by air traffic controllers.
High traffic density airports are becoming more and more the bottlenecks in the overall transport network. This presents a challenge to the mobility of people that has to be met by using existing infrastructure in an efficient and environmental friendly manner.
Key drivers for improvements are performance indicators such as safety, capacity, punctuality, aircraft noise reduction and carbon dioxide emissions, as well as the associated costs for fuel and noise protection measures. New and optimized procedures, supported by highly automated systems, are developed to ensure the efficient use of existing infrastructure. Automation assists controllers to guide air and ground traffic in a time and location based manner with adequate accuracy.
Controller Assistance strives to answer the following key questions:
The strategic goal of the department is to support air traffic management by using modular systems that can be applied in different flight phases. For this purpose, prototype systems and procedures are developed and established that also meet non-functional requirements, such as resilience and reusability. The applicability of these concepts is validated in human-in-the-loop simulations by the real end-users.