TBO-AID will be targeted for use in NextGen-enabled commercial aircraft to support situation awareness of relevant hazards (e.g., traffic, weather) and airspace constraints (e.g., unequipped aircraft). The first groups external to NASA that would benefit from the underlying research on which TBO-AID will be developed are those that perform similar research and development tasks. This is a wide ranging set and includes manufacturers of any flight deck technologies relevant to airspace operations (e.g., Boeing, Honeywell, Avidyne) that could incorporate TBO-AID display concepts into their design efforts. The results from the TBO-AID display concepts could also be utilized in a number of domains dependent on advanced air traffic management, such as Air and Space Operations Centers (AOC) within the United States Air Force and Maritime Operations Centers (MOC) within the United States Navy.
TBO-AID addresses a relevant, high-priority issue 4D trajectory-based operations (TBO) that is key to increased capacity and efficiency under NextGen. Pilots are going to be required to make more complex, strategic decisions than are required today, necessitating the development of new interface concepts to support 4D operations, particularly with respect to weather events and mixed equipage constraints. Research and development conducted on this SBIR will contribute to the NASA Aviation Safety Program and Integrated Intelligent Flight Deck Project by providing improved and novel visual, aural/speech, and multimodal interface capabilities (milestones IIFD.MM.1, I.IFD.MM.2, and IIFD.MM.3) to support 4D TBO. Furthermore, TBO-AID will support JPDO-identified operational improvements including trajectory-based management via precise 4D trajectories (OI-0358), delegated responsibility for separation (OI-0305), self-separation airspace operations (OI-0362), and improved safety of operational decision making (OI-3103).
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