Human Systems Integration Division @ NASA Ames

To address anticipated growth in air traffic demand, the Surface Operation Automation Research (SOAR) is a collection of research activities designed with the common goal to explore and develop automation technologies for enhancing surface movement efficiency at major airports. The concept features a tower automation system that collaborates with a flight-deck automation system to jointly deliver highly efficient and safe surface operations. The tower automation counts on the availability of advanced surveillance data to plan timed surface operations. The time-based trajectories are communicated to the flight decks as 4- dimensional (4D) trajectory clearances via digital data link. The flight-deck automation counts on the availability of advanced navigation capabilities to execute the 4D trajectories with high timing precision. Several publications have documented the SOAR concept and initial feasibility studies of the tower and flight-deck automation systems based on early experimental software prototypes of the automation functions. This paper reports on the latest development of the flight-deck automation system, including its clearance handling capabilities, guidance and control functions, pilot interface, conflict and incursion monitoring functions, as well as plans for the assessment of an experimental prototype implementation.