Human Systems Integration Division @ NASA Ames

A harmonized concept of operations (ConOps) for future surface operations that considers the surface management practices and policies that currently exist in the U.S. and Europe was developed by NASA and DLR. The high-level concept includes a surface traffic scheduling system that generates conflict-free four-dimensional trajectories (4DTs) for all aircraft on the airport surface and on-board or ground-based guidance to enable the flight crew to adhere to the trajectories. This new vision aims to reduce delays caused by disruptions and purely reactive surface guidance and increase efficiency by an optimized use of resources supported by the new concept based on high sophisticated planning means. It further results in reduced environmental impact of the surface operations. This paper identifies and describes the necessary functions of the concept and explains the relationships among them. The concept is supported by results from research conducted to assess the feasibility of this concept. The implementation of this concept poses some challenges that were used as a basis to derive research requirements that will be jointly addressed by NASA and DLR in the future.