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The ACARE Strategy Research Agenda recognises that the current air traffic management paradigm has serious limitations and will be unable to sustain current expectations of air transport growth in the medium to long-term.
Furthermore, with the year 2020 in mind, revolutionary measures are a clear necessity.
One strategic axis of the Innovative Research team at the EEC deals with the investigation of new operational concepts.
In January 2004, the Paradigm SHIFT project was started to investigate solutions to the problem of how to increase capacity and, at the least, maintain the same level of safety in order to target a global efficiency and to support the sustainable development of the air transport business.
The objectives are to take into account the views of all those entities that have an interest in ATM, such as airports, airlines, air navigation service providers,....
The aim of the project is to optimize resources by reducing uncertainty, offering a new way of managing the process.
The Paradigm SHIFT project will propose a collaborative approach, in a global system-wide perspective.
This will be associated with an investigation of airspace.
The project is defined in three consecutive phases :
Paradigm SHIFT Phase 1 : (Year 2004) the objective was to specify all the concepts relatives to the new ATM paradigm and to specify it through the operational concept document (OCD). A research agenda defined relevant research axes to investigate.
Paradigm SHIFT Phase 2 : (Years 2005 and 2006) investigate and validate some parts of the concept proposed in the OCD, mainly the Contract of Objectives and the Dual Airspace.
The next step (Years 2007-2008-2009) will be the assessment of the Contract of Objectives, through a European project, called CATS.
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CATS (Contract-based Air Transportation System) |
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Because of its innovative nature, the project will put down the overall problems to draw a global operational concept.
The first step of this project is to analyse the current problems with ATM, together with their evolution.
The second step will consist of describing an operational concept based on three major points :
- Considering the air navigation service providers as a part of the air transportation system, with efficiency issues addressed with a global approach of this composite system.
- Increasing co-ordination between actors based on negotiated contracts.
- Achieving operational excellence thanks to a local adequacy of a tactical triangle : traffic demand, infrastructure, and operations.
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The last step of Phase 1 was to build a research agenda on the different topics tackled in the operational concept document that need to be further investigated. This research agenda should be seen as a backbone of the advanced concept thread in INO.
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The main objective of this phase is to validate , by a multidisciplinary approach, the feasibility and the acceptability of the Contract of Objectives for an ATCO working in a Dual Airspace.
The first step (Year 2005) will be to evaluate the impact of an Highway into a normal district, through a exploratory and experimental process.
The second step (Year 2006) of the Paradigm SHIFT Phase 2 will analyse the impact of Contract of Objectives on the control unit CWP, through exploratory and experimental process.
The last step of Phase 2 will combine the two precedent axis, investigating the transition between Highways and districts by using the Contract of Objectives
The overall Paradigm SHIFT project follows a multidisciplinary approach :
- human factors,
- mathematical modelling, and
- operational and system engineering.
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The Paradigm SHIFT project is neither just a technology-driven project nor just a human-centred approach but is actually far more global.
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The expected operational benefits due to carrying out the Paradigm SHIFT project will be improved efficiency, decreased cost, and increased capacity for the overall ATM system, whilst maintaining the same level of safety.
This is to be achieved through:
- the timely and accurate exchange of information between all the actors. This will also improve the efficiency of aircraft operations and airport services, as well as the efficiency of ATC and strategic operations;
- the reinforcement of the co-ordination and co-operation between the actors, based on negotiated contracts;
- ensuring that the tactical triangle of traffic demand, infrastructure, and operations, is adequate;
- increasing punctuality, by analysing, and taking into account, of potential disruptions in the system; and
- investigating an "adaptive" airspace.
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The project will deliver an analysis of the current ATM system before formulating an achievable operational concept to define the architecture of a new ATM system, and a research agenda to highlight elements that call for further development.
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