High Performance Navigation Algorithms for Aviation - Results of Approach and Airport Surface Movement Tests

Wolfgang Schuster, Jie Bai, Washington Ochieng, Per Martin Schachtebeck, Meiko Steen

Abstract:	The Single European Sky (SES) is an ambitious initiative to reform the architecture of European air traffic management, with the aim to meet future capacity and safety needs. The objectives of the SES include reinforcement and improvement of safety, creation of additional capacity, and improvement in the overall efficiency of the air traffic management system (ATM) irrespective of weather conditions. These objectives can be achieved by developing a more effective and integrated end-to-end ATM architecture and by exploiting novel support systems to enable fully automated gate-to-gate operations. This should not only improve efficiency but also safety by reducing human errors. The technical implementation of the first of these tasks is being addressed by the Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) programme. One of the key issues identified in SESAR is the need for high-performance positioning and navigation systems, crucial for the time efficiency and safety of end-to-end aircraft operation in all weather conditions. The main constraints in this respect are associated with the CAT III precision approach phase of flight and airport surface movement (ASM), the latter being the bottleneck in the chain of aircraft gate-to-gate operations. Studies have shown that current technical solutions, such as the ILS or MLS are not capable of satisfying future capacity and associated safety requirements for CAT III approaches [3]. Therefore, novel support systems such as Ground Based Augmentation Systems (GBAS) are required. A logical way of achieving this is to incorporate the surface movement functionality into the GBAS architecture already proposed for CAT III operations. This should enable gate-to-gate operations in line with future requirements. The definition and implementation of a system capable of providing aircraft and other vehicle positions with a high level of performance with respect to accuracy, integrity, continuity and availability in the time frame 2010 – 2020 is one of the aims of ANASTASIA (Airborne New and Advanced Satellite techniques and Technologies in A System Integrated Approach) - www.anastasia-fp6.org, a sixth framework European Commission project, under which this research is being carried out. Initial steps towards determining the most stringent operational performance requirements for surface movement have been completed and published [1]. Subsequent investigations of the performance to be expected from Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-based navigation suggest that code based GNSS in standalone mode or augmented by GBAS are not able to provide the required accuracy (at sub-metre level) with the level of integrity required for surface movement. It is thus anticipated that surface movement operations will require the use of carrier-phase measurements in Real Time Kinematic Mode (RTK mode) with ambiguities resolved On-The-Fly (OTF). The necessary positioning and integrity monitoring algorithms are detailed in [1] and [2]. This paper starts with an overview of the navigation system performance requirements and the algorithms for airport surface movement. This is followed by a detailed account of the methodology and preliminary results of a strategy to validate the algorithms in order to characterise their performance in representative operational environments, using simulations as well as static and dynamic field trials for CAT III precision approaches and airport surface movement.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 21st International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2008) September 16 - 19, 2008 Savannah International Convention Center Savannah, GA
Pages:	2901 - 2908
Cite this article:	Schuster, Wolfgang, Bai, Jie, Ochieng, Washington, Schachtebeck, Per Martin, Steen, Meiko, "High Performance Navigation Algorithms for Aviation - Results of Approach and Airport Surface Movement Tests," Proceedings of the 21st International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2008), Savannah, GA, September 2008, pp. 2901-2908.
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