Collins Maps Automation Push for Flight Deck, ATC

Collins Aerospace is tapping automation and data expertise from across its businesses to develop technologies that would simplify the flight deck and the management of airspace.

During the Farnborough International Airshow, Collins Aerospace avionics president Nate Boelkins provided a high-level overview of initiatives that tie together its air traffic control, flight-tracking data, and flight deck business units. “Demands on pilots and air traffic controllers are becoming much more complex every single day,” Boelkins said. “How do we reduce workload for both pilots and air traffic controllers? We want to drive capacity into the network while we improve efficiency and we improve safety.”

Nathan Voight, vice president and general manager of advanced flight systems for Collins Aerospace, added, “Our approach is really focused on advancing the automation in the air traffic system, both airborne and the ground side, so that we don’t get to a point where pilots and controllers become overwhelmed. If they become overwhelmed, the system will break down.”

Collins has concentrated on pilot-centric autonomy in both navigation and communications, Voight said. “It’s really all about simplifying the pilot workload, which allows them to work more safely and more efficiently.”

Aircraft systems generate a vast amount of data, but data alone doesn’t help a pilot, he said. “At Collins, we’re taking that data, applying automation, and synthesizing the access that we have to multiple sensors and surveillance on the aircraft to provide that actionable insight,” he said. “We have the ability to take data off of the aircraft, process it…seamlessly on the ground, and then provide that back up into the aircraft. You’re taking some of that really high-integrity processing off the aircraft and then putting it in front of the pilots, so they have it when they need it and not stressing out the systems beyond that.”

One such area covers information that helps pilots shed workload in critical phases of flight, technology designed to help crews prevent and detect errors.

Voight pointed to the automation already in use for pre- and post-flight checklists. “But during phases of flight, depending on situations that may come up, whether they have to reroute or they have a mechanical issue, they have to go through checklists in flight,” Voight said. In those cases, Collins is designing applications that would simplify decisions in such scenarios by automatically bringing up the right checklist and ensuring the right data is in front of the pilot.

Another area covers communication between controllers and pilots.

Radio exchanges can become difficult to follow across different dialects and background chatter, Voight explained, so Collins is working on a way to transcribe those communications digitally for pilots to read and play back. The technology aims “to really help decipher what’s being said and avoid all of the challenges that come when you have different people trying to communicate. It also gives you an opportunity then to communicate that back to air traffic control either in voice or textual format, streamlining the communication.”

That can matter most in detecting erroneous information as an aircraft approaches the airport environment. “These technologies can help identify where those errors are, giving the pilot the awareness that they have to take action.”

Helping propel some of these initiatives is data accumulated from its flight-tracking platform FlightAware. Voight said engineers are using that data to “stress test” the systems in development.

“Our systems are developed by pilots for pilots, so we know that as we field those solutions, they’re going to apply to real practical situations that they’re going to face,” he said.

The goal, he added, is “providing access to the right data, designing our solutions in an open modular way which allows us to then adapt and bring functionality more incrementally to the airspace and then layer on automation where we can provide that assistance to the network, whether it’s on the ground or in the air.”

Collins continues to work with customers to refine these technologies during the test phase. Boelkins could not give a hard timeline for entry into service because that depends on certification.

On airspace modernization, Collins can draw lessons from FlightAware tracking data to guide the safest approaches. In Europe, Voight pointed to discussions around trajectory-based operations to support sustainable operations and ease congestion.

“As congestion increases, we have to expand capacity in the airspace,” he said. “You do that through resilient navigation, which allows controllers to position aircraft tighter and sequence them tighter around airports, which ultimately then leads to efficient operations as well.”

Better routing provides both an economic benefit for carriers and a system-wide environmental benefit through lower fuel burn, Collins argues.

An incremental approach will be necessary to implement some of these air traffic management changes, the company believes. “The system can’t stop while we go and modernize airspace, so it has to be done incrementally and start building capability on top of capabilities,” Voight said.

To that end, Collins is extending a common automation platform that would provide an open architecture for air traffic management, tailored to the needs of an air navigation service provider and to the different functions within the system. The platform, which can move air traffic management to the cloud, is a potential offering for the FAA’s vision for the future of air traffic management.

Congress has not funded a common automation platform, although an industry coalition asked lawmakers this month to include one in a further $20 billion tranche for the agency’s modernization program, on top of the $12.5 billion already appropriated.

Collins is already applying some aspects of the platform in trials involving uncrewed operations with an international air navigation service provider, which the company declined to identify.