Highlights from the URClearED Virtual Open Day of Real-time simulations and Advisory Board Meeting

On July the 1st, URClearED hosted its Virtual Open Day of the Real-Time Simulations (RTS) on the Remain Well Clear concept integration into airspace classes D to G.

Watch the video for a quick recap of the RTS campaign:

Here below are some highlights of the event and, at the end of the article, you will find the downloadable presentations.

About the event

This event consisted of two sessions, designed to involve two different target audiences.

The first session was dedicated to the general public, interested in the drones domain and in the URClearED mission. This session presented to the audience the real-time simulation exercises carried out in April at CIRA, the Italian Aerospace Research Center (project coordinator) and DLR, the German Aerospace Center premises. The real-time simulation campaigns aimed at validating the Remain Well Clear prototype integration for airspace classes D to G. URClearED experts, involved during the validation exercises, reported their experience and first feedback, throughout videos and interactive sessions.

In conclusion, the main objective of the event was to let the public immerse themselves in the Remain Well Clear concept, how it works and how it is being validated in URClearED.

The Advisory Board meeting followed the first session, an event reserved to our Advisory Board experts. The meeting went more deeply into technical details of the simulation campaigns, addressing the main issues emerged during the validation campaign and collecting considerations and precious feedback.

Highlights from the open session

The open session counted almost 60 participants. As the session was designed to include and reach the general public, the presentation started with a short introduction about the URClearED project’s objectives and its status.

Then, the expert Gianluca Corraro from CIRA explained the Remain Well Clear concept and functions, which is the main focus of the project and the object of the validation exercises.

To deepen into the Simulation Campaign, Professor Enric Pastor from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, presented the scenarios and validation strategy. The presentation developed through these topics:

Presentation of the operational scenarios
Validation objectives
Validation strategy
Presentation of the five use case scenarios

Umberto Ciniglio, from CIRA, continued the event with the presentation of Fast Time Simulations and Real Time Simulations (RTS) highlighting numbers and first general results which will be further elaborated in the next month. Some videos about RTS exercises performed at CIRA laboratory were projected to show the RWC functionament.

The RTS campaign was carried out also at DLR premises, and the expert Niklas Peinecke exposed the highlights from their validation exercises through numbers and videos.

The last session of presentations was dedicated to Human Factors (HF) highlights presented by the expert Giuseppe Frau from Deep Blue. The HF presentation was developed around the following topics:

Human Performance validation objectives
Human performance assessment
Preliminary results

Lastly, an open discussion was held with the participants and a Questions & Answers session concluded the open event.

Highlights from the Advisory Board Meeting

In the afternoon, URClearED hosted the Advisory Board meeting with fourteen experts from the domain.

The Consortium exposed the status of the project and refreshed the Remain Well Clear concept and functionament. Afterwards, they presented the validation strategy and objectives, showed the simulation exercises through videos and tables and the first results.

One of the key points discussed was the need to develop an uncorrelated encounter model for validating Remain Well Clear systems in uncontrolled airspace class G. Everyone agreed that this is a need that shall be satisfied by the future SESAR industrial projects.

Finally, some safety issues possibly raised from the Remain Well Clear introduction because of possible difficulties in the Remote Pilots and Controllers interaction were fruitfully discussed also thanks to the direct experience of some Advisory Board Members who were present during the real time simulations at CIRA.

The general opinion was that RWC is a useful tool for both Remote Pilot and Controllers in all airspaces D, E and G increasing the safety levels, but appropriate training on the use of such tool shall be provided to the Remote Pilots.