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The project

Pilots should have on board a better understanding of the stakes of the current mission considering the business objectives of their airline.

Flight crew should ensure adherence to performance criteria, in line with the airline’s objectives.

Pilot3, an Innovative Action within the frame of Clean Sky 2 ITD System, will develop a software engine model to provide this required extra support by performing multi-criteria optimisation considering:

  • The types of performance the airline are seeking
  • Translating these performance targets into high level objectives
  • Providing a rank of alternatives to the crew considering these objectives

Pilot3 focuses on the tactical management of the flight, Dispatcher3, a CleanSky 2 Innovation Action, focuses on the optimisation of the flight prior departure by applying machine learning techniques to the flight dispatching processes.

An introduction to Pilot3

Watch a 5′ video on Pilot3

Pilot3 at glance

When disruption occurs, Pilot3 will provide a set of alternative trajectories to the pilot with information to help them to select the most suitable one considering multi-criteria business objectives of the airline.

Pilot3 will provide the capability to explicitly estimate the impact of each alternative with respect to the airline’s performance targets. Pilot3 will integrate airlines’ flight policies and consider the overall performance (in the whole network).

Pilot3 comprises five sub-systems:

  • Alternatives Generator, which will compute the different alternatives to be considered by the pilot; fed by the two independent sub-systems:
    • Performance Indicators Estimator, which provides the Alternatives Generator with information on how to estimate the impact of each solution for the different performance indicators (Pls);
    • Operational ATM Estimator, which provides the Alternative Generator with information on how to estimate some operational aspects such as tactical route amendments, expected arrival procedure, holding time in terminal airspace, distance flown (or flight time spent) in terminal airspace due to arrival sequencing and merging operations, or taxi-in time;

  • Performance Assessment Module, which, considering the expected results for each alternative on the different KPls, is able to filter and rank the alternatives considering airlines and pilots preferences; and

  • Human Machine Interface, which will present these alternatives to the pilot and allow them to interact with the system

Pilot3 will contribute to the capture and definition of flight policies and allow airlines to define enriched flight policies.

Development approach

Close coordination with stakeholders and with the Topic Manager (Thales) are key to ensure that Pilot3 delivers a suitable solution. An Advisory Board formed by airlines and experts has been set up and will help to steer the project in the right direction.

The project will start with the formalisation of the requirements and case studies to be tested. Then, Pilot3 will consider state-of-the-art multi-criteria decision making optimisation techniques, review them and select the most suitable ones to be implemented.

Two prototype versions will be generated and you will be able to provide feedback to us on the first version on a dedicated workshop!

PUBLIC DELIVERABLES
16 December 2021 | Innaxis | Pilot3

Pilot3 Optimisation Architecture

Author: Jovana Kuljanin (UPC) Pilot3 could be triggered at some point of the departure procedure or when the aircraft is already en-route. The system will optimise the aircraft trajectory from the current aircraft state (i.e., the moment Pilot3 is triggered) down to reaching FL100 at the proximity of the destination. After consultation with the Advisory Board, it is understood and assumed that…
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6 September 2021 | Innaxis | Pilot3

Estimating operational uncertainty in Pilot3

Author: Clara Argerich (Innaxis) Operational estimators that shed light on arrivals Pilot3 software is a tool that optimizes trajectories based on factors that affect flight performance—everything from possible network disruptions, to bad weather and so on. For the purposes of this post, we will focus on how Pilot3 specifically helps shed light on operational uncertainty at arrival. When neari…
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18 December 2020 | Innaxis | Pilot3

Definition of Scenarios in the light of Agile methodology

AUTHOR: Jovana Kuljanin (UPC) Pilot3 will be developed following some of the principles of the Agile paradigm. The methodology relies on the idea that different prototype versions are incrementally developed by adding new functionalities into each version, until we reach the fully functional prototype. The functionalities that will be implemented are driven by the prioritisation and selection …
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4 August 2020 | Innaxis | Pilot3

How can we select a suitable multi-criteria optimisation method among the dozens existing ones?

AUTHOR: Adeline de Montlaur Pilot3 aims at providing a software engine model for supporting crew decisions in the context of operations for civil aircraft, with a better understanding of the stakes of the current mission, from the perspective of the business objectives of the airline (read more) To do so, Pilot3 considers and reviews state-of-the-art multi-criteria decision-making optimisation…
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28 July 2020 | Innaxis | Pilot3

Optimisation objectives in Pilot3

AUTHOR: Luis Delgado Airlines’ objectives for the operations of their flights, as defined in their flight policies, are translated into operational Cost Indexes (CIs). The Cost Index represents the ratio between cost of time and cost of fuel, hence a CI of zero in the Flight Management System will operate the flight minimising the fuel usage, and setting the CI to the maximum possible value wi…
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14 January 2020 | Innaxis | Pilot3

Pilots need a better understanding of the stakes of the current mission

AUTHOR: Luis Delgado Pilot3 is a new Clean Sky 2 research project, which started on November 2019, led by the University of Westminster (UoW) in collaboration with PACE Aerospace Engineering & Information Technology, the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and Fundacion Insituto de Investigacion Innaxis. The Topic Manager is Thales AVS France SAS. This Innovative Action aims a…
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    Coordination and partners

    Pilot3 is coordinated by the University of Westminster. There are four participants from three countries:

    PACE: PACE Aerospace Engineering & Information Technology GmbH, Germany. UPC: Universitat PolitE!cnica de Catalunya, Spain. INX: Fundacion lnsituto de lnvestigacion lnnaxis, Spain.

    Topic manager

    The Topic Manager of Dispatcher3 is: Thales, France

    Advisory Board

    This project is supported by an Advisory Board formed by:

     

    This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 863802.

     

     

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    The opinions expressed in this site reflect the authors’ view only. Under no circumstances shall the Commission or Clean Sky Joint Undertaking be responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.