MITRE has built two prototypes designed to help the Federal Aviation Administration improve safety on the airport surface by mitigating runway incursions through aircraft movement monitoring and issuance of alerts to air traffic controllers and pilots.
One of the technologies is an application that works on a tablet computer and could provide pilots with turn-by-turn guidance, MITRE said Wednesday.
The app prototype is part of a set of cognitive assistance systems for pilots and could issue alerts if pilots get off course.
The other beta program, called Argus, is designed to help air traffic controllers monitor the airport surface.
“Argus can monitor for conformance with the assigned taxi route and alert the controller if the pilot deviates from it,” said John Helleberg, group leader for the transportation human-centered experimentation at MITRE.
“Our prototype works using only an iPad and a low-cost, commercially available receiver called Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast, or ADS-B. That device picks up the position information aircraft broadcast using similar equipment,” Helleberg noted.
With Argus, controllers can see a map of the airport surface and aircraft positions on their iPad screens and digitally produce taxi routes in various ways.
