Mission:

The mission of the laboratory is the development of algorithms and innovative methodologies for the sustainable growth of air transportation in the coming decades, in view of the expected increase of traffic volumes, of the integration of new aircraft categories, such as remotely piloted and autonomous aircraft, and of the introduction of new international paradigms, like SESAR and NEXTGEN, for air traffic management. The development of these algorithms and methodologies is carried out through the whole process of design, software implementation and testing.

Purpose:

The research activities of the laboratory aim to develop innovative solutions for increasing the efficiency of the air transport system, covering both basic research and industrial applications of methods and technologies to be implemented on aircraft, in the ATM/ATC system and in airports. This efficiency improvement is considered in terms of sustainable increase of airspace capacity, while ensuring the safety of the flight and pursuing the reduction of fuel consumption and noise impact generated by aircraft.

The laboratory also conducts research and development activities for the introduction of new solutions, in terms of both enabling technologies and operating concepts, supporting the efficient and sustainable integration of remotely piloted aircraft (RPAS) and autonomous aircraft in the civil airspace.

The research topics developed by the laboratory are integrated within national and international projects, through the participation in the programmes Clean Sky, Clean Sky 2 (core partnership in the ITD "Systems"), SESAR 2020, Horizon 2020 and EDA. In addition, the laboratory works in collaboration with international working groups (such as the IFAR Air Transport Efficiency Working Group) and with national and international Companies and Universities, supporting the development of thesis/internships and implementing the dissemination of the knowledge.

Research topics:

The research topics addressed by the Air Transport Sustainability (SOTA) lab refer to the efficient management of the aircraft trajectory, in terms of both separation management and collision avoidance, to the optimization and automation of the flight operations, both in cruise and in terminal area, and to the innovation of the ATC/ATM ground systems. These topics extend to a multitude of applications, including both fixed-wing and rotary-wing vehicles, and address not only the conventional traffic scenarios but also the integration of remotely-piloted aircraft (RPAS) and autonomous aircraft in the overall Air Transport System (ATS). The main research topics developed by the laboratory are described below.

Algorithms for Efficient Separation Assurance (ESA), airborne (ASAS) and ground-based, to be used as a support to the decision making of pilots and controllers and/or as automated systems. These algorithms constitute the enabling technologies for the implementation of the delegation of the separation responsibility to the on-board segment (as by new SESAR paradigm), and for reducing the workload of the ground controller in presence of high traffic density, aiming at the same time to the management of separations in an efficient manner in terms of fuel consumption reduction.
Algorithms for Emergency Collision Avoidance (ECA), airborne and ground-based, to be used as emergency automatic resource in case of malfunction and/or failures of Efficient Separation Assurance (ESA) system. These algorithms constitute the enabling technologies for Collision Avoidance, as emergency automatic backup of Separation Assurance System and automatic support to the pilot (on-board or remote) in presence of mid-air collision risk.
Algorithms and systems for the processing of data coming from the most recent surveillance technologies, such as ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast).
Algorithms for Enhanced Operations Management (EOM), including algorithms for Curved and Continuous Descent Approach and for Sequencing and Merging, aiming to the optimization and automation of the air operations in TMA and to the reduction of fuel consumption, chemical emissions and noise impact. These algorithms constitute the enabling technologies for increasing the efficiency of the operations and of the maneuvers in presence of high traffic volumes and to reduce the environmental impact in the airport area and in TMA.
Algorithms and systems for the generation at strategic level (before flight) and/or tactical level (during flight) of trajectories optimized in terms of consumption and emissions in the cruise phase, in line with the 4D navigation concepts introduced in the SESAR and NEXTGEN frameworks.

The research activities performed by the laboratory lead to the development of aircraft automation systems and of human operators (pilots, RPAS operators, air traffic controllers) decision-making support systems. These systems are suitable to be used on-board manned aircraft, in unmanned aircraft (either remotely piloted or autonomous), in ground stations for unmanned aircraft and in air traffic control centers.

The main tools available in the laboratory implement the surveillance functionalities of the air traffic based on the use of ADS-B, the detection and resolution of conflict (Traffic Avoidance) and collision (Collision Avoidance) conditions, the advanced situational awareness (aggregation and processing of data for the synthesis of an on optimized traffic picture at tactical level) and the generation of trajectories for curved and continuous descent approach.

IRON - Innovative turbopROp configuratioN

LED - Long Endurance Demonstrator

SHAFT - SyntHetic jet Actuators for Flow conTrol

FTB4UAS Flight Test Bed For UAS

SIMACE - System for monitoring of environmental conditions in hostile conditions

SMAF – Smart AirFrame

AIRGREEN 2 - Morphing Wing Technology

CAPRI Carrello per Atterraggio con Attuazione Intelligente

CERVIA - Innovative methods for Design and Certification of advanced aircraft composite structures

GAINS - Green AIrframe Icing Novel System

AIRONE - Cheap Online Weather Information Service for the Personal Air Vehicles sector

CTNA TILTROTOR FX

MISE - Applications for electronics of not piloted aircraft

CASTLE - CAbin Systems design Toward passenger welLbEing

COAST - COst-effective Avionic SysTem

DANTE - Development of Aero-vibro-acoustics Numerical and Technical Expertise

FLPP3-DOC Demise Observation Capsule

HEXAFLY-INT - High-Speed Experimental Fly Vehicles-International

INTERSTADIO GRID - The Interstage 2/3 of the new European launcher, VEGA C

ISAA – Imaging antenna System based on Aperiodic feeding Arrays

LIPROM – Liquid Propulsion Research on Oxygen Methane

ASCI - Safety-critical interoperability applications amongst autonomous heterogeneous systems

BIG DATA FACILITY

MIDA - Photo-interpretation with high resolution optical satellite images

CAPPADOCIA - Coordination Action Pro “Production, Avionics, Design” on Cost-efficiency in Aeronautics

Activities