Hanne Gottliebsen

Queen Mary, University of London, UK.

Time: Wednesday 14.4.2004, 14:30
Place: Room A4-106, Fr. Bajersvej 7

Formal Methods for SATS HVO Or "how to safely handle more aircraft in a small section of the sky"

Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) is a research program lead by NASA Langley Research Center. The aim of SATS is to provide procedures and technology to facilitate easier use of small aircraft within the current airspace system in the USA.

In particular, Higher-Volume Operations (HVO) is concerned with the use of small non-tower, non-radar airports in near all-weather conditions. Current procedures rely on a mutual exclusion approach which is highly inefficient, but also very safe. The stretch goal for HVO is to allow 10 simultaneous operations (approaching or leaving the airport) in a small area around the airport, while ensuring that aircraft maintain safe distances between each other and any other obstacles.

Using formal methods, in the form of theorem proving, we reason about a scheduling algorithm which ensures that safe distances are always kept.

This research was performed while at the National Institute of Aerospace, Hampton, Virginia.