Solution name

Solution number

Description

Lead

Collaborative control

PJ.10-W2-73 CC

Controllers coordinated traffic at sector boundaries using voice or electronic dialogue to maintain safe separation between airspace users. Using the SESAR solution of collaborative control, controllers could issue instructions to aircraft outside their sector to support more efficient flight profiles throughout the collaborative area without specific coordination when there was no affecting traffic.

NATS

Flight centric air traffic control

PJ.10-W2-73 FCA

European airspace was divided into flight information regions, which were subdivided into sectors to provide safe separation services for aircraft traveling through the airspace. Changing this to a flight-centric structure without reference to geographical sectors opened up the opportunity to distribute the traffic more evenly and to avoid lost productivity in under-loaded sectors.

NATS

Increased flexibility in ATCO validations

PJ.10-W2-73 IFAV

Air traffic controllers received detailed qualifications to acquire a specific qualification. They also received sector validations, which permitted them to control defined volumes of airspace. SESAR was developing non-geographical sector qualifications to remove current constraints and move towards a more flexible approach where environmental knowledge and other information needs were supported by systems, procedures, airspace, training, and regulatory adaptations.

NATS

Delegation of ATM services provision amongst ATSUs

PJ.10-W2-93

The rigid nature of Europe’s airspace infrastructure made it difficult to delegate airspace amongst air traffic service units based on traffic demand or organizational needs such as day/night operations. SESAR explored the delegation of airspace in expected and planned situations - such as peak traffic load at fixed times - as well as unscheduled occurrences, for example, in cases of service degradation or failure.

ENAV

Attention guidance

PJ.10-W2-96 AG

Situational awareness and attention were two important skills that controllers needed to keep at a high level when controlling aircraft at a radar screen. SESAR research examined salient visual stimuli to guide the operator’s attention to potential hotspot or conflict areas on the radar screen if the event went unnoticed by the controller for a given time frame. The attention guidance solution aimed to guide the controller’s attention through the use of an eye tracker system and intelligently prioritize the events shown.

Leonardo

Automatic speech recognition

PJ.10-W2-96 ASR

Controllers relied on their workstation to provide the support tools to manage air traffic and minimize workload in dense or complex airspace. Voice communications were central to controller activity yet risked being misheard or subject to congestion, prompting research into automatic speech recognition (ASR). This solution covered three aspects of ASR with the aim of reducing workload and improving flight efficiency. The technology considered text predictions based on surveillance data; creating ATM commands based on existing ATC concepts; and a combination of both to provide further applications for the controller working position (CWP).