06 February 2018 Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS)
The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and The MITRE Corporation (MITRE) have announced new areas of collaboration to improve Air Traffic Management (ATM) operations. Building on the initial successes of a multi-year research work programme, CAAS and MITRE will identify potential enhancements that could be included in the future ATM system in the next phase of their collaboration.
ATM is a complex and cognitive-intensive task that requires air traffic control officers (ATCOs) to monitor and process information from various sources, predict air traffic flow, make quick and sound decisions, and provide air traffic instructions and clearances to ensure the safe and efficient management of air traffic. Factors such as an increase in air traffic, bad weather, runway closures and unanticipated contingencies can result in the rerouting of flights and congestion around airports which increase the operational complexity for ATCOs.
In view of these complexities, CAAS’ collaboration with MITRE Asia Pacific Singapore (MAPS) will focus on Artificial Intelligence in ATM, and develop machine learning techniques and speech recognition capabilities that can be applied to ATM to enhance the performance of ATCOs.
Mr Kevin Shum, Director-General, CAAS, said, “Technology is driving fundamental changes to air traffic management (ATM). We need to be ready for these changes. We are exploring different ways to integrate more advanced technologies and capabilities into our fifth generation air traffic control system. Rapid developments in Artificial Intelligence will push the envelope in taking Singapore’s ATM capabilities to a whole new level, delivering even higher levels of safety and efficiency for ATM.”
Mr Gregg Leone, Vice President and Director of MITRE’s aviation programmes said, “Artificial Intelligence presents an exciting new area of research for solving problems in Air Traffic Management. Through this collaboration, CAAS and MITRE will investigate how air traffic controllers can achieve greater productivity, efficiencies, and safety when they are supported by machine intelligence. Ground breaking work such as this is evidence of the innovation that has come from our strategic partnership, and puts CAAS in a positive position to manage expected traffic growth in the region.”