Development and validation of the Multiple Remote Tower (MRT) for remote air traffic control

The symbol in air traffic control (ATC), essentially unchanged since the beginning of commercial air traffic early last century, is the characteristic control tower with its large, tilted windows, situated at an exposed location, and rising high above the airport. “Remote Tower” is changing the provision of Air Traffic Services (ATS) in a way that it is more service tailored, dynamically located and available when and where needed, enabled by digital solutions replacing the physical presence of controllers and control towers at aerodromes with a remotely provided Air Traffic Service for Multiple Aerodromes. The paper examines this phenomenon that will mark an epochal change, analysing the experiments and validations carried out in the last years.

Hardware-In-The Loop setup and test of an air spring control system

In this work, a Hardware-in-the-loop test bench is designed. The bench is used to test the behaviour of an electronic control unit used in Maserati to control the dynamics of an air spring system. First the mathematical model of the plant has been defined, then the simulation enviroment and the test environment have been set up. The performed tests succesfully highlighted some bugs in the device under test.

Augmented Reality for Airport Control Tower: Analysis and Implementation of Safety Nets

With the development of new technologies, Air Traffic Control, in the nearby of the airport, switched from a purely visual control to the use of radar, sensors and so on. As the industry is switching to the so-called Industry 4.0, also in this frame, it would be possible to implement some of the new tools that can facilitate the work of Air Traffic Controllers. The European Union proposed an innovative project to help the digitalization of the European Sky by means of the Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) program, which is the foundation on which the Single European Sky (SES) is based, in order to improve the already existing technologies to transform Air Traffic Management in Europe. Within this frame, the Resilient Synthetic Vision for Advanced Control Tower Air Navigation Service Provision (RETINA) project, which saw the light in 2016, studied the possibility to apply new tools within the conventional control tower to reduce the air traffic controller workload, thanks to the improvements in the augmented reality technologies. After the validation of RETINA, the Digital Technologies for Tower (DTT) project was established and the solution proposed by the University of Bologna aimed, among other things, to introduce Safety Nets in a Head-Up visualization. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the Safety Nets in use within the control tower and, by developing a working concept, implement them in a Head-Up view to be tested by Air Traffic Control Operators (ATCOs). The results, coming from the technical test, show that this concept is working and it could be leading to a future implementation in a real environment, as it improves the air traffic controller working conditions also when low visibility conditions apply.

Analisi e valutazione delle performance acustiche degli aeromobili nella fase di atterraggio

Nella tesi si analizzano le principali fonti del rumore aeronautico, lo stato dell'arte dal punto di vista normativo, tecnologico e procedurale. Si analizza lo stato dell'arte anche riguardo alla classificazione degli aeromobili, proponendo un nuovo indice prestazionale in alternativa a quello indicato dalla metodologia di certificazione (AC36-ICAO) Allo scopo di diminuire l'impatto acustico degli aeromobili in fase di atterraggio, si analizzano col programma INM i benefici di procedure CDA a 3° rispetto alle procedure tradizionali e, di seguito di procedure CDA ad angoli maggiori in termini di riduzione di lunghezza e di area delle isofoniche SEL85, SEL80 e SEL75.

Distributed collision-free traffic management via vertex cover for multi-vehicle systems

In this thesis, we state the collision avoidance problem as a vertex covering problem, then we consider a distributed framework in which a team of cooperating Unmanned Vehicles (UVs) aim to solve this optimization problem cooperatively to guarantee collision avoidance between group members. For this purpose, we implement a distributed control scheme based on a robust Set-Theoretic Model Predictive Control ( ST-MPC) strategy, where the problem involves vehicles with independent dynamics but with coupled constraints, to capture required cooperative behavior.

Aviation English: Structure and Importance of an International Airborne Language

In today’s globalized world, air travel is one of the fastest growing markets. Millions of aircrafts take off and then touch down all around the world each day. This well-synchronized symphony, however, is much more complex than it seems, and communication – language - plays a crucial role during a plane’s journey. Misunderstandings and miscommunications can have disastrous effects, so the adoption of a standard phraseology to be used during flight is a means to overcome language barriers, avoid ambiguous expressions and guarantee a safe and effective operation of an aircraft. Little is known about the interaction that goes on between pilots and air traffic controllers (ATCOs), and even though the language of aviation is English, cockpit communication can be hard to understand for people who are not familiar with this specific language. The scope of this thesis is to examine the origins of this uncommon language, the characteristics and peculiarities of air communication and to shed a little light on this mystery called Aviation English.

Sviluppo di un ambiente virtualizzato per la simulazione di attacchi a reti time-sensitive

Questo lavoro di tesi ha visto come obiettivo finale quello di realizzare una se- rie di attacchi, alcuni di questi totalmente originali, ai protocolli della famiglia Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) attraverso lo sviluppo di un’infrastruttura virtualizzata. L’infrastruttura è stata costruita e progettata utilizzando mac- chine virtuali con Quick EMUlator (QEMU) come strato di virtualizzazione ed accelerate attraverso Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM). Il progetto è stato concepito come Infrastrucutre as Code (IaC), attraverso l’ausilio di Ansible e alcuni script shell utilizzati come collante per le varie parti del progetto.

Magnetic actuators for nanosatellite attitude control

The research and the activities presented in the following thesis report have been led at the California Polytechnic State University (US) under the supervision of Prof. Jordi Puig Suari. The objective of the research has been the study of magnetic actuators for nanosatellite attitude control, called magnetorquer. Theese actuators are generally divided in three different kinds: air core torquer, embedded coil and torquerod. In a first phase of the activity, each technology has been analyzed, defining advantages and disadvantages, determining manufacturing procedures and creating mathematical model and designing equation. Dimensioning tools have been then implemented in numerical software to create an instrument that permits to determine the optimal configuration for defined requirements and constraints. In a second phase of the activities the models created have been validated exploiting prototypes and proper instruments for measurements. The instruments and the material exploited for experiments and prototyping have been provided by the PolySat and CubeSat laboratories. The results obtained led to the definition of a complete designing tool and procedure for nanosatellite magnetic actuators, introducing a cost analysis for each kind of solution. The models and the tools have been maintained fully parametric in order to offer a universal re-scalable instrument for satellite of different dimension class.

Dynamics of Bora wind over the Adriatic sea: atmospheric water balance and role of air-sea fluxes and orography

The Bora wind is a mesoscale phenomenon which typically affects the Adriatic Sea basin for several days each year, especially during winter. The Bora wind has been studied for its intense outbreak across the Dinaric Alps. The properties of the Bora wind are widely discussed in the literature and scientific papers usually focus on the eastern Adriatic coast where strong turbulence and severe gust intensity are more pronounced. However, the impact of the Bora wind can be significant also over Italy, not only in terms of wind speed instensity. Depending on the synoptic pressure pattern (cyclonic or anticyclonic Bora) and on the season, heavy snowfall, severe storms, storm surges and floods can occur along the Adriatic coast and on the windward flanks of the Apennines. In the present work five Bora cases that occurred in recent years have been selected and their evolution has been simulated with the BOLAM-MOLOCH model set, developed at ISAC-CNR in Bologna. Each case study has been addressed by a control run and by several sensitivity tests, performed with the purpose of better understanding the role played by air-sea latent and sensible heat fluxes. The tests show that the removal of the fluxes induces modifications in the wind approching the coast and a decrease of the total precipitation amount predicted over Italy. In order to assess the role of heat fluxes, further analysis has been carried out: column integrated water vapour fluxes have been computed along the Italian coastline and an atmospheric water balance has been evaluated inside a box volume over the Adriatic Sea. The balance computation shows that, although latent heat flux produces a significant impact on the precipitation field, its contribution to the balance is relatively minor. The most significant and lasting case study, that of February 2012, has been studied in more detail in order to explain the impressive drop in the total precipitation amount simulated in the sensitivity tests with removed heat fluxes with respect to the CNTRL run. In these experiments relative humidity and potential temperature distribution over different cross-sections have been examined. With respect to the CNTRL run a drier and more stable boundary layer, characterised by a more pronounced wind shear at the lower levels, has been observed to establish above the Adriatic Sea. Finally, in order to demonstrate that also the interaction of the Bora flow with the Apennines plays a crucial role, sensitivity tests varying the orography height have been considered. The results of such sensitivity tests indicate that the propagation of the Bora wind over the Adriatic Sea, and in turn its meteorological impact over Italy, is influenced by both the large air-sea heat fluxes and the interaction with the Apennines that decelerate the upstream flow.