Virtual Aircraft Target Generator for ADS-B Testing

The novel Vision-based Approach and Landing System (VALS) provides Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) aircraft with an Alternative Position, Navigation, and Timing (APNT) solution for approach and landing without relying on GPS. VALS operates on multiple images obtained by the aircraft’s video camera as the aircraft performs its descent. In this system, a feature detection technique such as Hough circles and Harris corner detection is used to detect which portions of the image may have landmark features. These image areas are compared with a stored list of known landmarks to determine which features correspond to the known landmarks. The world coordinates of the best matched image landmarks are inputted into a Coplanar Pose from Orthography and Scaling with Iterations (COPOSIT) module to estimate the camera position relative to the landmark points, which yields an estimate of the position and orientation of the aircraft. The estimated aircraft position and orientation are fed into an extended Kalman filter to further refine the estimation of aircraft position, velocity, and orientation. Thus, the aircraft’s position, velocity, and orientation are determined without the use of GPS data or signals. Future work includes feeding the vision-based navigation data into the aircraft’s flight control system to facilitate aircraft landing.

The system revolves around a Communications Remote Monitoring Panel (CRMP), which interfaces with multiple radios operating under different communication protocols. The CRMP intelligently identifies each radio’s communication specification, such as analog, digital, or proprietary protocols, and dynamically adjusts to ensure the correct protocol is used for proper communication. This capability allows for seamless interaction between otherwise incompatible systems. Once connected, the CRMP transmits queries to assess the status of each connected radio to retrieve metrics including operational status, voltage, power status, and internal temperature. The CRMP can also remotely switch radios on or off, or flag problems for maintenance crews. The system supports real-time data acquisition, cross-protocol translation, and scalable network management. Whether deployed at a single control center or across multiple geographically dispersed facilities, the system improves visibility into the health of communication networks while minimizing the need for on-site technicians. Data trends may also inform replacement equipment acquisitions. Its modular, scalable architecture enables simultaneous monitoring of multiple radios, making it ideal for expanding networks or integrating legacy and next-gen systems.

Increasing demand for smaller UAVs (e.g., sometimes with wingspans on the order of six inches and weighing less than one pound) generated a need for much smaller flight and sensing equipment. NASA Langley's new sensing and flight control system for small UAVs includes both an active flight control board and an avionics sensor board. Together, these compare the status of the UAVs position, heading, and orientation with the pre-programmed data to determine and apply the flight control inputs needed to maintain the desired course. To satisfy the small form-factor system requirements, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) are used to realize the various flight control sensing devices. MEMS-based devices are commercially available single-chip devices that lend themselves to easy integration onto a circuit board. The system uses less energy than current systems, allowing solar panels planted on the vehicle to generate the systems power. While the lightweight technology was designed for smaller UAVs, the sensors could be distributed throughout larger UAVs, depending on the application.

NASA's Extensible Traffic Management (xTM) system allows for distributed management of the airspace where disparate entities collaborate to maintain a safe and accessible environment. This digital ecosystem relies on a common data generation and transfer framework enabled by well-defined data collection requirements, algorithms, protocols, and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The key components in this new paradigm are: Data Standardization: Defines the list of data attributes/variables that are required to inform and safely perform the intended missions and operations. Automated Real Time And/or Post-Flight Data Verification Process: Verifies system criteria, specifications, and data quality requirements using predefined, rule-based, or human-in-the-loop verification. Autonomous Evolving Real Time And/or Post-Flight Data Validation Process: Validates data integrity, quantity, and quality for audit, oversight, and optimization. The verification and validation process determines whether an operation’s performance, conformance, and compliance are within known variation. The technology can verify thousands of flight operations in near-real time or post flight in the span of a few minutes, depending on networking and computing capacity. In contrast, manual processing would have required hours, if not days, for a team of 2-3 experts to review an individual flight.

In traditional hardwired avionics systems, sensor integration requires installation of literally tons of physical cable that significantly increases vehicle weight and the time it takes to develop, maintain, and modify systems. Cabling also consumes space available for profitable payloads. Armstrong's technology uses software to incorporate new wireless capability without physically modifying existing avionics. How It Works Armstrong's gateway uses a software defined radio (SDR) to control the flow of information between various wireless devices and a vehicle's avionics. An SDR can be reprogrammed to communicate with a variety wireless communication protocols and frequencies via straightforward software modules—as opposed to wireless sensor-specific hardware—effectively eliminating the need to modify a vehicle's existing avionics hardware architecture. The gateway employs publish-subscribe network architecture. Before takeoff, flight computers reques—tor subscribe to—specific pieces of information from the SDR gateway. Wireless sensor devices then provide their respective sensor measurements to the SDR gateway, where they are distributed—or published—to any flight computer that has subscribed to a specific measurement. Why It Is Better Armstrong's technology simplifies the process of designing wireless avionics networks by providing a single point of communication between wireless and wired systems. It functions as a layer of abstraction between wireless sensors and the system with which they interface. This approach also ensures that no wireless device can directly communicate with a flight computer unless subscribed prior to takeoff, thus protecting the system from malicious or errant transmissions. Although specifically designed for aerospace systems, the gateway is both platform- and implementation-agnostic, with the potential to foster convergence between wireless technologies and existing systems in other industries. A manufacturer can add industrial Internet-of-Things capability without having to integrate new wireless interfaces into its preexisting network. The gateway serves as a universal interface with virtually any wireless device for such applications as connected logistics, predictive maintenance, asset tracking, and much more.