Integrated Surface and Approach Risk Monitor

The increase in safety incidents in the terminal airspace and on the airport surface over the past few years highlights the need for in-time, reliable monitoring and alerting technologies that fill in gaps in currently available systems. For fixed-wing aircraft operations, the most critical phase of flight is during take-off and landing and any interactions during this phase can lead to catastrophic consequences. In busy airports with large number of arrivals and departures, the operational margins are tight, and errors can have ripple effects on the traffic at the airport. With the Integrated Surface and Approach Risk Monitor (ISARM) we propose a tool to monitor the interaction among approach, runway, and taxiway operations and avoid incidents before they occur. ISARM translates measured safety metrics into actionable information through an aircraft risk model for the cockpit, and a runway risk status model for tower control. Several incidents between aircraft on the ground and approach in the past few years arose from the lack of a coherent forward-looking logic model for safety. ISARM offers a discrete event sequence safety logical model for approach and take-off operations that model actions of different aircraft in the airspace into a sequence of necessary discrete steps for safe operation. Similar to a flight checklist that verifies operations of each system within an aircraft, the discrete safety sequence model provides an operational checklist for safely operating at a given runway. The specific risks to operations at a runway can either be isolated (e.g., pilot error) or persistent (e.g., complexity of operations, poor surface conditions, etc.). We will leverage our expertise in speech-to-text models, real-time data processing, and integrated monitoring to build the Phase I POC for ATL and JFK. We will demonstrate and validate the functionality on live data for the two airports by the end of Phase I.

The ISARM tool’s functionality aligns seamlessly with the in-time safety assurance goals of NASA and helps the agency support the FAA and aviation community as it responds to the recent increase in runway incursion incidents. The technology design will be modular and compatible with integration into the In-time Aviation Safety Management System (IASMS). ISARM offers an excellent example of a NASA-sponsored safety capability that addresses an important aviation community problem. The in-time safety assurance goals of NASA’s IASMS necessitate a proactive monitoring and alert tool instead of the reactive alerts provided after an encroachment or incursion occurs. Operating in tandem with the SWANS hazard and risk event detection system, ISARM offers the NASA System Wide Safety Project an air-ground interaction safety capability that accelerates IASMS milestones and offers an early deployment success. ISARM will deliver near term benefits by adding a new and valuable safety monitoring and analysis tool to support air transportation as it responds to the recent increase in runway incursions and other safety events. The ability to process multiple data feeds in real-time and translate them into safety insights provides a robust infrastructure that can be leveraged for safety research by NASA. Commercial aircraft are exposed to the maximum safety risks during approach, landing, and take-off. Furthermore, the high frequency of runway incidents is a major concern for safe commercial aviation operations. ISARM’s integrated risk monitoring concept that models interaction between approach, runway, and taxi operations will be invaluable for controllers and pilots. The technology can be deployed to augment the safety systems at an airport with existing data services, thus encouraging easy adoption. Furthermore, the emphasis on cockpit-based risk model would find applications for adoption by airlines looking to proactively increase the safety of passengers and crew. ISARM addresses several recommendations by NTSB for safe aviation operations and can there be a direct solution for FAA to support for commercial operations. The proactive capability of ISARM to monitor the interaction between approach, runway, and taxiway operations and prevent incidents before they occur will be invaluable to air traffic controllers and safety managers at airports. The recent wave of aircraft crashes and close calls reinforces the FAA’s focus on safety in surface and terminal airspace operations and will require investment in new solutions. ISARM meets a clearly identified need to improve the FAA’s safety technology and procedures in air-ground interactions and ISARM can meet that requirement in the near term. The technology can be deployed to augment current safety systems at an airport with little investment in hardware and software by the agency, thus encouraging easy adoption. With the recent significant increase in runway incursions (operational events and pilot deviations increased 32 percent from December 2022 to December 2023), the FAA is looking for better solutions for preventing runway incursions.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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