Boeing (Germany)

Continuous descent operations (CDO) are an efficient descent operation for passenger/cargo aircraft and implemented at various airports worldwide. However, it is difficult for air traffic controller (ATCo) to predict the CDO trajectory and control the CDO aircraft, therefore limiting the applicable window only during the low traffic periods. To maximize potential benefits by introducing the CDO, it is required to implement the CDO into congested airspace and time window. This study introduces an augmentation to CDO application in the congested airspace, called fixed flight-path angle (Fixed-FPA) descent. The fixed-FPA descent was originally proposed and investigated only for small passenger jet aircraft; thereafter the fixed-FPA descent was introduced to large passenger jet aircraft. This proposed procedure consists of several altitude restrictions along the arrival route. By following the altitude restrictions, the aircraft flies with a specified flight-path angle. Additionally, specifying the flight-path angle facilitates the prediction of the CDO trajectory by ATCo. Moreover, by setting a shallower flight-path angle compared with the conventional CDO, the fixed-FPA descent is capable of speed control. The preceding studies conducted only the preliminary feasibility study of the fixed-FPA descent on large jet aircraft. In this study, a series of full-flight simulator experiments and Monte Carlo simulations were conducted to assess the operational feasibility and demonstrate the capabilities of fixed-FPA descent. Experimental results demonstrated that the fixed-FPA descent meets the requirements for integrating the CDO into congested airspace, such that the vertical path of the CDO can be predicted by the ATCo, and the speed of the CDO aircraft is controllable. Additionally, the simulation results revealed that the fixed-FPA descent has better fuel efficiency than the conventional when the descending aircraft is required to delay its arrival time.

Reduced Crew Operations (RCO) are a longstanding concept in academia and slowly reaching into the realm of actual airline operations. However, one of the great barriers is the role definition of the future single pilot. Simply removing one of the pilots will not work - a more comprehensive approach is required. As re-certification of the flight deck will be required anyway, we are offered to unique chance to rethink flight deck operations and properly (re-)consider the role a human operator on the flight deck will perform. Lead by the question if today's pilots are still acting as pilots we present a new role definition for the future RCO flight deck operator. As an introduction, the development of the flight deck and the associated role change of the human operator from being an aviator to a manager of systems is highlighted. Subsequently an overview over existing future flight deck concepts is given, focusing on RCO oriented approaches. The development process through which the herein presented concept was created is stated in the following. First, the underlying technological, operational, and legal assumptions and limitations are summarized. After that the goals to which the concept is supposed to cater are introduced, followed by a description of the utilized development process. Hereafter, the role definition of the human operator is discussed. We envision the human operator to take over a more strategic role than today. Instead of managing individual aircraft systems the operator will be tasked with Total Mission Management (TMM), supported by advanced, more autonomous, automation. Hence, we propose to change the job title of the human operator from pilot to mission manager. A set of typical tasks of the mission manager is described positively (what they are) and negatively (what they are not). Furthermore, the question of responsibility and authority on the flight deck is answered. Eventually, existing challenges and future research efforts regarding the herein proposed concept are discussed.

Symptoms, Effects on Quality of Life, Judgement and Expectations of Treatment in Active Ankylosing Spondylitis: The Patient's View.In ankylosing spondylitis uncertainty prevails among rheumatologists on how to define and measure activity. In the present study the patient's view of activity was evaluated. What does active ankylosing spondylitis mean for the patient? In a standardized interview the patient was asked to describe, from his own experience, what active ankylosing spondylitis means, what bothers him most, what helps most, and what he expects from therapy. For the patient, active ankylosing spondylitis means pain (99 responses), mobility restriction (19), muscle tension (10), inability to stay supine (6), restriction in chest mobility (5) and dyspnea (5). Fatigue was mentioned by two patients. In active states patients are mainly bothered by pain (77), mobility restriction (55), consequences for social life (20) and work (18), disturbed sleep (17) and difficult breathing (16). Drugs (84) and physical activity (42) were judged the best treatments during active ankylosing spondylitis. It was no surprise that pain and mobility restriction were cited most often by the patients. Breathing difficulties were cited rather often, whereas fatigue seems not to play an important role for most patients. The results suggest that modern rheumatology may have underestimated the relevance of difficult breathing and paid too much attention to fatigue.

3D lattice structures comprise a connected network of segments that allow positioning of the base material where needed while maintaining an open-cell characteristic. These structures represent an ideal lightweight core material for high-performance sandwich panels. This work presents, for the first time, the performance of lattice-based cores fabricated via indirect additive manufacturing using pultruded Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) rods. The CFRP sandwich panels were tested under out-of-plane compression, and their compressive properties and failure modes were predicted via analytical and FE analyses, later contrasted with mechanical testing. Finally, the study compares favorably with similar core materials found in the literature.

The rapidly expanding adoption of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for various applications warrants increasing importance of the adequate handling of off-nominal flight conditions. Strategies for contingency management have been explored in previous studies and have been identified as a necessary component in unmanned air traffic management (UTM). However, the integration of comprehensive contingency measures into the tactical management of UAS flights has not been widely addressed so far. This paper presents a reference implementation architecture based on deterministic and automated decision-making. The architecture contributes towards ensuring the operational safety of UAS missions and lays the foundation of a modular flight management framework which is able to handle multiple hazard scenarios with different levels of automation. Following a risk-based approach and considering the ongoing development of technologies that support contingency management in an UTM environment, a concept of operations is developed. In order to cover a wide range of off-nominal scenarios and to ensure seamless flow of information, a functional analysis of the system design and interfaces is performed. Moreover, an initial model of quantitative risk assessment is incorporated in the decision-making process to facilitate the resolution of contingency scenarios. Functional requirements are then formulated for a real-time onboard implementation and used for the design of the reference architecture. The requirements are refined through expert consultation and the novel advanced capabilities of the decision-making process are implemented in the open-source autopilot and flight stack \pmbPX4. The contingency management implementation is then tested using a real-time physics simulation environment. In particular, the suitability of a contingency procedure for landing on safe zones is evaluated through the simulation of an use case representing realistic operations in complex environments. Consideration of available UAS capabilities is identified as a key requirement in the development process of contingency management strategies. The results show that the reference architecture is technically feasible and suitable for further implementation of operational procedures towards fully autonomous contingency management.

Commercial airlines operate in a highly competitive environment. Flight deck crew cost account for a significant part of total cost, hence airlines try to reduce these cost. One such option is the implementation of Single Pilot Operations (SPO) in commercial aviation. Various organizations have contributed to the discussion of SPO feasibility by developing conceptual frameworks. In this paper, we summarize such efforts on developing future concepts. First, we identified two dominant concept design approaches: second pilot replacement (e.g. through automation) and second pilot displacement (e.g. to the ground). Based on these two design approaches, we have categorized existing concepts in literature into seven concept categories, mainly differing by the number and nature of agents involved. We then review these categories as well as individual concepts along multiple criteria, including safety, and social, economic and legal considerations. We find that concepts involving multiple agents, man and machine, will likely solve some of the human factors issues arising with simply removing the second pilot. Such concepts, however, are inherently complex. Their economic feasibility remains questionable. Besides, more research on how human decision-making contributes to overall safety today, and on how to best support human decision-making in future single pilot concepts must be undertaken. Many questions, predominantly human factors issues, still remain unanswered. We continue by reviewing three general observations on concept development methodology, concept consistency and concept detailedness in literature. Finally, we postulate that SPO will only be implemented with a comprehensive and concise concept that proves to enable operations at least as safe as today. Implementation of SPO will be gradual with less complex concepts in well-defined situations.

Because of their large workspace, robot manipulators have the potential to be used for high precision non-contact manufacturing processes, such as laser cutting or welding, on large complex work pieces. However, most industrial manipulators are not able to provide the necessary accuracy requirements. Mainly because of their flexible structures, they are subject to point to point positioning errors and also vibration errors on a smaller scale. The vibration issues are especially hard to deal with. Many published solutions propose to modify the robot's own control system to deal with these problems. However, most modern control techniques require high fidelity models of the underlying system dynamics, which are quite difficult to obtain for robot manipulators. In this work, we propose an external stabilization unit with an additional set of actuators/sensors to stabilize the process tool, similar to Optical Image Stabilization systems. We show that, because of collocated control, a model of the robot's own dynamic behavior is not needed to achieve high tracking accuracy. We also provide testing results of a prototype stabilizing a dummy tool in two degrees of freedom on a UR10 robot, which reduced its tracking error by two orders of magnitude below 20 micrometers.

This paper describes first experiences with the language proto-GNOSIS, a hybrid of MUMPS and PROLOG. The objective of the GNOSIS project is to create a GNOSIS shell, specified as a superset of X/OPEN capabilities. The shell will also be used at the University of Cologne to develop an intelligent information retrieval (IIR) system. This paper outlines an approach for IIR and illustrates the problem. Some mechanisms for an IIR system are discussed briefly. Then some examples from the GNOSIS language extensions are given.