NASA research to help mitigate risks around airports

To keep our nation's busiest airports running smoothly, thousands of people and systems must work harmoniously to manage the risks associated with commercial passenger and cargo transport.

Aviation safety research suggests that most safety-related events are affected by three main hazard categories: airspace, environment, and human workload.

While some potential hazards and flight risks are predictable hours in advance, others are not and, currently, they are being tracked in and relayed from different systems.

In partnership with NASA's System-Wide Safety (SWS) project, Robust Analytics, an aviation technology company, has developed a technology solution, SafeFlight, that not only monitors multiple risk factors in one system, but also predicts when multiple risks may happen simultaneously and reduce airspace safety.

Using SWS project research on terminal-area safety hazards to prioritize the monitoring of risks, SafeFlight integrates and tracks specific variables to predict changes in airspace safety margins and identify flight risks.

These variables include weather, traffic density, infrastructure outages, and fatigue and workload of flight crews and air traffic controllers.

Armed with risk predictions every 15 minutes during a four-hour period, airline dispatchers and operations managers can mitigate risks to create a safer airspace for both passenger and cargo airplanes.

"We are so pleased to see NASA research implemented in an everyday industry solution that helps operators and analysts maintain aviation safety," said Misty Davies, SWS project manager.

SafeFlight is currently being utilized at 17 out of 20 of the busiest passenger airports in the United States with nearly half (47.9%) of all scheduled passenger flights being monitored.

The partnership between SWS and Robust Analytics began through the NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, which supports small businesses in the creation of innovative, disruptive technologies and helps take research advancements from conception into the market.

Different from most other investors, the NASA SBIR Program funds early or "seed" stage research and development that has commercial potential.

Related Links
System-Wide Safety (SWS) project
Aerospace News at SpaceMart.com

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