FE - DCA | Dissertações de Mestrado e Teses de Doutoramento
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- Simulation of 4D Trajectory NavigationPublication . Lucas, Francisco Emanuel Silva; Bousson, KouamanaAn algorithm to accurately predict 4D trajectory navigation was developed alongside a graphical user interface (GUI) to allow the easy simulation of several trajectories with different parameters. Several simulations were conducted using this tool which were then analyzed and compared with actual flight values in order to validate its accuracy. The need for such a tool emerges from the ever increasing demand regarding the air transportation system, that is expected to maintain positive growth rates up until 2030. The programs of SESAR in Europe and NextGen in the USA were initiated to respond to this need and at their heart lies the implementation of 4D trajectories. A point-mass kinetic model was chosen to simulate the aircraft’s movement, as it provides sufficiently accurate results without requiring too much aircraft specific information. A database containing the information of several large turbofan commercial aircraft was compiled. In order to model the effect of the weather on the simulation, a large world wide historical weather database was incorporated into the tool. The intent information required for simulation is the flight’s course (in waypoints) and certain flight phase specific parameters. The tool was created using the Python programming language and the open source library for GUI development Kivy. Three real flights were simulated and their performance was analyzed. A comparison between the simulated and the actual flight’s values was made in order to validate the tool’s accuracy. The results were satisfactory with the three flights averaging a 2.27% error regarding average flight duration as well as a 9.19% median error regarding the aircraft’s position throughout the flight. Overall the tool proved to be satisfactorily accurate given the amount of possible error sources for flight trajectory prediction however, further improvements are important for implementation in real active air traffic management systems.