Simulation and Flight Test Environments for the TASAR Traffic Aware Planner

The Traffic Aware Planner (TAP) software is a flight deck decision support tool that enhances the flight crew’s ability to make flight-optimizing route change requests while airborne. The software provides conflict-free, optimized trajectory suggestions during en route flight to produce time- and fuel-savings compared to the current trajectory. The TAP software requires evaluation in an operational environment with real pilot users to validate projected benefits. To this end, a set of developmental test environments have been developed to mature the software and mitigate technical risk prior to entering operational evaluation. The unique attributes of each test environment were leveraged to provide a range of purpose- and case-dependent TAP software tests. This paper describes the elements of a testing environment, discusses several environments of varying fidelity used to test the TAP software, and provides a review of two case studies highlighting the vital role testing played in the TAP software development process.