Category: International projects

BULATSA hosted a Visitors’ Day to present the conducted validation of the TESLA prototype for pre-industrialization phase, under project PJ.10-02a – “Improved Performance in the Provision of Separation”. The prototype TESLA (Tactical Encounter SoLver Assistant) is a joint project of Airbus D&S and BULATSA, launched in 2016 in fulfillment of activities of SESAR 2020 Programme.
Representatives of the air navigation service providers of France, Germany, Poland and Italy and other guests from the industry, including Airbus Aircraft and Deep Blue Consulting & Research, got acquainted with the prototype’s progress and functionalities in interactive format. They watched a demonstration session of TESLA’s behavior and capabilities through air traffic management simulation. Bulgarian air traffic controllers demonstrated the resolution of many conflict situations in the area of Sofia Approach and Sofia Control through the use of the prototype, which examines the possibilities for improving the accuracy of the predicted airplane trajectory using current flight data from the aircraft board (EPP – Extended projected profile).
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SESAR 2020 is a programme of the European Union that is focused on the development and validation of technological solutions in the field of air traffic management. It is funded by the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme.

On 25 March 2019 started a validation of project PJ.10-2a “Improved Performance in the Provision of Separation”, Phase V3 (“pre-industrialization”), to demonstrate the maturity of the prototype TESLA (Tactical Encounter SoLver Assistant).
The prototype was developed by Airbus Defense and Space (Airbus D&S) in accordance with the operational requirements of BULATSA, in fulfillment of project PJ 10 activities of SESAR 2020 Programme. The purpose of the project is to provide Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs) with automated means for detecting and preventing conflicts between aircraft, increasing the capacity of airspace and supporting the management of the increasing traffic. The validation is conducted in the test platform “BULATSA Innovation Grid”, specially equipped with workstations for ATCOs and pseudo-pilots.
The validation of TESLA functionalities is conducted through simulation of the air traffic management in the area of Sofia Approach and Sofia Control with significant complexity and traffic intensity. The possibilities for improving airplane separation accuracy by using actual flight data from the board of the aircraft – EPP (Extended Projected Profile) are also being examined.
The Bulgarian air traffic controllers will assess the possibilities for resolving multiple conflict situations with the use of the prototype. The validation exercise will gather information on the maturity of TESLA (according to SESAR Programme standards), which information will be subject to expert analysis. The results and the final assessment of the prototype capabilities are expected in the second half of 2019.
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SESAR 2020 is a programme of the European Union that is focused on the development and validation of technological solutions in the field of air traffic management. It is funded by the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme

BULATSA and LEONARDO hosted a Visitors’ Day to present the results of the validation on projects PJ.03a – Integrated Surface Management (SUMO) and PJ.03b – Airport Safety Nets (SAFE) of SESAR 2020 Programme, conducted on a test system GAINS.
The purpose of PJ.03а project is to find a solution for improved guidance of aircraft and motor vehicles on the airport surface combined with routing. PJ.03b gives a solution for enhanced airport safety nets, assisting air traffic controllers to avoid conflicts. BULATSA participates in these projects, together with LEONARDO, to share its views on the better definition of system functionalities and to support the validation of PJ.03a / PJ.03b, which took place in BULATSA between 22-26, October 2018.
Within the Visitors’ Day were conducted exercises on LEONARDO’s system GAINS and were tested two sets of software functionalities – Route Planning and Management (PJ.03a) and Surface Conflict Alert (SCA) Functionalities (PJ.03b). The event was also attended by international experts from AirFrance, UkSATSE (ANSP of Ukraine), Crocontrol (ANSP of Croatia), ROMATSA (ANSP of Romania), LFV (ANSP of Sweden), ENAV (ANSP of Italy) and representatives of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Two separate validation sessions under project PJ.10.02b “Improved Separation Management” were conducted between November 2018 and January 2019 by BULATSA’s highly trained air traffic controllers (ATCOs). The project is part of PJ 10 PROSA (Controller Tools and Team Organisation for the Provision of Separation in the Air Traffic Management) and is funded by SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) under the SESAR2020: 2016-2019 multi-annual Programme and a Grant Agreement No. 734143 within the European Commission’s Program for Scientific Research and Innovation.
The solutionis being developed by Airbus D&S, Airbus Commercial Aircraft and BULATSA. It aims to further improve the quality of separation management services between aircraft that overfly en-route and/or in the controlled areas of airports, by introducing further mechanisms for automation and integration of relevant additional information.
Within the validation, BULATSA’s ATCOs reviewed the results achieved so far, the technological developments, the expected benefits and the degree of maturity of the prototype, as well as its applicability to different types of operational environments. Areas of improvement and optimal or non-standard solutions with high added value were identified to detect and resolve potential conflicts.
Based on ATCOs’ workload assessment and analysis of the effectiveness and applicability of the developed functionalities, PJ 10 2b Team processed the behavior of the TESLA prototype in terms of performance indicators in the areas of Safety, Capacity, Environment and Human Factor. It was concluded that taking into account the meteorological information in the TESLA prototype and assessing the feasibility of various possible conflict avoidance solutions would relieve the workload of ATCO, optimizing the decision-making process and raising the situational awareness. Therefore, it is believed that deploying the TESLA prototype could have a positive impact on the overall capacity of the services offered.
A demonstration exercise showing the present capabilities of the TESLA prototype will be presented at the Airbus D&S stand during the World ATM Congress in Madrid, 12-14 March 2019.

Air traffic controllers and experts from BULATSA participated in the conduction of 16 real-time simulations and a Visitors’ Day of GRADE project (GNSS Solutions for Increased GA and Rotorcraft Airport Accessibility Demonstration). Other participants in the event were the project partners – ENAV (the Air Navigation Services Provider of Italy), NAIS Italy (software developer for the project), ISSNOVA Italy (assessed the workload of pilots and air traffic controllers during the project) and representatives of SESAR Joint Undertaking.
GRADE is a pan-European project under SESAR 2020 programme, funded by Horizon 2020 programme, which aims to demonstrate the possibility for general aviation aircraft and rotorcraft to use the concepts of SESAR to integrate into the airspace and airports using the capabilities of the global satellite navigation system.
You can find more information about GRADE project at: www.gradeproject.eu and https://www.bulatsa.com/en/activities/projects/international-projects/grade-gnss-solutions-increased-ga-and-rotorcraft-airport-accessibility-demonstration

Between 22-26 October 2018, BULATSA and LEONARDO completed validations of SESAR 2020 projects PJ.03a- Enhanced guidance assistance to aircraft and vehicles on the airport surface combined with routing and PJ.03b – Enhanced airport safety nets for controllers. The objective of project PJ.03a is to find a solution for improved guidance of aircraft and vehicles on the airport’s movement area, combined with route setting. PJ.03b provides a solution for advanced airport safety nets supporting ATCOs to prevent conflicts.
Two types of software functionalities were tested during the validation – Route Planning and Management (PJ.03a) and Surface Conflict Alert (SCA) Functionalities (PJ.03b), through a set of reference and full value exercises, which assessed the functioning of the system.
The conclusions of the validation confirmed that the software, developed by LEONARDO specialists, which was the main object of the validation, carries the necessary functionalities and performs in an accurate and sustainable manner. The validations have paved the way for additional steps, that need to be taken to achieve the necessary level of maturity for industrialization.

BULATSA’s Director General Georgi Peev participated in the official delegation, headed by the President of the Republic of Bulgaria Rumen Radev, in the Republic of Serbia on 21 and 22 June 2018.
During the visit, Georgi Peev held a bilateral meeting with the management of Serbia and Montenegro’s ANS provider – SMATSA, at which was discussed the current topic – DANUBE FAB. Exchanged were views on the challenges related to the providing of the necessary capacity and maintaining high performance of ANSP.
The main focus of the discussions was the invitation, sent in early June, by the Ministries of Transport of Bulgaria and Romania for the accession of the Republic of Serbia with observer status to the work of DANUBE FAB.
Recognizing the role of the Republic of Serbia as a key partner in the ANS provision network in Southeast Europe, the possibility of joining the work of the functional block provides new frameworks of the European perspective for the region.

Mr. Georgi Peev, Director General of BULATSA hosted a visit of SMATSA’s management lead by Mr. Predrag Jovanovic, CEO, on 4 and 5 June 2018. During the meeting the parties discussed issues of mutual interest regarding the current state of the air traffic in the region, the development of the major projects in both ANSPs and the opportunities for closer cooperation in the field of the air navigation services.
The participants discussed specific issues related to the increasing complexity of traffic in the region and the ways to deal with the challenges, the need to ensure sufficient number of ATCOs and what are the issues around the selection and training process.
The delegation from Serbia paid a visit to the Ops room and the Training center where they got acquainted with the operational environment and the capabilities of the simulators. The financial experts of SMATSA and BULATSA discussed performance issues related to RP3 in a dedicated session.

Leading companies in the aviation industry, participating in Project PJ.10.02a (Separation Management En-route and TMA), met on 15 and 16 May in BULATSA. The purpose of the project is to create innovative prototypes for conflicts detection and resolution as part of SESAR 2020 Project PJ 10 PROSA (Controller Tools and Team Organisation for the Provision of Separation in the Air Traffic Management).
The forum was attended by representatives of SESAR Joint Undertaking, Thales, Indra, DSNA, Eurocontrol, ANS CZ, ENAV, PANSA, AIRBUS Aircraft, AIRBUS D&S, Skyguide, Integra, Leonardo, DFS, NAVIAIR, NATS and BULATSA.
The project managers presented the achieved results so far and the upcoming activities. The participants also made a review of the technical aspects in the development of PJ 10, the expected benefits, the degree of maturity of the prototypes and their applicability to different types of operational environment.
The partners exchanged their views on the operational improvements and the results of the conducted validation exercises and discussed different approaches for detecting and resolving the potential conflicts.
Representatives of BULATSA, Airbus D&S and Airbus Aircraft made a demonstration of the TESLA prototype and the integration of data from the aircraft (EPP – Extended Projected Profile) – PAS@ATM in the simulated exercise, conducted in the specially-equipped with working positions for air traffic controllers and pseudo-pilots simulation test platform – BULATSA Innovation Grid. Emulated ADS-C data from two Airbus A330 airplanes was integrated into the simulated traffic in order to determine more accurately the aircraft trajectory and detect and resolve conflicts.

BULATSA Director General Georgi Peev took part in the annual Strategic Conference of the executive officers of ANSPs members of the Civil aviation services organization (CANSO) during the week of the World ATM Congress in Madrid.
Within the congress BULATSA and ROMATSA experts presented projects related to SESAR – „Advantages and applications of the New pan-European Network Services (NewPens), Project for implementation of the South Eastern European Night Free Route Airspace (SEEN FRA), “Traffic Complexity Assessment Tool” in BULATSA, “Pilot platform for access services to OPMET (ECAC) data, (METAR, TAF, SIGMET) in WXXM format in ROMATSA”, and a project for initial SWIM implementation – Creating local operational security center in BULATSA.
BULATSA representatives discussed the experience and the practical solutions of DANUBE FAB in the InterFAB panel “Impact of the traffic volatility in air traffic management”.
BULATSA air traffic controllers together with AIRBUS Aircraft and AIRBUS Defence and Space engineers made a demonstration of the integration of two prototypes of SESAR 2020, developed within SESAR PJ.10 Solution 10.02a – Tactical Encounter Solver Assistant (TESLA) by AIRBUS Defence and Space and BULATSA, and within SESAR PJ.18 Solution 18.04 – PAS@ATM by AIRBUS Aircraft.