Description: IAI has created an executable analysis language called the Predictive Query Language (PQL) and has applied it to the Metrosim product (from IAI), the Department of Transportation’s (DoT’s) AEDT product, and NASA’s ACES product. All three products run under a single, simple language that allows simulation experiments and their first-order analysis to be conducted quickly and automatically. The language is simulation-tool independent and domain-independent, meaning that the language syntax is general and can be applied across multiple domains and multiple simulation tools. The language includes a registration process that allows new simulation tools –even non-aviation ones—to be seamless incorporated. The purpose of the language is to allow analysts to express simulation experiments concisely and completely. IAI has developed a compiler for the language that checks for completeness of the simulation experiment and generates an execution plan that efficiently utilizes available hardware. The purpose of this project is to mature PQL so that it becomes commercially viable. To do so, several simulation experiments of interest to the aviation community will be undertaken. The first is extensive analysis of the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) problem in the New York airspace (N90). The second is an analysis of the Multiple Airport Routing Separation (MARS) concept as it applies to N90. Both of these experiments involve the aforementioned AEDT and Metrosim tools that have been registered with PQL. In addition, PQL will be upgraded to handle optimization and other techniques that are used to conduct simulation experiments in many domains. The end product will be marketed to the larger analysis community, both within NASA and for commercial purposes.

Benefits: The analyses of both UAM and MARS in N90 will result in deeper understanding among NASA analysts and managers about the scope of the necessary airspace changes. It is expected that the UAM analysis will reveal many more research ideas that NASA will need to explore to help make UAM flight a reality. For MARS, NASA would get an insight into its safety case and help transform N90 to a more efficient operations. The changes to PQL will help NASA analysts compute more difficult problems.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey can use both analyses—UAM and MARS—in their planning efforts. In addition, upgrades to PQL will allow more sophisticated analyses to be conducted faster and more efficiently to help them understand how changes in the airspace will interact with people on the ground (through noise profiles) as well as with other aircraft (through proximity metrics).