Description: Next generation air traffic management systems will be based to a greater degree on predicted trajectories of aircraft. Due to the iterative nature of future air traffic management computations, the success of these systems will depend strongly on the ability to rapidly generate trajectory predictions. This proposal advances the development of a computational appliance for rapid prediction of aircraft trajectories (CARPAT) that combines the capabilities of the NASA-FACET software with the fast computing capabilities of the emerging field programmable gate array technology. By integrating the FACET software components on commercial, off-the-shelf high-speed computing technology, the proposed research will demonstrate high trajectory prediction speeds at modest cost. Phase I research will demonstrate the feasibility of developing the trajectory prediction appliance using off-the-shelf hardware. High-speed trajectory predictions will be demonstrated under realistic traffic scenarios. A complete version of the system will be developed and provided to NASA during the Phase II work. The trajectory prediction appliance will commercialized during the Phase III work.

Benefits: Potential NASA Commercial Applications: The CARPATsystem developed under the proposed research will contribute towards the development of next-generation air traffic management technologies. The computational appliance and its architecture have several applications in flight simulation, space vehicle and UAV guidance, and in real-time signal processing.