Concept of operations

About: Concept of operations is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 964 publications have been published within this topic receiving 6845 citations. The topic is also known as: CONOPS.

Exploring Human Factors Issues for Urban Air Mobility Operations

Abstract: Urban air mobility (UAM) is currently receiving increased attention in the aviation literature as a new entrant into the airspace. Although the introduction of UAM offers the potential for significant benefits, it also creates the potential for fundamental change to the current air traffic management system. Several concepts are being explored to enable the development of a safe and efficient UAM system for near, mid and far term operations. A concept of operations for near term operations proposes several assumptions. Concepts for roles and responsibilities of human operators such as air traffic controllers propose different degrees of involvement. Identifying and exploring human factors issues is therefore a critical next step in the forward progression of concept development. A human-in-the-loop air traffic control simulation was used to investigate the effect of UAM traffic density and changes in current airspace routes and communication procedures on subjective controller workload and efficiency-related task performance. Findings indicate that although subjective workload was manageable for low density operations, medium and high density operations led to unmanageable levels of workload, leading to refusals to allow more vehicles into controlled airspace. By implementing a letter of agreement, verbal communications were reduced which were associated with reduced workload. Optimized routes were also associated with reduced workload and increased performance efficiency. Although these adjustments can positively support controller performance, workload still remained high during the high density UAM traffic scenarios. It is therefore suggested that, in order for UAM operation to become scalable, human operators will be required to work differently compared to current air traffic controllers. Future research should focus on the level and type of human operator or controller involvement and mated systems, to ensure safety and efficiency within UAM operations.

Awareness Through Agility: Teenagers as a Model for Terrorist Development of Situational Awareness

Abstract: : What do terrorists, teenagers, and the individual soldier have in common? The need for agile communications in their tactical operations. The agility exercised by teenagers in gathering situational awareness is a model for how insurgent terrorists communicate on the battlefield. Tactical decision making by Allied commanders is slowed by the application of strategic situational awareness concepts in tactical environments. Currently, tactical situational awareness is developed and transferred to the strategic common operational picture. Alternatively, the teenage communications model provides an evolutionary concept of operations for Allied forces to develop a highly flexible tactical situational awareness in urban environments leveraging commercial technologies and infrastructure. The forced technical interoperability between the tactical and strategic operations center hinder agility at the tactical level. The strategic/tactical model must be changed in the defense against terrorism. Allied forces must be able to keep pace with the enemy's rapid planning-and-attack cycle. By leveraging the teenage model to improve the flexibility and speed at which information is provided to the urban warfare environment we can, and must, change the Cold War communication paradigm. This paradigm shift will allow for tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) to be developed more quickly which is critical in the urban warfare environment. Teenagers use situational awareness to make decisions regarding their interpersonal relationships in much the same way that military and civilian leadership make decisions. By using commercially available, collaborated and highly resilient communications capabilities, both teenagers and terrorist insurgents are able to develop situational awareness in an unconstrained manner.

Development of a Concept of Operations for Autonomous Systems.

Abstract: The paper will present the development of a general concept of operations for autonomous systems and robot solutions. A Concept of Operations (ConOps) of a system is a high-level description of how the elements of the system and its environment communicate and collaborate in order to achieve the stated system goals. The ConOps utilizes the capabilities of autonomous systems, different unmanned vehicles and robots and human operators as a joint cognitive system where the tasks of human operators and robots complement each other. It will include planning the mission, setting up the autonomous system operations and possible robots, monitoring the progress of the operation, reacting and adapting to the intermediate results, reacting to unexpected events and finally completing the mission. The general ConOps can be considered as a template, which can be tailored for the specifics of different use cases.

Sustained/Continuous Operations Subgroup of the Department of Defense Human Factors Engineering Technical Group: Program Summary and Substracts from the Semiannual Meeting (9th) Held in Pensacola, Florida on 11-12 July 1989.

Abstract: : The 9th semiannual meeting of the Sustained/Continuous Operations Subgroup of the Department of Defense Human Factors Engineering Technical Group (DOD HFE SUSOPS/CONOPS Sub-TG) was held on 11-12 July, 1989. The meeting took form of a symposium at the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory, Pensacola, Florida. Twelve speakers provided overviews of SUSOPS/CONOPS issues and described current research efforts. This document provides a synopsis and abstracts of the presentations, consistent with the goals of the subgroup to provide a mechanism for information exchange, enhance coordination among government agencies, identify technology gaps and requirements, and encourage technical interaction. Keywords: Sustained operations, Fatigue, Sleep loss, Symposia, Work/rest schedules, Stress(Physiology), SUSOPS, CONOPS. (JG)

SORA Application to Large RPAS Flight Plans

Abstract: This paper describes the application of the Specific Operations Risk Assessment (SORA)-a concept developed by the Joint Authorities on Rulemaking for Unmanned Systems (JARUS)-to the flight of large Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) in Australian airspace. Due to the increasing demand of commercial RPAS operations and the complexity of integrating them into existing, nation-specific airspace infrastructure, the JARUS SORA was created as a country-agnostic guidance tool for establishing the safety of a given operation. An archetypical RPAS operation centered on a maritime surveillance mission is investigated to test the applicability of this process. A Concept of Operations (ConOps), representative flight plans, and relevant stakeholders are described for this use case accordingly. Distinguishing factors of Australian airspace are also highlighted as inputs to the SORA and the impact on the currently proposed procedure and outputs are discussed in turn. The inputs, methods, and results of the SORA application demonstrate the prospective capabilities of this tool as well as potential for future document improvement.