From: simulation@uflorida.cis.ufl.edu (Moderator: Paul Fishwick)
Newsgroups: comp.simulation
Subject: SIMULATION DIGEST V29 N1
Date: 1 Sep 92 18:59:48 GMT
Reply-To: simulation@uflorida.cis.ufl.edu

Volume: 29, Issue: 1, Tue Sep  1 14:58:40 EDT 1992

+----------------+
| TODAY'S TOPICS |
+----------------+

 
[GENERAL INFORMATION]
  SUMMARY: Automated Air Traffic Control
[NEW QUESTIONS]
  Location of Company Producing QASE
  GLAS Simulator
  Simulated Vision
[PUBLICATIONS]
  Parallel Logic Simulation
[CALL FOR PAPERS/PARTICIPATION]
  Modelling for Computer Performance Evaluation
[DEPARTMENTS]
  Simulation in the Service of Society

* Moderator: Paul Fishwick, Univ. of Florida
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: [GENERAL INFORMATION]


------------------------------


Date: Fri, 28 Aug 92 15:59:03 EDT
From: yil@engr.ucf.edu (Yilmaz Cengeloglu)
To: fishwick@fish.cis.ufl.edu
Subject: Re:  Automated Air Traffic Controlling and Blackboard System


	Hi :

 
	This is all responses I have received about ATC. There is 
	another file which has references about BBA. If you want
	BBA file, let me know.                   

	I  am reiviewing this file with mail -f <filename>. I am
	not sure if you can do some thing after you have received. 
	file format might be changed. 
	If you have any problem with file, let me know. I will send
	you back.

	Thank you all for your help & interest. If you make further study
	on this area please let me know. 

					Yilmaz Cengeloglu
					Univ. of Central Florida
					Dept. of Computer Eng.
					Orlando, FL

					yil@engr.ucf.edu



 -------- CUT HERE ---------------------------
>From bri@pegasus.mit.edu Fri Aug 14 16:13:08 1992
To: yil@engr.ucf.edu
Subject: Re: HELP: Automated Air Traffic Controlling and Blackboard System
Newsgroups: comp.ai.edu
Organization: mit
Cc: 

I'm planning on doing some work with expert systems / AI in the 
ATC area in the future. i'd appeciate any info you collect..

 -bri



>From rmdubash@cs.uh.edu Fri Aug 14 17:47:58 1992
To: yil@engr.ucf.edu
Subject: Re:  HELP: Automated Air Traffic Controlling and Blackboard System

Hi,
  Can you please send me the list of references that you alluded to in your
post and any other info. 
  Thanx
rumi

>From 22731@church.mitre.org Fri Aug 14 22:55:51 1992
To: yil@engr.ucf.edu
Subject: Re: HELP: Automated Air Traffic Controlling and Blackboard System
Newsgroups: comp.ai.edu
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, McLean, VA

In article <1992Aug14.182729.5636@cs.ucf.edu> you write:
>I will write simple knowledge bases to solve the conflict and other problems 
>that occurs at airspace. I do need some help to complete this project and 
>graduate.
>
>	If you know any publication related with
>			- Automated Air Traffic Controlling,
>			- books that I can get expertise to write knowledge bases       
>			  to solve the problems at airspace.
>			- Blackbard Systems AND Air Traffic Controlling. 
>
> 	 please let me know. I will keep all information that I will receive
>         and I will send anyone request later. 
>
>	  If you know any existing system, project, company related with
>	  Automated Air traffic controlling, please let me know. It will
>	  be very helpful for my project.

I work for the MITRE corporation, the Federally Funded R&D Center for the FAA.
We have developed 3 large automated ATC systems over the past 15 years, each
is known as Automated En-Route ATC 1, 2, and 3 (AERA, AERA2, AERA3).  As it 
happens, the AERA2 system attempted to develop a knowledge base of simple
1 on 1 conflict resolution actions (the APR project).  I suspect you could get
a copy of one or more relevant MITRE technical reports for free (gov't 
sponsored work and all that).
>
The software which constucted the systems would be of little interest (PL/1,
and Pascal) but the APR work was done in Lisp.  You might find something there.

Have you checked with the folks at Embry Riddle University in Daytona Beach?
I think they have substantial knowledge in ATC issues and past work.

Best of luck.

Randy
crawford@mitre.org
 -- 

| Randy Crawford        crawford@mitre.org        The MITRE Corporation
|                                                 7925 Colshire Dr., MS Z421
| N=1 -> P=NP           703 883-7940              McLean, VA  22102

>From riley@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov Sat Aug 15 00:34:48 1992
To: yil@engr.ucf.edu
Subject: Re: HELP: Automated Air Traffic Controlling and Blackboard System
Newsgroups: comp.ai.shells
Organization: Software Technology Branch - NASA/Johnson Space Center
Cc: 

If you're interested, I think I still have a copy of a version of CLIPS
developed by the National Research Council of Canada called BBCLIPS
(Black Board CLIPS). They also developed a version with some fuzzy logic
capabilities.

Gary Riley
NASA/Johnson Space Center



>From erwin@trwacs.fp.trw.com Sat Aug 15 11:08:36 1992
To: yil@engr.ucf.edu (Yilmaz Cengeloglu)
Subject: Re: HELP: Automated Air Traffic Controlling and Blackboard System
Newsgroups: comp.ai.edu

Not much is known in the area you are studying. (I work for TRW on the
FAA's system engineering support activity.) You might contact MITRE in the
Washington DC area.


 -- 
Harry Erwin
Internet: erwin@trwacs.fp.trw.com


>From FCS$1224@selu.edu Sat Aug 15 14:49:25 1992
Subject: HELP: Automated Air Traffic Controlling and Blackboard System
To: yil@engr.ucf.edu
X-Organization: Southeastern Louisiana University
X-Vms-To: in%"yil@engr.ucf.edu"
X-Vms-Cc: FCS$1224

When I was at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory several years ago one summer
there was some discussion going on about the air trafic control systems.
Ai was mentioned, but I was not part of the group, so I do not really
know what actually happened.

You might give Dr. Harry Ashkanas a call.  He handles university contacts
during the summers.  He might be able to point you to who to contact.

JPL is owned and operated by CalTech.  Its location is Pasadena, California.
The general telephone number is 818  354-4321.  I think that Dr. Ashkanes's
number is 354-8251.

I would like a copy of your BBA references.

Thanks,

Tom

higginbotham@selu.edu

X-News: altair.selu.edu comp.ai.shells:163

>From: yil@engr.ucf.edu (Yilmaz Cengeloglu)
>Subject:HELP: Automated Air Traffic Controlling and Blackboard System
>Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 18:25:13 GMT
>Message-ID:<1992Aug14.182513.5500@cs.ucf.edu>

>
>
>Hi :
>
>I have asked help about Blackboard Architecture couple of months ago.
>I have received some responses. Thanks to everyone who helped me. I have
>the list of several references related with BBA. If any anyone needs please 
>let me know. 
>
>Currently I am still working on my project for my thesis and I neen some more
>help. I am explaining what I need first. If you are interested what I am doing
>you can continue to read after line. 
>
>I will write simple knowledge bases to solve the conflict and other problems that
>occurs at airspace. I do need some help to complete this project and graduate.
>
>	If you know any publication related with
>			- Automated Air Traffic Controlling,
>			- books that I can get expertise to write knowledge bases       
>			  to solve the problems at airspace.
>			- Blackbard Systems AND Air Traffic Controlling. 
>
> 	 please let me know. I will keep all information that I will receive
>         and I will send anyone request later. 
>											  
>
>	  If you know any existing system, project, company related with
>	  Automated Air traffic controlling, please let me know. It will
>	  be very helpful for my project.
>
>				                           Yilmaz Cengeloglu
>				                           Univ. of Central Florida
>							   Dept. of Computer Eng. 
>							   Orlando, FL    
>
>				                           yilmaz@ists.engr.ucf.edu
>							          or
>							   yil@engr.ucf.edu
>
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>I am preparing prototype Automated Air Traffic Controlling (A-ATC) system to 
>prepare and test knowledge bases for each plane in the airspace. I did need a Blackboard
>shell for my project. Only commercial system that I found was GBB that marketed by 
>
>Blackboard Technology Group, Inc.;
>401 Main St., Amherst, MA  01002, 413/256-8990,
>fax: 413/256-3179.
>
>Their price was too high for me to buy as a graduate Student. I have implemented my 
>own Blackboard System on SunOS operating system. ( I am not really sure if I should
>call Blackboard System.) Different knowledge bases in CLIPS working as a different 
>process on the background and uses Blackboard when it is necessary to share fact with 
>other knowledge sources. Of course, any other process in C, C++, etc can access the
>Blackboard. The type of architecture is easy to distribute more than one computer
>using computers networks. If I would continue the project after I got my M.S.
>I am still testing it.  
>
>Also, I did implemented a Radar Simulator Using C/C++, X-Windows and IPC facilities
>on the SunOS operating system.  Radar simulator is being used by Intelligent Simulation
>and Training systems Project at UCF.
>
>A-ATC project is integration of Radar Simulator and Blackboard System.
>
>

>From grosof@watson.ibm.com Sat Aug 15 12:08:53 1992
To: yilmaz@ists.engr.ucf.edu
Subject: air traffic control

Hi Yilmaz,

suggestion:  contact Kevin Benner at benner@isi.edu
He's been working on it, and is a good guy.
(I don't know anything about air traffic control myself).
Good luck,

Benjamin

>From weems@cse.uta.edu Sat Aug 15 21:23:34 1992
To: yil@engr.ucf.edu
Subject: Re: HELP: Automated Air Traffic Controlling and Blackboard System
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Organization: Computer Science & Engineering, Univ. of Texas at Arlington
Cc: 

I would HIGHLY recommend that you look into the literature on the
Voronoi diagram in computational geometry.  There is a recent
ACM Computing Surveys article.  The Voronoi diagram will indicate
for each point in a set, the region of points that are closer to that
point than to all the others.  This is very useful for proximity
problems such as:  the air traffic problem and which pizza hut
or police station you should call.  The Voronoi diagram does
not address the movement of the points, but it gives a good
prioritization of potential collisions.

I have a masters student who is doing a dynamic voronoi diagram
with points that have "programs" for their movement.  As the
points move, the voronoi diagram will be recomputed (in n log n time).

Bob Weems 
Associate Professor

>From Jens.Horstmann@Eng.Sun.COM Sun Aug 16 15:09:56 1992
To: yil@engr.ucf.edu
Subject: Re:  HELP: Automated Air Traffic Controlling and Blackboard System
Cc: foo@xray.Eng.Sun.COM

Hi,

  I researched the subject some time ago and was working on a proposal for
self managing air traffic (SMART system) in which all aircraft would manage
their requirements autonomous and use ATC only as a directory service for
weather info, airport utilization, etc - in turn, aircrafts would 'broadcast'
their position, their local weather, their intentions, etc. The concept of
one central organization (ATC) controlling traffic would be a thing of the
past. Pretty long story and many many details - turns out based on simulations
we did that we could handle about 5x of today's traffic - after talking to
several FAA/RTCA/Mitre/.. people, however, I concluded that the FAA is moving
just to slow and too conservative to make this happen - I was even in contact
with European officials in hope one would be more open to such proposals due
to the distributed character which fits Europe structure much better - but
'no' on that end as well. So, sometime last year we killed the research
project due to 'lack of interest' ... maybe someday (when the time is ripe)
we'll talk about it again.

  There are 'mountains' of literature available on the subject - however, to
come up to speed rather quickly I suggest the following things (pls let me
know if you need more details in aspecific area):

1. RTCA - contracted by the FAA to deal with these issues - their anual
   proceedings give you a good idea and pointers to material (202-682-0266)
   Last issue Dec 91.

2. NTIS (Government Printing office): Safe Skies for Tomorrow: Aviation
   Safety in a competitive Environment (Jul 88)

3. FAA: Aviation Systems - Capital Investment Plan (Dec 90)

4. IEEE: (a) proceedings of the IEEE (Nov 89) - special issue on ATC
   (b) 10th Digital Avionics Systems Conference (Oct 91)
   (c) Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems
   (d) Spectrum magazine - special issue on ATC - Feb 91

5. DOT: Concepts and Description of the Future Air Traffic Management Systems
   for the United States

As I said there's lots more - but this a good start.

Good luck, Jens Horstmann.


>From wgreen@eckhart.ucar.EDU Sun Aug 16 16:44:36 1992
To: yilmaz@ists.engr.ucf.edu
Subject: Databases for blackboards


yil@engr.ucf.edu (Yilmaz Cengeloglu)
yilmaz@ists.engr.ucf.edu


Yilmaz,

You may consider using an SQL complient database server as
the host for your blackboard system, and extend CLIPS and
other ES/KB shells to use the system. In this manner, their
data is represented as a simple SQL query for data. One 
process updating the data and other processes making the
decisions. This allows you complete freedom in choosing
KB shells, providing they can be hacked to support SQL.

We are working on the use of a blackboard to tie facilities
databases together. Our problem is where many proprietary
vendors maintain their own databases which, with any one
vendors access software do not provide us with an acceptable
view of all activity within the buildings. For instance, the
electrical monitoring system data is unavailable to either the
fire alarm system or the lighting and occupancy sensor system.

Our architecture is TCP/IP network, Sun Sparc as a server,
X/Windows for access and display. We chose a true database
server to tie other databases together for a single access
viewpoint. 

We chose to go with Ingres, as most of our data points are
contained with in the lighting system, whose database is
Ingress, SCO SVR4. During this process we noted the existance
of Postgres, available from Berkeley via FTP. This system
runs on SUN Sparc and will require Kernal modifications to
support shared memory. It is a true database server model.
It has SQL interface, which should allow your blackboard users
(clients) to access the system.

Our system will utilize expert systems, and neural networks
to monitor the buildings and to assert their own alarms and
actions for our $5/hr guards to take. We will be 
using CLIPS and other shells, (Norvig's shell, modified, running
under CMU  CLOS Lisp FTP from CMU.). 

We are just getting to the implementation stage, having acquired
Postgress and CMU lisp. We have a copy of pm/mali - a lambda prolog
completely _unlike_ Edingbourgh Prolog. We have an older version
of CLIPS and a tiny ES in Borlands Turbo-prolog awaiting porting
to pm/mali.

Info on Postgres: postgres.berkeley.edu. (Free for educational use.)
Other program data may be obtained from archie, and may already
be available at your site. 

I don't recommend wading into pm/mali lambda prolog, as it is poorly
documented within its package.


Bye, the Bye, I spent 18 mo's in the UCF (Then FTU's) math department.
Please send me more info on your results, as they seem to have
the same architectural feel as the facilities project we are
undertaking.

 --Wayne

Wayne Green      NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research)
P.O. Box 3000, Boulder Colorado, 80307-3000
(303) 497-8540        FAX (303) 497-8520   wgreen@ncar.ucar.edu

>From Thomas_Cord@qm.fzi.de Mon Aug 17 05:59:08 1992
X-Mailer: QuickMail/SMTP interface.
To: Yilmaz Cengeloglu <yilmaz@ists.engr.ucf.edu>
Subject: BBA

Date	17.8.1992
Subject	BBA
From	Thomas Cord
To	Yilmaz Cengeloglu

                      BBA
Hi,

I'm interested in having your list of references related with BBA. Could you
please send it
to me? Thanks!

I'm working on a Project together with some european institutes. The project
aims to develop and assess an approach where knowledge-based and artificial
vision techniques are combined to control and supervise product quality in meat
transformation processes. An artificial vision system will be designed for the
purpose of automatic data collection and intelligent parameters processing;
i.e., in order to collect different product features and to identify and assess
the related quality parameters. A knowledge-based system will make the
evaluation of product quality less subjective and experiental and more
standardised. Two manufacturing processes will be adopted as test cases for the
research work.

For the knowledge-based system we prefer a blackboard architecture. Because of
the high prices we cannot buy a blackboard shell. Like you, we want to use
CLIPS. Because our project is beginning now, we have specified only the global
system architecture. Detailed 
examinations of BBA and knowledge representations will begin now. It would be
very helpful
for me, if you could give me more informations about the design of your
knowledge-based 
system. 

For the managment of the application and user interface we try to use a C++ -
library. Could
yoe give me some hints about the integration of CLIPS and C++? Is there a
possibility
of compiling CLIPS in an C++ environment?

Thank you very much for your help!
Thomas Cord

Here is my address:

Thomas Cord
Forschungszentrum Informatik (FZI)
Haid-und-Neu-Stra'e 10-14
D-7500 Karlsruhe 1
Germany
Phone:  +49-721-9654-322
Fax:     +49-721-9654-309
e-mail: cord@fzi.de



>From Rabbe.Fogelholm@infolog.se Sun Aug 16 17:22:30 1992
To: yil@engr.ucf.edu
Subject: Re: HELP: Automated Air Traffic Controlling and Blackboard System
Newsgroups: comp.ai.shells
Organization: Infologics AB, Sollentuna, Sweden
Cc: rabbe@infolog.se
X-Charset: ASCII
X-Char-Esc: 29

In article <1992Aug14.182513.5500@cs.ucf.edu> you write:
>
>Hi :
>
>I have asked help about Blackboard Architecture couple of months ago.
>I have received some responses. Thanks to everyone who helped me. I have
>the list of several references related with BBA. If any anyone needs please 
>let me know. 

I too have done some surveying of the literature recently, but I
cannot remember having seen anything that is both BBA and Air Traffic
Controlling.

By any chance, have you got any references on the use of BBA in
telecommunications applications, such as monitoring of networks?

________________________________________________________________________
Rabbe Fogelholm, Infologics AB     rabbe@infolog.se    fax: +46 8 960846

>From weems@cse.uta.edu Sun Aug 16 18:41:17 1992
Subject: Re: HELP: Automated Air Traffic Controlling and Blackboard System
To: yil@engr.ucf.edu (Yilmaz Cengeloglu)
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11]

Let me know how things work out.  Bob

>From N.R.Ellis@durham.ac.uk Mon Aug 17 14:41:13 1992
To: yil@engr.ucf.edu (Yilmaz Cengeloglu)
Subject: Re: HELP: Automated Air Traffic Controlling and Blackboard System
Newsgroups: comp.ai

try mailing s.r.kerridge@durham.ac.uk.  He is currently involved
in writing an ATC type blackboard system.

Nigel.

>From schoen@SLCS.SLB.COM Mon Aug 17 15:14:36 1992
To: yil@engr.ucf.edu
Subject: Re: HELP: Automated Air Traffic Controlling
Newsgroups: rec.aviation
Organization: Schlumberger Laboratory for Computer Science
Cc: 


There was a paper on the subject in the 1982 AAAI conference by some people at
RAND.  It was primarily a distributed AI paper, but used ATC as a domain.

I think also the guy behind the TRACON game did some AI for ATC research some
years ago---Robert Wesson.

Eric
 -- 
Eric Schoen
Schlumberger Laboratory for Computer Science 
Internet: schoen@slcs.slb.com   In the air: N201DR
USMail: P.O. Box 200015, Austin, TX, 78720-0015

>From csma@dione.imag.fr Mon Aug 17 17:01:29 1992
To: yil@engr.ucf.edu
Subject: Re: HELP: Automated Air Traffic Controlling and Blackboard System
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Organization: Institut Imag, Grenoble, France
Cc: 

In article <1992Aug14.182205.5425@cs.ucf.edu> you write:
>
>	If you know any publication related with
>			- Automated Air Traffic Controlling,
>			- books that I can get expertise to write knowledge bases       
>			  to solve the problems at airspace.
>			- Blackbard Systems AND Air Traffic Controlling. 
>[...]
>	  If you know any existing system, project, company related with
>	  Automated Air traffic controlling, please let me know. It will
>	  be very helpful for my project.

There is an AI group at Eurocontrol, the european authority for air traffic
control. I do not have the adress at hand right now, but if nobody else gives
you a lead, just post me a mail reminding me to send it to you. There is also
a conference serie called ``HMI and AI in Aeronautics and Space''. For more
information, you can try and ask Guy Boy (boy@tls-cs.cert.fr): if I'm right,
he was the Program Chairman, at least in 88 and probably also in 89. About
that also, I could find more, if you need it. I just wanted to make sure
you were aware of the existence of Eurocontrol's AI group.
>
>Blackboard Technology Group, Inc.;
>401 Main St., Amherst, MA  01002, 413/256-8990,
>fax: 413/256-3179.
>
>Their price was too high for me to buy as a graduate Student. I have implemented my 
>own Blackboard System on SunOS operating system. ( I am not really sure if I should

I think there is a version of GBB that is available free or almost free for research
purpose by FTP: try dime.cs.umass.edu (but the information may be obsolete).

Hope it helps. Do not hesitate to ask for more precision, if nobody provides them.

christian


 -- 
Ch. de Sainte Marie - 3A.S.I. ltd - 4, rue Chanaron - 38000 Grenoble - FRANCE
                      LIFIA - 46, av. Felix Viallet - 38031 Grenoble - FRANCE
csma@lifia.imag.fr
Disclaimer : I am the company              ``C'est ephemere et c'est moi...''

>From calsci!sjain Mon Aug 17 21:29:13 1992
Subject: Copy of Blackboard references
To: yil@engr.ucf.edu

Dear Yilmaz,
       I wonder if you could send me a copy of your blackboard references.
                Thanks/
                                                Sandeep Jain

>From SY_GOSS@zodiac.dsto.gov.au Tue Aug 18 03:18:46 1992
Subject: ATC
To: yil@engr.ucf.edu
X-Vmsmail-To: SMTP%"yil@engr.ucf.edu"

Hi,

the follow info may help you.
1)	Proc IEEE Nov 1989 is a special issue on ATC

2) the Australian Artificial Intelligence institute has written
a kbs system for automated flow control in PRS.  This is to be 
installed at Mascot Sydney Australia.  Contact Andrew Lucas
     		lucas@aaii.oz.au

I'm interested in other responses you may have had to your request

Hope this helps
Simon Goss
DSTO Aircraft Systems Division
AUSTRALIA

>From ndiaye@cs.uni-sb.de Tue Aug 18 11:40:42 1992
Organization: Universitaet des Saarlandes
              D-W-6600 Saarbruecken, Germany
To: yil@engr.ucf.edu (Yilmaz Cengeloglu)
Subject: HELP: Automated Air Traffic Controlling and Blackboard System

hello yilmaz,
can you send me please the list of references related with BBA.
by the way, you can have a look at
"Distributed Intelligence for a Air Fleet Control"
R. Steeb, S. Cammarata, F. Hayes-Roth, P. Thorndyke and R. Wesson
in 'Readings in Distributed Artificial Intelligence' edited by Alan H.
Bond and Les Gasser, Morgan Kaufmann, 1988

alassane
 -------------------------------------------------------------
|NET: ndiaye@cs.uni-sb.de				    |
|-----------------------------------------------------------|
|POST: Alassane NDIAYE   	   |                        |
|      FB 14 - Informatik IV	   | PHONE: +49-681-302-4135|
|      Universitaet des Saarlandes |                        |
|      Im Stadtwald 15		   |------------------------|
|      D-6600 Saarbruecken 11	   | FAX:   +49-681-302-4421|
|      Federal Republic of Germany |			    |
 -------------------------------------------------------------

>From sennhaus@ifi.unizh.ch Wed Aug 19 05:34:07 1992
To: yil@engr.ucf.edu (Yilmaz Cengeloglu)
Cc: sennhaus@ifi.unizh.ch
Subject: Re: HELP: Automated Air Traffic Controlling and Blackboard System
Organization: University Zurich, Department of Computer Science

In article <1992Aug14.182729.5636@cs.ucf.edu>, you wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> Hi :
> 
> I have asked help about Blackboard Architecture couple of months ago.
> I have received some responses. Thanks to everyone who helped me. I have
> the list of several references related with BBA. If any anyone needs please 
> let me know. 
> 
> [remainder deleted]

I recently got involved in a project that uses BBA technology as basis
for the systems architecture. As I haven+t a background in BBA, I would
appreciate it if you could email me your list of references about BBAs.

Thanks in advance.

Rene Sennhauser

>From miller@cs.rochester.edu Tue Aug 18 15:27:45 1992
To: yil@engr.ucf.edu (Yilmaz Cengeloglu)
Subject: blackboards


note that an earlier version of gbb was available free at one point from
the author's university... you might use archie to find if it is
archived somewhere. As for traffic control, I can't help you.


>From darias@us.oracle.com Tue Aug 18 21:24:52 1992
To: yil@engr.ucf.edu
Subject: Re: HELP: Automated Air Traffic Controlling
Newsgroups: rec.aviation
Organization: Oracle Corporation, Belmont, CA

I know of no books on automated ATC although you might look
to see if NASA or the Air Force has technical reports on ATC or
target tracking, e.g., systems like AWACS (Airborne
Warning And Control System).

Have you seen the FAR (Federal Air Regulations) / AIM (Airman's
Information Manual) document?  It describes the regulations for
instrument flight (for which ATC was intended to serve) as well
as some of the practical rules of such flight.  The document is
a standard reference for pilots and is available at pilot shops
or campus bookstores where they teach pilot ground school.
It has interesting facts such as the procedure a pilot should
follow if his or her radio goes out while flying in instrument
conditions.

You can also take a tour of the local ATC center in your area
to see how things are done from a practical standpoint.  Look 
in the phone book under FAA for the Air Route Traffic Control
Center, Terminal Radar Control Facility, or Flight Service
Station.

I think you will find that ATC as well as piloting are not
problems that can be easily automated.  Pilots and controllers
enjoy a great deal of discretion in their actions.  This is necessary
due to the significance and unpredictability of the media in which
airplanes fly, the weather, and to the tenuous link between ATC
and aircraft, a simplex voice radio channel.

As far as I can tell, automation in the current ATC system is
limited to controller's sensing systems (e.g., radar mosaic imaging),
and distributed database systems (e.g., the flight plan database, and
weather reporting systems).

Good luck,

 --Dan

>From daemon Wed Aug 19 09:02:29 1992
To: yil@engr.ucf.edu
Subject: GBB...


By the way,  do you know that a public domain version of GBB is available
by anonymous FTP at dime.cs.umass.edu (directory /gbb)

What you won't get (compared to the commercial GBB) is the graphical user
interface. I vaguely remember that GBB has a graphical module for Explorer
however.

Best regards,

Fano

PS: I didn't notice your first request about GBB.


>From wisdom!tronsbox.uucp!moskowit@fdurt1.fdu.edu Wed Aug 19 21:10:55 1992
Apparently-From: tronsbox!tronsbox!moskowit
To: yil@engr.ucf.edu
Subject: Air Traffic Control


See the Proceedings of the National Aerospace Electronics Conference
(NAECON), held yearly at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base out in
Dayton, Ohio.  It's published by the IEEE.  This year ('92) had at
least one paper on the subject and I recall others in previous years.


Len Moskowitz
Senior Staff Engineer
Allied-Signal Aerospace Company
Bendix Guidance and Control
Teterboro, NJ 07608

(moskowit@tronsbox.xei.com
	or
 moskowit@panix.com)


>From Christen.Krogh@si.no Thu Aug 20 11:21:44 1992
Subject: BBs for Traffic control
To: yilmaz@ists.engr.ucf.edu

  BBs for Traffic control
  Would you be interested in references to a paper about a BB inspired system
  for URBAN traffic control ?
  
  I would think that some of the problems can be described the same way
  (congestion, accidents, saturation flow, .....).
  
  Just give me a mail and I will write down a selected list of references.
  
  C
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Christen Krogh [krogh@si.no], Center for Industrial Research, Oslo, NORWAY.
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


>From wardk@ogicse.cse.ogi.edu Thu Aug 20 20:21:18 1992
To: yil@engr.ucf.edu
Subject: Re:  Query: Automated Air Traffic Control

In comp.ai.nlang-know-rep you write:

>From: yil@engr.ucf.edu (Yilmaz Cengeloglu)
>Subject: Query: Automated Air Traffic Control and Blackboard Systems
>Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 18:28:31 GMT
>
>Hi :
>
>I have asked help about Blackboard Architecture couple of months ago.
>I have received some responses. Thanks to everyone who helped me. I have
>the list of several references related with BBA. If any anyone needs please 
>let me know. 
>
>Currently I am still working on my project for my thesis and I neen some more
>help. I am explaining what I need first. If you are interested what I am doing
>you can continue to read after this line. 
>
>I will write simple knowledge bases to solve the conflict and other
>problems that occurs at airspace. I do need some help to complete this
>project and graduate.
>
>	If you know any publication related with
>		- Automated Air Traffic Controlling,
>		- books that I can get expertise to write knowledge bases
>		  to solve the problems at airspace.
>		- Blackbard Systems AND Air Traffic Controlling. 
>
> 	 please let me know. I will keep all information that I will receive
>         and I will send anyone request later. 
>
>	  If you know any existing system, project, company related with
>	  Automated Air traffic controlling, please let me know. It will
>	  be very helpful for my project.
>
>			                           Yilmaz Cengeloglu
>			                           Univ. of Central Florida
>						   Dept. of Computer Eng. 
>						   Orlando, FL    
>			                           yilmaz@ists.engr.ucf.edu
>					          or
>						   yil@engr.ucf.edu
>
>- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>I am preparing prototype Automated Air Traffic Controlling (A-ATC)
>system to prepare and test knowledge bases for each plane in the
>airspace. I did need a Blackboard shell for my project. Only
>commercial system that I found was GBB that marketed by
>
>Blackboard Technology Group, Inc.;
>401 Main St., Amherst, MA  01002, 413/256-8990,
>fax: 413/256-3179.
>
>Their price was too high for me to buy as a graduate Student. I have
>implemented my own Blackboard System on SunOS operating system. ( I am
>not really sure if I should call Blackboard System.) Different
>knowledge bases in CLIPS working as a different process on the
>background and uses Blackboard when it is necessary to share fact with
>other knowledge sources. Of course, any other process in C, C++, etc
>can access the Blackboard. The type of architecture is easy to
>distribute more than one computer using computers networks. If I would
>continue the project after I got my M.S.  I am still testing it.
>
>Also, I did implemented a Radar Simulator Using C/C++, X-Windows and
>IPC facilities on the SunOS operating system.  Radar simulator is
>being used by Intelligent Simulation and Training systems Project at
>UCF.
>
>A-ATC project is integration of Radar Simulator and Blackboard System.


If you haven't already seen it, you may be interested in Robert
Wesson's 1977 doctoral dissertation "Problem-Solving with Simulation
in the World of an Air Traffic Controller" (University of Texas at
Austin).  You might also want to check out the current incarnation
of that work, a computer game (Mac or PC) called "TRACON II".

Hope this helps!


Karen Ward (wardk@cse.ogi.edu)
Oregon Graduate Institute


>From Christen.Krogh@si.no Fri Aug 21 04:30:24 1992
Subject: re BBAs
To: yil@engr.ucf.edu

  re BBAs
  Dear Yilmaz Cengeloglu,
  
  For plain BBA references it would be best to consult a standard AI textbook
  (eg. Rich). Perhaps a search through your librarians database would give you
  the general references you need. 
  
  When it comes to BBAs (or in our case BB*inspired*As) for control of real
  life traffic (be it trains, plains or automobiles) I do not think that there
  are much literature available. Hopefully you'll find something useful among
  our papers.
  
  Keep me informed about how you are getting on!
  
  - Christen
  
  ---------------references-------------------
  
  1.	Krogh C., Irgens M, Traetteberg H; "A novel architecture for traffic
  control"; Vehicle Navigation and Information Systems (IEEE), Oslo, September
  2-4, 1992.
  
  2.	Ambrosino G., Bielli M., Boero M., Kirschfink H., Krogh C., Fleischman S.;
  "IUTCS: a knowledge-based blackboard architecture for advanced urban traffic
  management and control"; Proceedings from "OECD Workshop on Knowledge-based
  Expert Systems in Transportation"; Montreal, Canada; June 15 - 17, 1992. 
  
  3.	Ambrosino G., Bielli M., Boero M., Fleishcmann S. Hock R., Irgens M.: A
  Blackboard Model for Traffic Control Operations. Drive Conference, Bruxelles
  4th-6th February 1991.s
  
  4.	M.Irgens, M. Bielli, M. Boero, S. Fleischman and R. Hock: Towards
  Intelligent Urban Traffic Control. Proceeding, OECD Workshop on Knowledge
  Based Expert Systems in Transportation, 1990. 
  
  5.	Irgens, M. and Krogh, C.: The IUTCS Blackboard. Users Manual. SI Report
  No. 89 01 62 - 3. November 1990. ISBN 82-411-0258-5. November 1990. 

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Christen Krogh [krogh@si.no], Center for Industrial Research, Oslo, NORWAY.
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


>From alliot@geant.cenatls.cena.dgac.fr Mon Aug 24 07:56:19 1992
To: yil@engr.ucf.edu (Yilmaz Cengeloglu)
Subject: HELP: Automated Air Traffic Controlling and Blackboard System


Being professionnaly working in a field very close to your thesis
subject, I would advise you to contact the MITRE corporation. The
AERA-3 ATC system design might very much interest you and they are the
most competent people for information on this subject in the USA.

A team has developped in France a very large knowledge based system
(ERATO) for detecting and solving conflicts, built upon a cognitive
model of the Air Traffic Controller. It is a very large project,
including many people. The head of the project is Marcel Leroux
(leroux@cenatls.cena.dgac.fr). 

Hope this helps.

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Jean-Marc Alliot
Centre d'Etudes de la Navigation Aerienne (CENA)
Direction Generale de l'Aviation Civile (DGAC)
alliot@dgac.fr
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

>From cs.ucf.edu!darwin.sura.net!wupost!uunet!sun-barr!ames!agate!rsoft!mindlink!a3744 Wed Aug 26 11:36:56 EDT 1992
Article: 10725 of comp.ai