Robust
Analytics
Session # 4716
IBM Cloud in a US Federal Agency:
How Bluemix Helps NASA Innovate
Dr. Peter Kostiuk – President, Robust Analytics, Inc. | peter.kostiuk@robust-
analytics.com
Randall S. Ho – Consulting Solution Architect, IBM SW Services for Federal |
Insight for an Uncertain World
IBM InterConnect 2017 Conference
Robust
Analytics Agenda
1. Overview of Air Traffic Management (ATM) research
domain
2. How Robust Analytics helps NASA innovate
3. An example of how Bluemix speeds Robust Analytics
research for NASA
4. Three top lessons learned
5. Questions
2
Robust
Analytics Overview of ATM
Key Characteristics of Air Traffic Management
1. Responsibility shared among:
• Government and industry
• Pilots, controllers, and dispatchers
2. Require high levels of safety and reliability
• Diverse information with varying fidelity and timeliness
• Frequently at the mercy of weather
3. Mixture of advanced technology and legacy systems
4. Expected influx of new vehicles with greater automation
• And, of course, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS)
3
Robust
Analytics Phases of Flight and
Communications
4
Terminal Wi-
Fi, 4G/3G
Connections
Ku and Ka Band Satellite
Communications
Air-to-Ground
Networks
Robust
Analytics Airline Operations
5
Network Operations Control System
Flight Planning System
Sch
edu
le /
MV
Ts
/ A
ircr
aft
Ass
ign
me
nts
Flig
ht
Pla
n D
ata
Load Planning System
Sch
edu
le/M
VT
s
Fue
l
Pa
ylo
ad
Aircraft Situation Display
Route Recalc RequestsAlerts
Go to Flight / Flight List / RoutesATM Surveillance
ASDIASDE-XCFMU
Recovery SystemsPassengers
Schedule Manager System
Pa
x
SSIM FILE/ASMs
ReservationSystem
FLIFO
ASMs/MVTs
Air-Ground Communication
system(ACARS, SATCOM)
Airplane
Weather Systems
WX Feeds
WX Feeds
WX Feeds
Flight Plan Data
MV
Ts/
Fre
e T
ext
Booked PAX
CDM Net/TFMS
Portal /FSM
Schedule Data
Flight Plan Data
TMIsAFPGDP
ETC...
Final Loadsheet
ACARS (Position Reports)
Aircraft Rotations
Robust
Analytics NASA Aeronautics Strategic
Research Thrusts
6
1. Safe, Efficient Growth in Global Operations
2. Innovation in Commercial Supersonic Aircraft
3. Ultra-Efficient Commercial Transports
4. Transition to Low-Carbon Propulsion
5. Real-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance
6. Assured Autonomy for Aviation Transformation
Robust
Analytics Active ATM Research Areas
1. Trajectory Based Operations (TBO)
1) Gate-to-gate flight planning and management
2) Increased automation and negotiation between operators
and FAA
2. Real-time System-wide Safety Assurance
3. Airspace Technology Demonstrations
1) Optimized descents
2) Integrated arrivals and departures
3) Traffic flow management
4. UAS Traffic Management System
1) Small vehicles
2) Operating at low altitude
7
Robust
Analytics Active Research Topics
8
= New Applications
= Legacy Applications
Robust
Analytics How Robust Analytics Helps NASA
Innovate
• Develop air traffic management
technologies,
• Demonstrate their value through modeling,
simulation, and operational tests; and
• Deploy technology solutions for airlines
and the FAA to improve the efficiency and
safety of flight operations
9
Develop – Demonstrate – Deploy
Develop – Demonstrate – Deploy
Air Traffic Management Solutions
Robust
Analytics
How Robust Analytics Helps NASA
Innovate
• Identify promising ideas early in the research
process
– Conduct initial operational, economic, and safety impact
analyses
– Assist managers develop the research portfolio
• Develop prototypes for concepts proposed by
NASA and awarded through full and open
competition
– NASA Research Announcement (NRA) process and other
procurements
• Propose new ideas through the Small Business
Innovation Research (SBIR) annual solicitation
• Develop new ideas with company internal research
funds
10
Robust
Analytics Multiple Hurdles to Deployment
1. Operational Impact: does
the proposed concept
increase capacity or
reduce flight time?
2. Economic Impact: will the
airline operating cost
change and will revenue
increase?
3. Safety Impact: will risk
increase or decrease?
11
Operations Economics
Safety
Robust
Analytics Development Environment for ATM
Research
12
HubAOC Gateway
LaRC SNTB DDS Messaging System
WSI Fusion
Flight Plan Data
LaRC SMART NAS Test Bed
Flight Planning System
WSI SWIM & Weather Data
Flight Schedule
FAA SWIM - TFMS
NASA SNTB User
RA Analyst
Cloud Data Warehouse
NASA Firewall
Flight Schedule
Robust Analytics Mini
Test Bed
Robust
Analytics
Capabilities to Accelerate Research and
Development
• Rapid prototyping to explore new concepts and
algorithms
• Fast-time modeling and simulation to mature
concepts and estimate benefits
• Real-time and shadow mode testing and
demonstration
• Integration with NASA laboratories through the
SMART NAS Test Bed
13
End-to-end process requires access to lots of data
(traffic, flight plans, weather, navigation), flexible
processing capabilities, analytical services, and
scalable architectures
Robust
Analytics How Bluemix Speeds Robust Analytics
Research for NASA: An Example
Data
Analyzer Mobile
Server-Side
Road traffic state
In-terminal pax
traffic state (Bluemix
IoT/Data/Analytics) (Bluemix Mobile)
On-time departure
Bluemix cloud environment
Key
Non-traditional data source
2
1 3 4
Mobile App
• Location service
• Door departure deadlines
• Pax Travel time prediction
• Flight updates
• Gate
Flight Information
Customer Sales & Service
Airline Passenger tracking
Airline departure control
system
Mobile (Client-Side)
Server
Airline Interface For gate agent, web app
accessed through a
browser
Integration Bus
5 6
14
Robust
Analytics How Bluemix Speeds Robust Analytics
Research for NASA: An Example (Cont.)
15
Geospatial
Services
MQTT
Data Analyzer
Core SDK
Mobile (Client-Side) Server
Push SDK
Cloudant
SDK
1
Push
Notifications
2
3
4
5
Cloudant
NoSQL DB 6
Mobile (Server-Side)
7 Core
Logic 8 Airline Web
App (Liberty
for Java)
Airline Interface
API 10
Integration Bus
Gate
Agent
Flight Information
Customer Sales & Service
Airline Passenger tracking
Airline departure control
system
Cloudant
NoSQL DB 6
B
9
Gate
Agent UI
C A D
Robust
Analytics Other Bluemix Capabilities for Aviation Research
16
Bluemix Services:
• Weather (TWC/WSI data and API)
• Spark Streaming
• Watson Speech2Text/Text2Speech
• Watson Tonal Analysis
• Watson Machine Learning
Aviation Research Areas:
• Real-Time System-Wide Safety
Assurance
• Trajectory-Based Operations
• Airspace Technology Demos
• UAS Integration into NAS
Robust
Analytics Challenges
17
• Integration with Peer Cloud and On-Prem Applications - Interoperation
- Latency
- Security
• Federal Cloud Security Assurance: FedRAMP - Production environments require initial certification and ongoing
monitoring for FedRAMP compliance
- Rapid advances and open source vs. demand for security
assurance
Robust
Analytics Top Three Lessons Learned
18
• Lesson 1: What worked - Use Bluemix for rapid prototyping
- Find best alternatives fast
• Lesson 2: What worked - Leverage Architecture Center & Catalog for pattern reuse
• Lesson 3: What did not work - Proprietary technologies need extra justification to win NASA research
awards
- NASA researchers tend to favor open technologies
Robust
Analytics
19
Robust
Analytics
20