Section: Partnerships and Cooperations

European Initiatives

FP7 & H2020 Projects

Benjamin Guedj and Vincent Vandewalle are involved on the European H2020 porject PERF-AI

• Program: H2020

• Project acronym: PERF-AI

• Project title: Enhance Aircraft Performance and Optimisation through utilisation of Artificial Intelligence

• Duration: November 2018 - November 2020.

• Coordinator: Safety Line

• Other partners: Safety Line

• Abstract: PERF-AI will apply Machine Learning techniques on flight data (parametric and non-parametric approaches) to accurately measure actual aircraft performance throughout its lifecycle.

  Within current airline operations, both at flight preparation (on-ground) and at flight management (in-air) levels, the trajectory is first planned, then managed by the Flight Management System (FMS) using a single manufacturer’s performance model that is the same for every aircraft of the same type, and also on weather forecast that is computed long before the flight. It induces a lack of accuracy during the planning phase with a flight route pre-established at specific altitudes and speeds to optimize fuel burn, from take-off to landing using aircraft performances that are not those of the real aircraft. Also, the actual flight will usually shift from the original plan because of Air Traffic Control (ATC) constraints, adverse weather, wind changes and tactical re-routing, without possibility for the flight crew, either using the FMS or through connected services to tactically recompute the trajectory in order to continuously optimize the flight path. This is in particular due to the limitations of the performance databases that the current systems are using.

  Hence, PERF-AI is focusing on identifying adequate machine learning algorithms, testing their accuracy and capability to perform flight data statistical analysis and developing mathematical models to optimize real flight trajectories with respect to the actual aircraft performance, thus, minimizing fuel consumption throughout the flight.

  The consortium consists of Safety-Line (FR) and Inria (FR), having full expertise at Aircraft Performance and Data Science, hence, able to fully propose, test and validate different statistical models that will allow to accurately solve some optimization challenges and implement them in an operational environment.

Collaborations with Major European Organizations

• Sophie Dabo-Niang is vice-chair of EMS-CDC (European Mathematical Society-Committe of Developing Countries). She is also a member of the executive committee of CIMPA (International Centre of Pure and Applied Mathematics)

• Alain Celisse is a member of a one-year EIT European project called SysBooster with ApSys and Nokia.