The FAA is considering bids to develop an artificial intelligence system that could help air traffic controllers predict and correct potential issues hours earlier than they currently can. File Photo by Caroline Brehman/EPA
April 18 (UPI) — The Federal Aviation Administration is working with three bidders to develop artificial intelligence software to help air traffic controllers manage flights across the nation’s airspace.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy discussed the effort during a media event on Friday, and said the goal is to help anticipate schedule conflicts and improve planning for bottlenecks at busy airports.
“This software, as they look at the flight paths, won’t see [potential issues] 15 minutes before it happens .. a controller will get a notice that they could change one of the airplane’s flight paths slightly and they can deconflict it an hour and a half or two hours before the conflict even happens,” Duffy said during a media event hosted by Semafor.
The program is aimed at fundamentally changing how airspace in the United States operates, The Air Current reported, and is a major part of the agency’s efforts at modernization and redesign.
The FAA has mounted an effort to see how AI can improve the functionality and safety of the country’s air traffic control systems, especially amid a growing shortage of controllers, at least partially because political debates that have hampered the agency’s funding.
The system that the FAA is looking to develop — called SMART, which stands for Strategic Management of Airspace Routing Trajectories — is part of a $32.5 billion modernization program that includes replacing hundreds of radars and growing its air controller staff, The Next Web reported.
Development of the new system, which follows a series of issues at airports across the country that have seen near-misses and actual crashes that have raised concerns among experts and travelers alike, is being bid on by the companies Palantir, Thales and Air Space Intelligence.
The system could begin to be operational some time later this year, with an update on progress expected from the Department of Transportation and FAA on April 21.
