A Rapid-Prototyping Environment for En Route Air Traffic Management Research

An interactive software environment (CARAT#) that allows rapid prototyping of en route air traffic management algorithms is described. This software employs the NASAFACET software as its computational engine, and allows the user to rapidly develop and evaluate en route air traffic management algorithms. Two versions of CARAT# have been developed. The first is built upon a commercial software platform, while the second version employs a freely available interactive, scriptable environment as its foundation. In addition to permitting direct access to the FACET capabilities, these interactive environments enable the users to readily build additional functionality into FACET and allow the rapid integration with several commercial software packages. The use of CARAT# software is illustrated through the formulation of a few research problems.