Probabilistic Formal Verification of the SATS Concept of Operation

The objective of NASA’s Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) Concept of Operations (ConOps) is to facilitate High Volume Operation (HVO) of advanced small aircraft operating in nontowered non-radar airports. Given the safety-critical nature of SATS, its analysis accuracy is extremely important. However, the commonly used analysis techniques, like simulation and traditional model checking, do not ascertain a complete verification of SATS due to the wide range of possibilities involved in SATS or the inability to capture the randomized and unpredictable aspects of the SATS ConOps environment in their models. To overcome these limitations, we propose to formulate the SATS ConOps as a fully synchronous and probabilistic model, i.e., SATS-SMA, that supports simultaneously moving aircraft. The distinguishing features of our work include the preservation of safety of aircraft while improving throughput at the airport. Important insights related to take-off and landing operations during the Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC) are also presented.