Laboratories and test environments are critical to R&D efforts, allowing for new concepts to be prototyped, demonstrated, and evaluated at an early stage. This allows for the concepts to be evaluated and allowing adjustments to be made to improve the concept or capability and facilitates decision making on whether to continue researching the capability or begin transitioning to implementation. Ultimately, test environments help expedite capability development and reduce risk in investment decisions.
Concepts Beyond has extensive experience in strategic planning and design of laboratory facilities and systems, such as the Florida NextGen Test Bed (FTB). Managed by the FAA William J Hughes Technical Center (WJHTC) and located in Daytona Beach, FL, the FTB is configured with R&D versions of operational National Airspace System (NAS) systems and analysis tools allowing NextGen demonstrations to be conducted in a way that promotes partnerships with industry, academia, and government.
The FTB consists of a 5,000 square foot Demonstration Suite used to conduct demonstrations of the operational capabilities, and a 5,000 square foot Integration Suite used to carry out development, test, and integration efforts for the operational capabilities being evaluated at the Test Bed. The FTB provides a platform for new concept demonstrations to be conducted at an early stage without affecting NAS operations. This enables the ability to integrate individual domains to allow multi-domain, end-to-end NAS demonstrations and evaluations. The FTB core infrastructure is architected and configured to enable remote connections with other FAA and industry partner sites to allow for multi-site demonstration capabilities and NAS based modeling and simulation. This approach reduces risk and overall costs by enabling the FAA to evaluate the viability of these new technologies and concepts before making further investments and decisions on potential implementation in operations. Other features of the FTB include:
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The NextGen Integration and Evaluation Capability (NIEC) lab is located at the FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center (WJHTC) in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The NIEC lab is used to conduct early-stage proof of concept studies and rapid prototyping. The NIEC provides a real-time, NAS environment that allows for concept development and validation, integration, and demonstration capabilities through Human-in-the Loop (HITL) simulation testing and data analysis. Future NAS prototype systems and procedures are developed and integrated into the NIEC to support studies that measure and validate concept feasibility, human performance, usability, changes in workload, and safety. The NIEC specializes in providing a platform that can integrate Info-centric NAS concepts and systems in a real time integrated simulation environment. Several NAS systems that support the En Route, Terminal, Tower, Surface, and Traffic Flow systems are emulated in this integrated collocated facility. Concepts Beyond assists programs in the development and validation of prototypes and analysis of capabilities to support the definition of future requirements while researching possible solutions to challenges posed by the integration of new technologies.
Concepts Beyond provides technical and strategic programmatic and air traffic management planning, and aviation expertise for the design of the facilities and systems and ongoing management of the FTB. Concepts Beyond developed a governance framework, processes, and agreements for government, industry, and academia to have mutual benefit in collaborating to find innovative solutions for aviation. This promotes the unique environment where industry and academia are encouraged to collaborate at the FTB outside of the traditional government procurement process.
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