Page 25 - ATC Special Bulletin Series - Training & Simulation 2022-01

By Colin Smith, Sarah Cavanagh & Jonathan Twigger, Think © Think THINKING THINKING VALIDATION VALIDATION 1. CONTEXT - At Think, we believe that validation should remain the vital line of defence against inappropriate technology reaching our operations. The E-OCVM has stood the test of time and provided a vital framework for SESAR and our R&D communities both in and outside of Europe, but we need to ensure that our ability to assess emerging technologies keeps abreast of the technologies themselves. As such, we now feel it is the time to re-think our expectations of the current validation methodology and explore potential enhancements. The need and expectation for the development of new ATM capabilities and technologies is ever present. The experience of the Covid pandemic has perhaps changed the focus for this development, whereby environmental efficiency, capacity optimisation and safety assurance have been joined by a renewed focus to maximise the scalability and resilience of our business whilst preparing airspace for the integration of new forms of traffic. To meet these demands, we are seeing our R&D community embrace more complex technologies, targeting deeper levels of automation and applying these concepts across a wider set of stakeholders. The financial investment needed to develop these technologies, together with the risks associated with accelerated deployment timescales, warrants a closer look at how we use validation to promote good technical design and concept development. Our validation methodology must enable the assessment of novel solutions that operate across multiple operating environments and target benefits over long periods. Think are known to be co-authors of the E-OCVM, which was first developed in 2005 to improve the transition rate of ATM R&D concepts into operations. At that time projects often suffered from: 1. A lack of clear information to support decision making; 25 | 01 | TRAINING & SIMULATION | |