Page 31 - World Airnews Magazine April 2020 Edition

DRONES

from different angles. not specifically trained for this purpose, it seems the rigorous

Over the course of 24 hours, the system processes 250 hours simulation training also equipped the controller to follow a moving

of real-world training. Like training wheels, learning in simulation target precisely.

mode allows the drone to learn on its own in a safe environment, The researchers note that there's still work to be done. In this ex-

before being released into the wild. Eventually, it finds solutions to periment, they manually adjusted a few parameters on the drones,

every challenge put in its path. for example, limiting maximum thrust, but the next step is to make
"In simulation we can run hundreds of thousands of scenarios," the drones completely independent. The experiment is a promising

said Molchanov. move towards building sturdy drones that can tune themselves and
learn from experience.
Professor Sukhatme, Molchanov's advisor and a Fletcher Jones
A REAL-WORLD CHALLENGE Foundation Endowed Chair in Computer Science, said the research

To prove their approach, the researchers moved the trained solves two important problems in robotics: robustness and gener-

controller onto real drones developed in Ayanian's Automatic alisation.

Coordination of Teams Lab. In a netted indoor drone facility, they "From a safety perspective, robustness is super important. If

flew the drones and tried to throw them off by kicking and pushing you're building a flight control system, it can't be brittle and fall
them. apart when something goes wrong," said Sukhatme.

The drones were successful in correcting themselves from mod- "The other important thing is generalisation. Sometimes you
erate hits (including pushes, light kicks and colliding with an object) might build a very safe system, but it will be very specialised. This
90% of the time. Once trained on one machine, the controller was research shows what a mature and accomplished Ph.D. student can

able to quickly generalize to quad copters with different dimen- achieve, and I'm very proud of Artem and the team he assembled."
sions, weights and sizes. Q
While the researchers focused on robustness in this study, they Article courtesy: https://techxplore.com/news/2020-03-ad-

were surprised to find the system also performed competitively in vanced-series-robust-drones.html

terms of trajectory tracking - moving from point A to B to C. While
IATA
GLOBAL SUSPENSION
OF SLOT RULES
• Future bookings are softening and services in order to maintain slots. Air-

carriers are reacting with measures craft can be reallocated to other routes

or parked; crew can have certainty on
he International Air Transport such as crew being given unpaid their schedules.

TAssociati on has contacted avi- leave, freezing of pay increases, and “IATA research has shown that traffic

ation regulators worldwide to request plans for aircraft to be grounded. has collapsed on key Asian routes and

that the rules governing use of airport Given these extraordinary circumstanc- that this is rippling throughout the
slots be suspended immediately and for es as a result of the public health emer- air transport network globally, even

the 2020 season, due to the impact of gency, the collective view of the airline between countries without major

industry is that the application the 80%
COVID-19 (the Corona virus). rule during the upcoming season is inap- outbreaks of COVID-19. There are prec-
Around 43% of all passengers depart propriate. Flexibility is needed for airlines edents for previous suspension of the
from over 200 slot co-ordinated airports to adjust their schedules according to slot use rules and we believe the circum-
worldwide. At present, the rules for slot extraordinary demand developments. stances again calls for a suspension to

allocation mean that airlines must oper- Regulators have already been waiving be granted.”
ate at least 80% of their allocated slots the slot rules on a rolling basis during “We are calling for regulators
under normal circumstances. the COVID-19 crisis primarily for worldwide to help the industry plan
Failure to comply means the airline los- operations to China and Hong Kong for today’s emergency, and the future

es its right to the slot the next equivalent SAR. However, given the recent further recovery of the network, by suspending

season. In exceptional circumstances, outbreaks this is no longer contained to the slot use rules on a temporary basis,
regulators can relax this requirement. the Asia markets. “said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s direc-
The COVID-19 crisis has had a severe im- Without certainty that these waivers tor general and CEO.

pact on air traffic. Airlines are experienc- will continue for the summer season (or “The world is facing a huge challenge

ing serious declines in demand including: winter season in the Southern hemi- to prevent the spread of COVID-19 while

• A carrier experiencing a 26% reduc- sphere), airlines are unable to plan ahead enabling the global economy to contin-

tion across their entire operation in sufficiently to ensure efficient rostering ue functioning. Airlines are on the front

comparison to last year of crew or deployment of aircraft. line of that challenge and it’s essential

• A hub carrier reporting bookings to Suspending the requirement for the that the regulatory community work
Italy down 108% as bookings collapse entire season (to October 2020) has with us to ensure airlines are able to

to zero and refunds grow meant that airlines can respond to mar- operate in the most sustainable manner,

• Many carriers reporting 50% no- ket conditions with appropriate capacity both economically and environmentally,
to alleviate the worst impacts of the
shows across several markets levels, avoiding any need to run empty crisis,” he said. Q
World Airnews | April 2020
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