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Welcome to MITRE's Integration Demonstration and Experimentation for Aeronautics Laboratory,
or IDEA Lab, located at The MITRE Corporation's McLean, Virginia campus.
The IDEA Lab is instrumental to the ongoing development and deployment of air traffic
management systems.
This fully integrated environment supports assessment of operational concepts, procedures
and capabilities across many domains, including tower, terminal, on-route, cockpit and unmanned
aircraft systems.
This is a multi-purpose reconfigurable and integrated air traffic control or "ATC" area.
During a lab experiment, air traffic controllers review proposed new procedures or designs
and provide us with their feedback. Rapid prototyping is used to produce and promptly
run a revised design based on the feedback.
The display on the controller's monitor is an emulation of what they use in the field.
The software running the program is composed by MITRE, enabling flexibility and control.
Throughout the lab, information is displayed from a variety of sources, including controller
monitors and tower and cockpit views.
The area facilitates collaboration during lab human-in-the-loop experiments, where field
personnel and researchers simulate the complex interactions at work in the National Airspace
System.
Here is the pseudo pilot room. This capability enhances a realistic experiment experience
by providing real-time manual control as simulated aircraft on the controller's screen during
a human-in-the-loop evaluation.
The on-route trainer utilizes voice-recognition and synthesis technologies for a stand-alone,
self-paced, accelerated and standardized air traffic controller training capability.
There is a similar training prototype for terminal controllers. Like other systems in
the lab, they can be transportable for field evaluations.
The air traffic control tower simulator provides and out-the-window view and associated controller
equipment one would see in this environment. 3-D visualization capabilities depict the
airport surface view for existing airports or new ones based on the requirements of the
research.
All of the domains and related equipment in the lab are fully integrated, providing the
capability to fly gate to gate. This involves integrating the cockpit, tower and ATC domains
in the lab in a shared environment.
Here are two reconfigurable Boeing triple seven flight deck simulators. Pilots can get
a realistic view of their environment as they evaluate future flight operations and provide
their feedback on the viability of various operational flight procedures.
In addition to these transport category simulators, this is a general aviation simulator.
The demo room is adjacent to the lab, which allows decision makers and stakeholders to
observe what is happening in the lab live, without affecting an experiment. There are
video and data feeds into the demo room to provide a place for review and discussion
in a collaborative environment.
Thank you for touring MITRE's aviation IDEA Lab.
For more information, contact us at aviation@mitre.org.