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Rob Strain |
Putting Signal Processing to Work in the National Airspace
Rob Strain
August 2009
Rob Strain was studying computer and electrical engineering at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., when he first heard about MITRE in 1989. As a leader of the Young Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA), he arranged for student AFCEA members to meet with MITRE's signal processing group to visit its labs and learn about its work. "It was inspirational," he says. "I was impressed by the technology research, people, and the work MITRE was doing for the public good."
After graduation, Strain worked briefly for a small communications company before joining MITRE in 1990. He started in MITRE's Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence federally funded research and development center (FFRDC), which is sponsored by the Department of Defense.
"I wanted to fly on large military aircraft, such as B-52s, testing very-low frequency communications equipment," he says. "There was a slow-down in the work and an opportunity came along to continue my love of working with airplanes. That was with the Center for Advanced Aviation System Development [CAASD], the FFRDC that MITRE operates for the Federal Aviation Administration."
Technology Transfer
and UAT
As with many MITRE prototypes, the Universal Access Transceiver (UAT) Beacon Radio is available for commercial use through a nonexclusive license. MITRE's Technology Transfer Office, or TTO, enables the government and the general public to benefit from MITRE's research advances in aviation, biotechnology, nanotechnology, collaboration and visualization tools, information security, wireless communications, and many other areas. It's part of our public service mission to transition our inventions to sponsors or to other organizations through licensing agreements, open source release, or publications.
For licensing information, contact Ray Dizon at MITRE's Technology Transfer Office at (703) 983-7132. |
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From the time he joined CAASD, Strain held a variety of jobs in the communications, navigation, and surveillance areas of air traffic control. He was the principal investigator for research that led to the development of MITRE's Universal Access Transceiver (UAT) from 1996 to 1998. The UAT is a digital radio system that significantly increases situational awareness for aircraft by providing real-time information about other air traffic and weather to the cockpit. The systems have been installed in aircraft and on the ground in Western and Southeastern Alaska through the FAA's Capstone Project. Capstone, a safety demonstration project designed to reduce in-flight accidents and incidents, cut the airplane accident rate in Alaska by 42 percent.
Thanks to the success of the Alaska tests, the FAA installed additional demonstration projects along the East Coast starting in 2003 and has included UAT in the national implementation of Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) and other broadcast services. ADS-B is the backbone of the FAA's Next Generation Air Transportation System. "It uses GPS technology to determine a plane's location, including altitude, and whether it is climbing, descending, or turning, and broadcasting it once a second." Strain explains. "This information is available to air traffic controllers and other suitably equipped aircraft in proximity. The UAT research set the course for my career, and it's satisfying to see it find its way into the National Airspace System [NAS]."
The aviation community apparently agrees because the UAT Technology Design Team received the FAA's 2008 Excellence in Aviation Research Award for contributing to improving the safety and efficiency of the NAS. "At MITRE, we strive to have our ideas implemented," Strain says. "I've been extremely fortunate to work with folks who have hit that mark."
He also has been supporting work on the development of the UAT Beacon Radio, an evolution of the original system. The new device has potential benefits for emergency management operations, search and rescue missions, and smaller planes unable to accommodate a heavier, full-size UAT system. The first UAT prototype was built in 1996, weighed 35 pounds, and was the size of a small suitcase. Today the UAT Beacon Radio is a hand-held device the size of two decks of cards. "The radio engineers in our Bedford office get all the credit for shrinking the radio down to a compact size," says Strain. "They do amazing things with microelectronics."
Improving Situational Awareness
Strain is now an associate program manager in CAASD leading systems engineering work associated with the FAA's ADS-B program. While working on the UAT in the mid-1990s, he was involved in the definition of the ADS-B system. He has also been a contributor to the development and testing of two related broadcast services that deliver weather and traffic information to pilots from FAA radars, known respectively as Flight Information Service–Broadcast and Traffic Information Service–Broadcast. Both of these services are also available to pilots on the UAT data link.
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The Universal Access Beacon Radio (UBR) would be useful for small aircraft that don't have engine-powered electrical systems such as this sailplane. There are roughly 12,000 sailplanes in the United States that could use a UBR. |
Among other projects, the biggest part of Strain's job these days is working on the FAA's implementation of ADS-B. "That's been pretty successful as well," he notes. "In 2007, the FAA awarded a contract to ITT Corporation, and we're helping the company with its implementation, supporting test and evaluation and future applications. There's still quite a bit of on-going research that we'll be doing about how the technology can be used."
It's challenging work like this that appeals to him, and he believes MITRE is the place to do it. "People at MITRE like to do a good solid engineering work. The environment and the caliber of people make the work most enjoyable."
—by David A. Van Cleave
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