HUCAN, a new project of the SESAR 3 JU, has started work on a novel and holistic approach for the certification and approval of AI-enabled ATM airborne and ground systems. The project aims to contribute to shaping the future use of AI in air traffic management.
HUCAN stands for Holistic Unified Certification Approach for Novel systems based on advanced automation. This project is an initiative funded by SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking under the Horizon Europe Research & Innovation programme, focused on navigating the complex legal and regulatory challenges posed by the increasing integration of automation and AI into the ATM environment. The project aims to set new standards for transparency, certification, and approval processes, ensuring the highest levels of safety and efficiency in the aviation sector.
Certification of AI in air traffic management is a complex and evolving field that requires collaboration between aviation experts, AI researchers, regulatory bodies, and industry stakeholders to address these challenges and ensure the safe and efficient integration of AI into the aviation sector. Mindful of this the HUCAN project will develop a novel, holistic certification approach tailored to AI-enabled ATM airborne and ground systems involving key stakeholders such as the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA),
national aviation authorities, and air navigation service providers (ANSPs). HUCAN also plans to provide a comprehensive set of design guidelines and accompanying toolkits that will streamline the development of automation and AI-powered technologies for manufacturers in the aviation industry.
Paola Lanzi, Deep Blue, HUCAN Project Coordinator said: “As the aviation industry continues to embrace automation and AI technologies, it becomes imperative that robust certification and approval mechanisms are established to ensure the highest levels of safety and compliance. The HUCAN project marks a significant step towards achieving this goal and underscores our commitment to a human-centric approach to technology integration in aviation”.
In the next 30 months, HUCAN will develop an approach for certification and approval of new ATM-related airborne and ground systems embedding higher levels of automation, including those based on AI and ML. The proposed approach is intended to support both the approval/certification and the design phases of such technologies, developing to this end two interconnected products:
- A new holistic and unified certification method for highly automated systems, whose main target users are EASA, national aviation authorities, qualified entities, and ANSPs
- A set of suitable design guidelines and associated toolkit for streamlining the development of automation and AI-powered technologies, targeted to manufacturers
For the design and development of such products, the project will review the most prominent trends and challenges in automation and AI research and applications regarding ATM systems, also analysing possible approaches developed in other socio-technical and safety critical domains and taking into account all possible impacts of higher levels of automation, including those on ATCOs license and training. A parallel analysis of certification approaches, legal and regulatory features and critical issues of such technologies will be carried out.
Case studies specifically focused on capacity on demand and dynamic airspace will feed and validate the theoretical research and the design of both the approval/certification approach and the guidelines for the design produced by the project.
HUCAN is a collaborative project involving experts from the aviation industry,
regulatory bodies, and research institutions.
- Deep Blue (Project Coordinator, IT)
- Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NL)
- European University Institute (IT)
- German Aerospace Center (DE)
- Italian Aerospace Research Center (IT)
- D-flight (IT)
More about HUCAN
