Cummings-Grande shadowed a working controller during exercises and traded off at the terminal during breaks, the agency said. His classmates were application specialists from Seattle, Sacramento, San Jose, and Fort Lauderdale. According to NASA, Cummings-Grande described how he got to bounce ideas off controllers interacting with the TDLS and all the tools it touches. He also noted that interacting with the system was eye-opening regarding how different these systems are from common computers, and that he didn't realize he was missing that piece until taking the course.
The TDLS runs on fully air-gapped software, completely isolated from standard operating systems, according to the agency. The research connects to NASA work on surface safety and digital communications, including Terminal Area Productivity, SOAR, LVLASO, and STBO. Previous efforts demonstrated digital taxi clearances in simulations and flight tests at Atlanta Airport. Those findings showed meaningful workload reductions, but the cost-benefit case wasn't there yet.
I got to bounce some of my ideas and concepts off of controllers who are out there interacting with the TDLS and all of the tools it touches in the current system.
New infrastructure investments include rollout of systems derived from ATD-2 technologies like the Spot and Runway Departure Advisor and Precision Departure Release Capability through TFDM. The specific link between TDLS and TFDM that Cummings-Grande discovered remains unclear, as do the exact research questions he is now pursuing.
Interacting with the system was just very eye-opening as to how different these systems are from other computers that we commonly interact with.
I didn't realize I was missing this piece until I took this course.