The HUCAN project, aimed at revolutionizing the certification and approval processes for AI-enabled Air Traffic Management (ATM) systems, has taken flight following its kick off meeting held on the 21st of September 2023 in Brussels. Hosted at EUROCONTROL’s headquarters, the meeting brought together a consortium of experts, researchers, and stakeholders from across the aviation and regulatory landscape.
HUCAN, which stands for Holistic Unified Certification Approach for Novel systems based on advanced automation, is an initiative funded by SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking under the Horizon Europe Research & Innovation programme. It addresses the intricate legal and regulatory challenges stemming from the integration of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) into the ATM domain, aiming to establish new standards for safety and efficiency in aviation.
At its core, the project seeks to develop a comprehensive certification approach tailored to AI-enabled ATM airborne and ground systems. This approach targets key stakeholders including the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), national aviation authorities, and air navigation service providers (ANSPs). Moreover, HUCAN plans to provide a robust set of design guidelines and toolkits to facilitate the development of automation and AI-powered technologies for aviation manufacturers.
The project will draw upon insights from prominent trends and challenges in automation and AI research, analyzing approaches from other safety-critical domains. Furthermore, it will conduct parallel analyses of certification approaches and regulatory features, supported by case studies focused on capacity-on-demand and dynamic airspace.
Over the next 30 months, HUCAN will devise an approach for certifying new ATM-related airborne and ground systems with heightened levels of automation, including those leveraging AI and machine learning (ML). This initiative will produce two interconnected products: a unified certification method for highly automated systems and a suite of design guidelines and toolkits. These resources will streamline both the approval/certification and design phases, ensuring adherence to safety standards while promoting innovation in the aviation sector.
