Flight Data Monitoring/Tracker System for Search and Rescue

Mission
Mohamed Tarmizi Ahmad1,a*, Michael Lam2,b, A.S.Mohd Harithuddin3,c,
Amzari Zhahir4,d and O. K. Ariff5,e
1,4,5

Department of Aerospace Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia,

43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
1,4,5

Aerospace Manufacturing Research Center (AMRC), Level 7, Block A, Faculty of

Engineering, University Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

Worldgate Technologies, Unit 2.02, Level 2, Menara UAC, No. 12, Jalan PJU 7/5, Mutiara
Damansara, 47800 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Bundoora East Campus,

RMIT University, VIC 3803, Australia
a

tarmizitomzee@gmail.com, bmikelsc@worldgate-technologies.com,
c
salah.harithuddin@rmit.edu.au, damzari@upm.edu.my, eomarkassim@upm.edu.my
Keywords: Aircraft navigation, Sensor fusion, Kalman Filters, GPS, Flight Tracker, FDM.

Abstract
Traditionally the Kalman Filter is used for the purpose of mixing several input signals and
extracting a more reliable output. It has benefited the aircraft navigation tremendously. This
paper considers the fusion of four sensors systems, the Global Positioning System (GPS),
gyroscopes, accelerometers and magnetometers. The device known as Starfish Main Tracking
Unit (MTU) is a Flight Data Monitoring (FDM)/Tracking System communications
infrastructure that uses a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)/Iridium/ICS (Internet
Communications Services) which provides low cost telemetry as well as multiple solutions
for global flight following and aircraft flight data transfer between the aircraft and the
ground. Users from the ground are able to monitor their fleet, configure their systems and
generate various flight reports all from a single web-based interface, named the Starfish Fleet
Management system. This developed system can complement the Black Box by downloading
limited aircraft data to the ground, provides real time tracking and assist in Search and
Rescue (SAR) mission.
Introduction
The disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have reignite debate over new
technology to help investigators in the event of a crash, The Wall Street Journal reported [1] .
The same event also spur the Director-general of International Air Transport Association
(IATA) and its chief executive to say that there is a need for a consensus on the global
tracking of aircraft and for governments to use passenger data gathered by carriers [2]. This
includes the possibility of transmitting data automatically using satellite links to send critical
safety information from an airliner to the ground. FDM is the systematic, pro-active use of
digital flight data from routine operations to improve aviation safety within intrinsically nonpunitive and just safety culture [3]

The Starfish MTU is a high performance airborne device that can be used in all sorts of
GPS/Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) tracking and recording of flight data applications.
This can range from private aircraft to military and commercial aircraft. The communications
infrastructure used by Starfish is a GPRS/Iridium/ICS which provides low cost telemetry
system to aircraft operators. With High-speed broadband enabled capability for multitasking.
The collaborative research between Worldgate Technologies (WGT) a land base vehicle
tracking provider and University Putra Malaysia (UPM) has extended the use of the MTU
from land base vehicle to airborne vehicles and hence it exposes to multitudes of military and
civil aviation applications.
The Main Tracking Unit (MTU figure 1), is a unique device that enables multi-tasking
application such as Automatic Flight Following (AFF), Flight Data Monitoring (FDM), Fleet
Management and military applications (e.g. ACMI & Network Centric Warfare).

Figure 1 - Starfish Main Tracking Unit (MTU) that is carried in the aircraft
The MTU is designed with features such as built-in GPS position sensor, inertia sensor, gyro
sensor and magnetometer, along with multiple digital, serial and discrete input/outputs. The
research and development (R&D) is still in progress and it provides a platform for further
research in other disciplines.
The MTU had been tested in UPMs Cirrus SR20 aircraft and had been modified several
times to achieve better performance.
Starfish FDM/Tracker Systems
This is for corporations with a fleet of aircraft that needs to be managed such as flight
training schools and off shore helicopters fleets. Here, the tracking capabilities of starfish is
enhanced with the help of extra functions and complemented with a powerful software at the
control centre in order to achieve a high degree of control of the fleet.
Starfish FDM is a sophisticated matching between the GPS/IMU and Global System for
Mobile Communications (GSM)/Iridium communications, which allows Starfish to deliver
real time data over the Internet while being on the move. The GPRS while being of higher
capacity with faster data speeds and cheaper than SMS, makes the Starfish an excellent
means for Fleet Management Applications (Figure 2)

Figure 2 Resources for Database Construction

Although the GPS System is available all over the world, its accessibility is only available
where the infrastructure exists. Starfish fills this void with the Iridium satellite constellation
providing voice and data coverage that allows data transfer anywhere in the world. Best of all
Starfish has capability of both GSM and Iridium coexisting and switching between one and
the other, automatically.
Broadcasting data back is just part of the solution, however the powerful computer servers
that sit at Malaysias Internet backbone makes the solution complete. Starfish is completely
Internet based using PHP web applications. Accountable Managers can access maps, reports
and analysis tools over the World-Wide-Web. This translates into minimal capital
expenditure as all that is needed to start managing is a PC and the Internet. With its arsenal of
tools and reports, any accountable manager will immediately find the confidence to manage
and be in control. The servers will highlight any out of bounds conditions like speed limits so
that action can be taken to prevent mishaps.
Having all the data available, accountable managers can perform analysis, forensic and fraud
investigation easily over the internet. Should the suite of functions be insufficient, data can be
downloaded and special programs written to do the work.
Accountable manager do not have to worry where their aircraft are located at any time.
Managing the fleet more effectively, reducing cost and improving margins of safety are what
Starfish and Fleet Management Systems are all about.
Starfish Tracking & Sensing Technology
Starfish tracking solution is unique in providing instant global monitoring capabilities while
requiring very little initial investment. This is accomplished by combining a variety of
established technologies with state of the art hardware and software development.
The following list describes some of the key technologies used:
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GPS/Galileo/GLONASS worldwide location tracking with special provisions for

orientation independent GPS reception
GSM/GPRS/Iridium worldwide satellite and cellular radio communication
GSM based worldwide location tracking in GPS denied environments
Environmental sensor suite to monitor acceleration, speed, attitudes, headings,
altitudes and geo-location
Ultra low power system processor to enable long battery life
Scalable cloud based device management as well as data processing, visualization and
storage server
Browser base user interface for PCs and mobile devices including real time alerts

Starfish Technology Overview

Starfish core business is in design, development, systems integration, and optimization of
start-of-the-art Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) gyros and accelerometers,
magnetometers, C/A code and P/Y code GPS/Galileo/GLONASS receivers and advanced
algorithm technologies.

Figure 3 Integration of GPS and inertial sensor system for navigation.

Starfishs core technology includes:
MEMS Inertial Sensor Technology
Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) inertial sensors are compact chip-scale devices
comprised of micro-patterned silicon structures fabricated using semiconductor processes.
MEMS inertial sensors are ideally suited for a range of inertial state sensing applications due
to their extremely low power requirements, high reliability and small size.
Sensor Fusion and Inertial Navigation Algorithms
Starfish has developed a suite of advanced algorithms for optimizing system performance for
land, airborne and marine applications. This includes use of Extended Kalman Filter
approach that combines feedback from accelerometer, gyros, and other aiding sensor sources
(GPS and magnetometer) to optimally estimate corrections to the inertial sensor errors and
trajectory state. The filter applies statistical models to weight each new measurement relative
to past information and also determines up-to-date uncertainties of the estimates for real time
quality assessments. As a result of applying these advanced techniques, Starfishs inertial
systems deliver an outstanding level of system performance in complex operating
environments. The Data processing algorithms are briefly described below:

1. Position and Velocity Estimation

A tri-axis accelerometer measures acceleration, both static (gravity) and dynamic, in three
orthogonal direction. The acceleration signals generated can be integrated twice to get
displacement. For 3D position and velocity estimation, the acceleration data is combined with
the gyroscope data to obtain the vehicles attitude in space. The general formula for
displacement where acceleration change for each time interval is given by
(1)
In practice, this is not a reliable method of estimating position due to the huge and
accumulating error caused by integrating a typically noisy accelerometer signal. This makes
the position estimation by accelerometer only accurate for a very short period. This method,
however, can be used to compliment to the GPS position data and combined using filtering to
obtain a more accurate estimation. The advantage of this method of position estimation is
that it has a faster output data rate than GPS and it is not dependable on satellite visibility [4].
The acceleration chart is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4 Linear acceleration signals in three orthogonal directions

2. Orientation Estimation
The orientation of an aircraft in the inertial reference frame can be described by a sequence of
three Euler angles. Using the 3-2-1 sequence, the orientation representation is described by
heading, elevation, and bank angles (, , and ).
Two approaches are used to determine the attitude and heading of an aircraft: (1) a
combination of an accelerometer and a magnetometer, and (2) gyroscope. These two
techniques are combined to achieve the best accuracy for the aircraft orientation estimation.
The first approach is by using the tri-axis accelerometer data combined with a tri-axis
magnetometer (electronic compass) to get the heading, elevation, and bank angles. A tri-axis
accelerometer can detect the direction of gravity and thus acts as an inclinometer. An
inclinometer indicates the angle of tilt of an object with respect to nadir (direction of gravity).
Using the acceleration signal from the three orthogonal axis, one can determine the elevation
and bank angles by
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(2)

(3)
Using the known elevation and bank angles, one can use the body-fixed magnetometer
reading and transform it to the inertial frame

(4)

and calculate the heading angle using

(5)
This approach is useful for determining the initial attitude estimation. Secondly, the Euler
angles are determined by transforming the roll, pitch, and yaw rates ( , , ) measured
by the gyro into Euler angle rates ( , , ), and numerically integrating the Euler angle rates.

(6)

The disadvantage of the integration approach is that any drift of null bias point and noise in
the gyro signal contribute to considerable amount of error in the orientation data. This error
also grows unboundedly over time. Such drawback limits this approach to applications with
short-term gyro measurements only.

Figure 5 Angular rates about three orthogonal axes

Figure 6 Estimated time history of Euler angles from the gyro, accelerometer, and
magnetometer readings
4. Starfish Fleet Management Electronic Display
The composite data that was streamed to Starfish Fleet Management server will be archived
and display as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7 Starfish Fleet Management System Display

Starfish Application
Flight data monitoring (FDM) is generally considered to be a systematic method of accessing,
recording, analysing, and acting upon information obtained from flight data to identify
operational and/or maintenance risks, before they can lead to incidents and accidents. The
analysis of Flight Data is specified in Annex 6 of International Civil Aviation Organization
(ICAO) [5]. The term flight data monitoring incorporates a variety of systems that continue
to evolve to meet the unique needs of each industry sector.
All FDM systems aim to improve aviation safety, but the systems do differ when it comes to
their specific areas of focus. FDM may assist SAR mission by continuously downloading
flight data and enable to track the last ping location.
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FDM equipment thou not designed to be crashworthy, downloads data to ground thereby
providing accident investigators with valuable data they wouldnt otherwise have. The
advantage of the Starfish MTU is that the data is kept in the server and it can be retrieved and
processed as required. ICAO is considering of making tracking of General Aviation aircraft a
mandatory requirement as part of its Safety Management System [6]
Starfish FDM/Tracker provides live flight tracking for these major airports in 3D using
Google Earth. Figure 9 is another real-time screen capture from MTU Playback. This screen
capture depicts final approach to an airfield runway 33 of Subang airfield. In this case
however, the airfield features including lights, runways, runway markings, buildings,
taxiways and roads were all brought into the visual database explicitly. The Starfish Fleet
Management System provides live flight tracking for these major airports in 3D using Google
Earth.
CONCLUSION
FDM/tracker provides a solution for many of the problems facing SAR operation, today.
FDM brings an increased level of safety and sophistication to Aviation. Long considered a
best practice of air carriers around the world technology now makes FDM practical in
smaller aircraft. Starfish FDM may compliment the Black Box by telemetry essential flight
data to the ground and hence assist SAR mission. A properly implemented and operated
FDM system can help curb increasing maintenance and fuel costs while increasing safety.
Operators using FDM programs should have a competitive economic edge in the aviation
marketplace.
Acknowledgement
We would like to thank the Malaysian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation for
supporting this research manuscript under the eScienceFund with Project No. 04-01-04SF1243 and Worldgate Technologies for collaborating with UPM on the Starfish
development.
References:
[1] Information
on
http://my.news.yahoo.com/missing-mas-flight-reignites-debatealternative-black-box-004845861.html
[2] Information on https://my.news.yahoo.com/task-force-set-look-global-aircraft-trackingsays-071024422.html
[3] CAP 739 Civil Aviation Authority Flight Data Monitoring System
[4] Noureldin, Aboelmagd, Tashfeen B. Karamat, and Jacques Georgy. Fundamentals of
inertial navigation, satellite-based positioning and their integration. Berlin/Heidelberg,
Germany: Springer, 2013.
[5] Annex 6 Part 1. Flight Data Analysis. ICAO
[6] Doc 9859. Safety Management Manual. ICAO
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