Tern Systems Hosts AWARE Open Day in Iceland

This week, Tern Systems’ headquarters in Iceland became a hub of aviation innovation as we hosted the AWARE Open Day. The hybrid event marked a major milestone for the AWARE project—a cutting-edge research initiative supported by the SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking and European Union's Horizon Europe research and Innovation programme.

The open day brought together more than fifty participants, both in-person and online. The diverse crowd included local air traffic controllers , Air Navigation Service Provider experts, and leading aviation researchers from across Europe, all eager to see how the project is reshaping the future of ATM.

What is the AWARE Project?

Humans are trained to understand the capabilities, limitations, and functionality of the machines they use. Machines, on the other hand, remain disconnected from humans and lack understanding of them. In a complex environment the necessity for machines to comprehend the humans and to be able to close the loop of reciprocal understanding, grows more important.

The goal of the project is to enable human-machine collaboration by using an artificial situational awareness system which is enabling AI to anticipate and respond to human needs by understanding human intent and goals.

The project developed and tested an AI Assistant Application providing adaptable human-centric support to enhance air traffic controller's performance and to reduce their workload despite high task complexity.

Tern Systems has played a crucial role in the project, leveraging our technical expertise to build the AWARE platform and integrate these advanced capabilities directly into our Polaris ATM system and Orion ATM simulator.

Other AWARE consortium partners are University of Zagreb (Project Coordinator), IFATCA, LFV, Slot Consulting, UkSATSE, UPM, JKU and ZHAW.

Key Highlights from the Open Day

The event provided a comprehensive deep dive into the project's technical achievements and real-world validation results.

• The AWARE Concept & ASA System: Attendees learned how the system uses aeronautical data to construct "knowledge graphs" (digital maps of sector traffic) combined with a reasoning engine to understand complex traffic scenarios.  

• Attention Tracking: One of the most exciting aspects of the project is its ability to track a controller's visual attention and human-machine interactions. By putting eye-tracking data into the context of live traffic, the system can actually infer what the controller is focusing on and planning next.  

• ATCO Supporting Tools: We demonstrated how the system provides adaptable support—either by giving real-time recommendations for the task the controller is currently focused on, or by quietly handling an unrelated, monotonous monitoring task autonomously.  

• Validations: We shared insights from recent human-in-the-loop simulations (including major exercises held recently at LFV's R&D Centre in Malmö). The data shows significant potential to reduce controller workload and boost airspace capacity while keeping safety at the absolute forefront.  

• Live Platform Demonstration: The highlight for many was seeing the AWARE platform up and running in a live demonstration, showing exactly how these AI-driven tools integrate with modern ATM software like our Polaris ATM system.

Tern Systems is incredibly proud of what has been accomplished alongside our European consortium partners. By proving that AI can seamlessly collaborate with human controllers to keep them safely "in the loop," we are one step closer to a safer, more efficient, and highly sustainable Digital European Sky.

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us in Iceland and online to celebrate this fantastic milestone!