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Separation Engine
Separation. Guaranteed.
Project Overview
A comprehensive introduction describing Separation Engine as an open-source predictive airspace computation platform that continuously models aircraft trajectories, atmospheric conditions, aircraft performance, and operational constraints to maintain mathematically verifiable aircraft separation.
Explain that the platform is designed to assist air traffic controllers through predictive intelligence rather than replace them.
Mission
Describe the project’s goals.
- Improve aviation safety
- Prevent conflicts before they occur
- Increase controller situational awareness
- Build transparent aviation technology
- Develop auditable AI systems
- Advance open aviation infrastructure
- Encourage global collaboration
Core Principles
- Safety First
- Human In The Loop
- Explainable AI
- Physics Before Prediction
- Deterministic Computation
- Transparency
- Open Standards
- Modular Design
- Vendor Neutral
- Community Driven
Features
Airspace Modeling
- Real time 4D airspace model
- Continuous trajectory computation
- Aircraft intent modeling
- Flight plan integration
- Waypoint prediction
- Holding pattern prediction
- Arrival sequencing
- Departure sequencing
- Surface movement modeling
- Taxi route prediction
- Runway occupancy prediction
- Airspace sector modeling
- Dynamic air corridor generation
Physics Engine
- Aircraft performance models
- Lift calculations
- Drag calculations
- Weight and balance influence
- Climb performance
- Descent performance
- Cruise performance
- Turn radius prediction
- Fuel burn modeling
- Aircraft performance envelopes
- Wind drift compensation
- Atmospheric density modeling
Environmental Modeling
- Wind velocity
- Wind shear
- Gust prediction
- Turbulence
- Temperature
- Pressure
- Humidity
- Icing prediction
- Thunderstorm prediction
- Convective activity
- Volcanic ash
- Wildfire smoke
- Jet stream analysis
- Visibility
- Cloud layers
Predictive Intelligence
- Multi horizon prediction
- Conflict prediction
- Future separation calculations
- Probabilistic trajectory modeling
- Intent prediction
- Route optimization
- Alternate routing
- Speed optimization
- Altitude optimization
- Vector optimization
- Sequencing optimization
- Arrival flow optimization
- Departure flow optimization
Artificial Intelligence
- Explainable AI
- Machine learning prediction
- Reinforcement learning
- Risk assessment
- Confidence scoring
- Cooperative aircraft optimization
- Multi agent reasoning
- Adaptive prediction
- AI assisted controller recommendations
- AI assisted sequencing
- AI assisted rerouting
Safety Systems
- Conflict detection
- Conflict prevention
- Separation assurance
- Near miss prediction
- Collision avoidance support
- Safety envelope calculations
- Dynamic safety margins
- Emergency routing
- Weather avoidance
- Terrain avoidance
- Temporary flight restriction awareness
- Hazard avoidance
- Risk scoring
Controller Assistance
- Advisory mode
- Suggested vectors
- Suggested altitude changes
- Suggested speed changes
- Suggested reroutes
- Future conflict timeline
- Aircraft prioritization
- Workload reduction
- Decision support
- Explainable recommendations
Airport Operations
- Gate prediction
- Taxi optimization
- Runway occupancy management
- Ground traffic visualization
- Pushback coordination
- Surface conflict prediction
- Arrival gate optimization
- Departure queue optimization
Drone Integration
- UAS support
- BVLOS corridor management
- Urban Air Mobility
- Drone conflict prediction
- Shared airspace management
- Drone geofencing
Simulation
- Digital twin environments
- Historical replay
- Live replay
- Scenario builder
- Emergency simulation
- Weather simulation
- Traffic density simulation
- Monte Carlo simulation
- Worst case scenario generation
- Failure simulation
Visualization
- Interactive 3D globe
- Interactive airport view
- Airspace sectors
- Aircraft trajectories
- Predicted trajectories
- Safety envelopes
- Weather overlays
- Terrain overlays
- Airspace restrictions
- Timeline visualization
- Heat maps
- Risk maps
- Conflict visualization
Data Sources
- ADS-B
- Mode S
- Primary radar
- Secondary radar
- Weather radar
- Satellite weather
- Airport sensors
- NOTAM integration
- Flight plan integration
- Terrain databases
- Airport databases
Distributed Computing
- Edge computing
- Regional computation nodes
- National computation
- Global synchronization
- Fault tolerance
- High availability
- Horizontal scaling
- Cluster management
APIs
- REST API
- gRPC
- GraphQL
- Streaming APIs
- Plugin APIs
- SDK support
Plugin System
Support modular plugins for:
- Aircraft models
- AI models
- Weather providers
- Radar providers
- Visualization modules
- Airports
- Airspace rules
- Country regulations
- Analytics
- Reporting
Analytics
- Traffic density
- Delay prediction
- Congestion prediction
- Fuel analysis
- Environmental analysis
- Safety metrics
- Controller workload
- Airport efficiency
- National statistics
Security
- Authentication
- Authorization
- Role based access
- Audit logging
- Encryption
- Secure APIs
- Integrity verification
- Tamper detection
Compliance
Designed to support:
- FAA
- ICAO
- EASA
- Transport Canada
- CASA
- CAA
- National aviation authorities
Certification Support
- DO-178C workflows
- DO-278 support
- Safety cases
- Verification documentation
- Validation documentation
- Requirements traceability
Technology Stack
Systems
- Rust
- C++
AI
- PyTorch
- JAX
- ONNX Runtime
Infrastructure
- Kubernetes
- Apache Kafka
- NATS
Visualization
- WebGL
- OpenGL
- Three.js
Data
- PostgreSQL
- PostGIS
- Redis
Roadmap
Phase 1
Research
Phase 2
Simulation
Phase 3
Passive advisory mode
Phase 4
Regional deployments
Phase 5
Global predictive network
Specification Branding License (SBL)
Standard
- Fully AGPL-3.0+ compliant system
- Copyleft enforced for network deployments
- Required attribution:
- Roxanne Ardary
- https://www.roxanneardary.com/
Optional
- Specification Branding License (SBL)
- Attribution-free commercial deployment
- Pricing based on scale, usage, and deployment scope
- https://roxanneardary.com/separationengine/
License & Notice Requirements
SeparationEngine is released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0+).
By contributing to this project, you agree that your contributions will also be released under this license.
Please note the following:
- All contributions must comply with the AGPL-3.0+ terms.
- Under Section 7 of the license, all redistributions, forks, and derivative works must preserve attribution to Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com.
- SeparationEngine specifications are free to use with attribution. A Specification Branding License can be negotiated upon request.
- The project’s notice.md file tracks attribution requirements and contributor acknowledgments. Any update that adds new contributors or modifies attribution should also update
notice.md. - When submitting a pull request, ensure that any new files maintain the attribution headers where applicable.
- Network-deployed versions of this software must also remain fully AGPL-3.0+ compliant, including exposure of source code modifications when applicable under the license.
For full legal details, please refer to the AGPL-3.0+ license and the project’s notice.md file.
Notice – SeparationEngine
Attribution Requirement: Under Section 7 of the AGPL 3.0+ license, all redistributions, forks, and derivative works, including network-deployed versions of this project, must provide attribution to Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com.
Contributors
This file tracks contributors and their specific contributions to the project.
- Roxanne Ardary, roxanneardary.com – March 25, 2026
Created the repository for SeparationEngine. Developed the initial open-source real-time airspace computation platform that uses predictive 4D trajectory modeling, physics-based simulation, and explainable AI to guarantee aircraft separation and support air traffic controllers in preventing conflicts. - [Add other contributors here] – [Date]
[Describe contribution in one sentence]
License – SeparationEngine
This repository is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0+).
Key Points
- You are free to use, modify, and distribute the code.
- All redistributions, forks, and derivative works or network-deployed versions must also be licensed under AGPL-3.0+ and provide attribution to Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com as required under Section 7 of the license.
- The software is provided “as is,” without warranty of any kind.
For the full license text, see GNU AGPL-3.0 License.