For busy airports with not a lot of room to maneuver, runway incursions involving ground equipment happen all too frequently. While most do not cause significant injuries or damage to aircraft or the ground equipment involved, they do often result in operational delays that can be expensive in and of themselves.
Of course, runway incursions always carry the risk of something more catastrophic – an actual collision with an aircraft. So avoiding these incursions has been a priority for the FAA, airport operators and, of course, GSE operators and the airlines.
Researchers at the FAA have been surveying the industry to find companies with interest and expertise in technologies to help prevent runway incursion.
Runway incursions describe dangerous situations at airports where an unauthorized aircraft, vehicle, or person is on a runway and threatens collision with aircraft landing or taking off.
The FAA issued a presolicitation almost two years for the Runway Incursion Prevention project, which seeks to gather information to conduct possible future research dedicated to airport surface safety as U.S. commercial aviation shifts to the NextGen air traffic management system.
FAA officials are considering a research project that will lead to recommendations for systems that warn aircraft pilots in real time of potential runway-incursions without intervention from air traffic control.
Runway incursion prevention is a longtime priority of the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board. In 2000, the NTSB recommended a requirement for all airports with scheduled passenger service to install ground movement safety systems to prevent runway incursions.
These systems, NTSB said, should provide a direct warning capability to flight crews and demonstrate through computer simulations that the systems will, in fact, prevent these kinds of incidents.
Since then The FAA’s Runway Incursion Reduction Program has conducted many research programs and simulations that included several prototype systems to prevent runway incursions.
Most of these projects have involved airport surface surveillance to identify and warn of aircraft or surface vehicles in the wrong places; safety logic to evaluate the interaction between aircraft and vehicles operating at airports; and visual or audible warnings to warnings and vehicle drivers of a possible runway incursion.
What are some of these systems? Here’s a summary of some developments we’ve noted recently:
INFORM GroundStar
“Beacons,” based on Bluetooth Low Energy, was a technology introduced in 2013 as the new standard for indoor tracking and proximity detection. Apple subsequently trademarked the term, “iBeacon,” which further standardizes certain additional aspects of the Beacon Technology.
INFORM has applied Beacons to aviation and ground handling requirements by incorporating Beacon functionality to main product, GroundStar. Beacons can be placed at nearly any location indoors or on the apron and GroundStar is able to use this technology to track staff, GSE, or even passengers.
Beacons can be placed at fixed locations, such as gates and check-in counters, for example and the signal can be detected and identified by a staff member’s smartphone within the Beacon’s range, making it possible to pinpoint the the staff member’s exact location by their proximity to the Beacons.
Alternatively, small stationary receivers can also be installed at defined locations in order to track Beacons fitted to a staff member’s key ring, or mounted on equipment like GSE, wheelchairs, or catering trolleys, for example.
Being able to identify and locate staff members, GSE, or other equipment allows GroundStar to automatically initiate or finish tasks, as well as to forecast task completion times while the task is in progress, thus leading to increased staff productivity and SLA fulfillment.
Any GSE, dollies, tow bars, wheelchairs, catering trolleys, and others can be easily fitted with Beacons for tracking purposes: Beacons do not require external power and are small and cost effective. The Beacon sends out a signal, which is picked by a smartphone or stationary devices in proximity, allowing for subsequent calculation of its location using triangulation technology.
Exelis VMAT Devices
Last summer, the San Francisco Airport selected Exelis to provide its airport ground vehicle and aircraft surveillance solutions to enhance airport surface safety and efficiency. Exelis, will provide SFO with its Symphony® vehicle movement area transponder (VMAT) and Symphony® MobileVue™ solutions.
VMAT transmits position and uniquely identifiable call sign information for ground vehicles operating on the airport. Air traffic controllers, airport personnel and aircraft pilots can view and track the VMAT-equipped vehicles. They can also track aircraft operating near the airport and on its surface, providing a complete picture of airport surface activity. Five initial VMAT units have been deployed at SFO, with another 80 to be deployed.
“Adding these transponders will enable SFO to precisely track all vehicles on the airfield, reinforcing our overall commitment to safety and security,” said Ivar Satero, SOF’s COO. “We look forward to the benefits this system should provide to airport staff, during our runway construction and beyond.”
SFO will complement its VMAT investment with Symphony MobileVue. Accessible via a tablet or smart phone, Symphony MobileVue is a browser-based, real-time solution that displays aircraft and vehicles on the airport surface and aircraft in the terminal area.
SFO is the sixth airport to deploy Exelis VMAT and Symphony MobileVue solutions.
I.D. System's AvRamp
I.D. Systems, Inc. executed a master license agreement and initial statement of work with a leading global airline to implement its AvRamp™ wireless vehicle management system(VMS) on aircraft ground support equipment and other airport vehicles. The agreement encompasses potential system deployments on more than 3,000 vehicles across as many as seven major U.S. airports.
The initial statement of work under the agreement, valued at more than $500,000, calls for I.D. Systems to deploy its AvRamp VMS at one U.S. airport.
"This is the second major airline to deploy our AvRamp system, which we believe makes I.D. Systems the leading provider of wireless VMS technology in the U.S. aviation market," said Kenneth Ehrman, I.D. Systems' chairman and CEO. "The aviation market represents a largely untapped growth opportunity for us, with hundreds of thousands of vehicles used in airport operations around the world."
The deal for I.D. Systems followed a successful pilot deployment last year.
"We are providing a cloud-hosted version of AvRamp for the airline, reflecting the rapidly growing trend of implementing VMS as a service," Ehrman explains. "This helps reduce the customer's upfront capital investment, decrease the customer's IT workload, and make customer support easier and more effective."
AvRamp is the airport version of I.D. Systems' patented wireless VMS technology. The system's ability to help control who drives what vehicle and encourage good driving habits can significantly enhance safety in an airport's area of operations. AvRamp can also decrease GSE fleet costs by reducing fuel usage and improving maintenance management, and improve operational efficiency through GPS location tracking, two-way text messaging, and asset utilization analyses
The system for airport vehicles was developed with funding from the Transportation Security Administration and is TSA- and FAA-approved for use at all U.S. airports. The system provides a wide range of safety, security and operational management functions for airport vehicles, including the following:
- An automatic, on-vehicle driver authentication system — which meets U.S. technical standards for airport access control — to secure equipment with direct access to aircraft and reinforce safety training requirements.
- An electronic vehicle safety inspection checklists to help expedite repairs and prevent unsafe vehicle operation.
- Vehicle speed management and impact sensing to help prevent vehicle accidents and provide analysis if and when accidents do occur.
- Real-time equipment visibility on a detailed software map of the airport to help optimize the dispatch and utilization of vehicles and operators.
- Geo-fencing (electronic boundaries that define "off-limits" areas) to mitigate vehicle runway incursions and prevent vehicles from entering unauthorized areas.
- Automatic fuel conservation functions to reduce energy costs and the vehicle users' carbon footprint.
- A wide array of data reporting tools to help optimize vehicle and operator productivity.
- Flexible wireless communication options for the most economical and effective mobile asset tracking.
Airberlin Technik’s Camera-guided Parking System
While not quite in the same league as the other concepts mention above, the airline’s idea puts technology were it may count the most – at the gate.
airberlin technik announced last year plans to develop anti-collision monitoring technology for the manoeuvring aircraft on the ground in collaboration with WheelTug plc and FTI Engineering Network GmbH.
The so-called “Pilot Ground Situation Awareness System” should enable pilots to manoeuvre unaided on the ground using cameras on the fuselage and vertical stabiliser as well as sensors placed on the wing tips. Until now, pilots have relied on either visual signals from the ground crew or push-back vehicles to move aircraft to and from the stand. The PGSA is being developed as a retrofit and should primarily increase the efficiency of ground operations.
The development, design and certification of the PGSA will be done by airberlin technik and FTI, a specialist in camera systems. WheelTug will provide the new system to its customers along with its electronic nose wheel drive system, which we’ve discussed in these pages before.
