Innovation in Airport Operation

The following non-exhaustive list of application areas of interest has been identified by the SJU:

Application area 1: Incorporation of Autonomous and Non-Autonomous Engine-off Taxiing into surface operations

The research shall propose potential solutions to incorporate autonomous and non-autonomous engine-off taxiing into surface operations and thus reduce fuel consumption and emissions and increase safety.

Taxi-out and Taxi-in phases can be done through:

• Non-autonomous engine off taxiing (AUO-0806 in the ATM Master Plan) used from the gate to the holding point before line up (i.e. for push back and taxi out) and from the runway exit to the gate (i.e. for taxi in to in block). This may be realised with the aircraft using other external means to taxi (e.g. towing trucks, taxibot).
• Autonomous engine off taxiing (AUO-0805 in the ATM Master Plan) used from the gate to the holding point before line up (i.e. for push back and taxi out) and from the runway exit to the gate (i.e. for taxi in to in block). This may be realised thanks to e.g. electric motors added to the main landing gear and drawing power from either the Auxiliary Power Unit or from an alternative cleaner power source (replacing the APU or being complementary to it) with central control from the cockpit.

The research shall provide an operational concept description and required operational procedures for performing autonomous and non-autonomous engine-off taxiing operations. Please note that the research must be focuses on the ATM aspects; non-ATM aspects of green taxi are covered by Clean Sky research. Important aspects that need research are the following:

• For non-autonomous engine-off taxi, development of an operational concept, which must include the management of the tow fleet, including the parking space at the airport and the procedures to manage their operations, including communications between the tow vehicle’s management centre, ATC and the flight crews, and communication with the tow vehicle’s drivers in the case of manned tow vehicles.
• For autonomous engine-off taxi, development of operational procedures for engine start-up during the taxi-out phase and shut-down during the taxi-in phase, development of minimum performance requirements for engine-off taxi, e.g. speed and acceleration required for smooth airport operations, quantification of the impact on airport operations of autonomous engine-off taxi, e.g. slower taxi operations, procedures for ATC to update the take-off clearance time during taxi-out for flight crews to be able to optimise engine start-up time, etc.
• The research should not focus on providing initial quantitative benefits of the performance improvements related to environmental sustainability e.g. reduction of fuel consumption, decrease in CO2 and NOx emissions, reduced noise, improved safety, reduction of noise impact around the airport and safety (most FOD and blast damages are typically in the area close to the gate and engine off taxi could eliminate both risk), because these already exist. Instead, the research must provide a refinement of the previous estimates of benefits based on their work, for example:
• Comparison of the airport and ATC costs of autonomous vs. non-autonomous engine-off taxi, e.g. by modelling costs in a particular airport.
• Estimation of the impact of different potential safety and performance requirements on the benefits (e.g. requiring faster taxi performance would require more powerful on-board engines for non-autonomous engine-off taxi, engine start-up procedures requiring changes to airport lay-outs and slower taxi-out phase…
• Impact on the benefits of the quality of the prediction of the ATC prediction of the take-off clearance time for engine start-up in autonomous engine-off taxi.

Note that the development of the technical means to perform engine-off taxiing operations e.g. towing trucks, taxibot, electric motors, etc. is out of the scope of the research topic. However, the research may work in the development of ATC system support for enabling engine-off taxi operations in the ATC side. However, the main focus of the research should not be the development of automation support, but the definition of the operational concepts for AUO-0805 and/or AUO-0806, in order to pave the way for their introduction in Industrial Research in the future if the research so justifies it.

Application area 2: Land-behind without runway vacated

The research shall address the development and validation of a European ""land behind without runway vacated"" concept.

Today, in the case of long runways, landing aircraft are allowed to use the runway simultaneously under certain circumstances, or the clearance to land may be delivered before the previous aircraft has crossed the threshold (similar to the FAA land behind clearance).

Note that this is not strictly a reduced wake separation concept, but a way to make it possible to take full advantage of reduced wake separation concepts for arrivals (the closer the arrivals are, the more constraining it is to require that the previous aircraft has landed before the next can be cleared to land).

The research shall take into consideration the work performed on reduced wake separation concepts for arrivals in Industrial Research (IR) solutions PJ.02-01 (Wave 1) and PJ.02-W2-14 (Wave 2).

Application area 3: Airport contribution to multimodality

The aim is to increase the efficiency of the overall transport chain by improving the interoperability of different modes of transport, addressing in particular the contribution of airports to multimodality to increase the environmental sustainability, to make more efficient use of the existing infrastructures and improve the passenger’s experience.

The research shall address the definition and development of an integrated intermodal process for passengers / baggage / freight w.r.t time efficiency, predictability, seamlessness, resilience, security, convenience, accessibility) in a door-to-door environment building on customer expectations. This may include:

• The feasibility and potential benefits of connecting the schedules/time tables of public transport modes with access to the airport e.g. train, bus, metro, taxi with flight schedules. This should include the whole airport catchment area. Proposals could research the potential benefits of establishing standard coordination processes between airports scheduling and other public transportation modes e.g. bus, train, etc.
• The improvement of knowledge regarding pax location and demand, incl. airport access and dwell times, thus ensuring a better and dynamic knowledge of passenger airport densities and delays;
• The definition of the required technology and standards, information exchange requirements and data management technology to support integrated multimodal (passenger / baggage / freight) concept and process management;
• The identification of infrastructure requirements for supporting multimodal processes for passengers / baggage / freight;
• The identification of required regulations and policies regarding multimodal aspects of passenger / baggage / freight process (e.g. customs, security);
• The development of innovative technologies and services for safe, efficient, frequent, comfortable airport access (last mile only or supporting catchment areas e.g. short distance individual air vehicles);
• The development of intelligent systems – and better multimodal planning, management and integration (e.g. aps), incl. under disruption (e.g. re-booking onto HSR);
• The improvement of improved aircraft wait/no-wait rules so AUs make better use of last-minute capacities and pax re-accommodation;
• The identification of airborne pax connectivity requirements (links to ground services and pax tools);
• The assessment of the Impact of multimodal pax rights and personal data security.

The research shall take into consideration the digital citizen perspective:

• Assess the benefits for the traveller of an integrated planning/monitoring of multi-modal traffic flows at the airport (or the region) where the airport is considered as a node connecting traffic flows to/from other means of transport (e.g. rail, bus, etc.);
• Provide advance warning of incidents impacting the traveller and propose alternative options to mitigate the disruption for the traveller plan.
• Note that many of the aspects listed above are intentionally at the boundary of the scope of ATM. The proposals must justify how the proposed research will contribute to improve ATM or contribute to improve multimodal mobility by using ATM related information.
• Proposals should explain how their research is positioned with respect to related previous and ongoing projects (e.g. BigDATA4ATM, DATASET2050, Mobility4EU and CAMERA and initiatives from other sectors contribution to multimodality (e.g. Shift2Rail Innovation Programme 4).

Application area 4: Protecting the airport from drones.

The research shall propose and assess potential solutions for ensuring the protection of the aircraft and airport (runway and ground) operations from intruder drones, which may be either intruding by mistake or through malicious intent. The performance objectives are related to improvements in safety and security

The research activities may address the following features:

• The detection of any potential / actual intrusion by cooperative and non-cooperative drones in the airport environment and its vicinity e.g. approach area or any threat to the aircraft;
• The tracking of the intruders' flight path;
• Issuing the corresponding advisory, caution and warning alerts e.g. in case there is an intruder for the ATCO, in case active measures are needed to ensure safety, and for the airport authority, to allow them to initiate remedial action, as required (Note that the provision of warnings and alerts directly to the pilot of a manned aircraft is not in scope). Research should consider the different levels of alerts. For example, warning alerts could be triggered when the drone enters a critical zone while advisory and caution may be triggered when the drone enters a buffer area beyond the critical one (in case of a known, unintentional intrusion the drone operator could also receive an alert so he/she can take the relevant corrective action, either directly or through an appropriate U-space service provider);
• Procedural issues to enable all stakeholders to work together to resolve the situation in a timely and coordinated fashion. Such stakeholders must include, as a minimum: the airport operator; ATC; U-space service provider(s); and the emergency and security services.

The research shall explore potential architectural and design alternatives that could include the following options (the list is not exhaustive):

• The definition of how critical and any buffer areas are designed and warnings/alerts managed, within the wider context of aeronautical information management and airport operations management;
• Sensors able to detect non-cooperative intruding drones and issue the relevant alert. Note that the development of such sensors is outside the scope of this Call, but research should consider the performance, system and interface requirements of such systems;
• Use of geo-awareness to support the prediction and detection of unauthorised intrusions and to support the resolution of such intrusions and the identification of transgressing drone operators.
• The scope of this application area does not include the development of the technologies (there are already technologies in the market that can be used for this purpose). The research must focus on the definition and initial validation of the operational integration of the system. The proposal must include the initial validation of the proposed operational concept in the airport environment. The proposed concept must include the integration with ATM, and the proposed validation activities must address the integration with TWR ATC. The research must include both a safety and a security assessment of the proposed solution to the level appropriate for the target maturity level, and also make a preliminary regulatory assessment.

Research may investigate the possibility of the employment of systems to disable, or bring down the drone, but the development of such systems themselves is explicitly outside of the scope of the project. Where such systems are considered, the safety of the airport environment, other aircraft and people and property on the ground must be assured. Consequently, the following factors must be taken into account:

• The use of airport jammers or spoofers for the GNSS signal or other signals used for aviation purposes, or other devices such as lasers that have already been classified as dangerous by ICAO close to airports (since reflections can never be fully controlled), can only be considered if a detailed evaluation is also conducted showing how their employment can be deemed safe;
• The potential use of such devices by law enforcement will need to follow specific procedures, and will require advance warning to appropriate aviation actors (ATM, pilots, etc…). This stipulation covers any device transmitting on aviation safety-of-life frequencies in the vicinity of an airport, or in an area where such use could interfere with aviation operations or systems.

The above list of applications areas is not intended to be exhaustive. Proposals addressing alternative application areas are welcome, provided adequate justification and background is included in the proposal.

The airport is at the heart of the air traffic management system and any improvement in the airport operations will likely have positive results throughout the network. The specific challenge under this topic is exploring innovative ideas that help improving the following aspects:

• Airports have been generally considered as pure air traffic management transportation nodes but there is a need to fully place them within their context as intermodal nodes in a larger multimodal transportation network. The transformation of the airport into an interchange node within a wider network imposes environmental, safety, security and financial challenges which differ from those of a single-mode node;
• With the expected rapid growth in air traffic in the coming years, there will be an increasing number of capacity-constrained airports for significant periods of each day. There is a need to explore innovative solutions in order to deliver additional airport capacity. However, this must be done paying particular attention at maintaining the airports’ environmental sustainability.
• The increasing number of drones is causing safety and security concerns within the aviation industry, in particular at the airports. A number of incidents involving drones at big airports in Europe have been already reported, and this number will likely increase in the coming future if nothing changes.

The research fully supports the vision for the digital transformation of airports put forward by ACI, contributing in particular to the evolution of processes and services to deliver a better experience to all passengers and customers, by adopting and implementing new technologies and integrating them with existing ones.

The proposed solutions under this sub-work area aim at:

• Ensuring safety and security levels;
• Improving the interoperability of ATM with other modes of transport and finally the passenger’s experience;
• Improving the airport environmental sustainability and capacity;
• Increasing airport cost efficiency.