Sustainability readies for take-off
Author: EIS Release Date: Jul 13, 2022
The air industry is planning to tackle sustainability with autonomous operations, writes Caroline Hayes.
The airline industry has come under a lot of criticism from environmentalists because, while everyone loves to travel, air travel has a huge carbon footprint. The general consensus seems to be that other people need to reduce the amount of time they spend in the air.
A more positive approach to redeeming the airline industry is on the ground as airports are introducing sustainable working practices with autonomous operations.
Royal Schiphol Group, which owns and operates Amsterdam airport Schiphol, Rotterdam The Hague airport and Lelystad airport, and holds a majority stake in Eindhoven airport, has announced that it intends to operate “the most sustainable airports in the world” by 2050.
Its goals for 2030 are to ensure its airports are waste and emission-free, with an improved balance between the airports and the local communities and that CO2 emissions from aviation are at 2005 levels. Another goal is that the aviation sector is CO2 neutral by 2050.
To help achieve these goals and to make better use of the airport capacity, it has launched the Autonomous Airside Operations programme, with all vehicles and associated airside processes to be sustainable and autonomous.
The Royal Schiphol Group’s vision will have a dramatic impact on the apron at the airports, with all vehicles today being replaced by an autonomous, emission-free fleet, including taxis, baggage and passenger transport vehicles, and aircraft towing, by 2050.
Autonomous vehicle fleet
Last year, Schiphol airport tested an autonomous baggage tractor that took baggage to the aircraft on the apron to show whether autonomous vehicles were safe and efficient, and how they can be integrated with other traffic at the airport.
Following a simulation trial, the test exercise moved into a second phase where a self-driving tractor was loaded in the baggage area before it navigated its way to the aircraft stand following a fixed route. The autonomous tractor was made by TLD, which supplies ground-handling equipment for airports, and EasyMile supplied the vehicle’s autonomous software. A human operator was in each tractor in case the vehicle had to stop. The trial is also planned for Rotterdam The Hague airport and Eindhoven airport. It will also be testing autonomous baggage tractors.
The autonomous systems will increase efficiency, safety, occupational health and flexibility, says Royal Schiphol, and also “lead to a substantial reduction in CO2 emissions. Our solution is not off-the-shelf, it can be tailored to the specific conditions at the individual airport. And because it allows to integrate not only our own vehicles and machines but also those of other brands, the investment risk is low. But the best thing is that the systems have been intensively tested and are already available today,” says the official release.
Airport activity
Venture capital firm Aberdeen Standard Investment has created AIPUT (Airport Industrial and Property Unit Trust) to invest in autonomous technology to increase productivity at airports, free up land, reduce emissions and improve safety in airports across the globe to drive autonomous technology forward.
AIPUT fund manager Nick Smith says: “Autonomous technology promises enormous benefits to airports and the service companies that support them, transforming the way airports work and improving efficiency and safety, both for passengers and other airport users.
“At Gatwick, for example, 90% of the airport’s air-side vehicles are stationary at any one time, which is both hugely inefficient and demands a vast amount of space. A much smaller pool of electric-powered autonomous vehicles would drastically cut costs, free up land, reduce emissions and improve safety.
“In Düsseldorf, a newly-developed robotic car parking system has demonstrated a 60% reduction in required parking space compared to human drivers.”
The first trials of automated air-side vehicles have been completed at Heathrow in collaboration with IAG Cargo and autonomous vehicle software developer Oxbotica. The latter describes its software as using AI in the metaverse to accelerate safe and efficient deployment of autonomous vehicles.
Gatwick is believed to be the first airport in the world to trial autonomous vehicles to transport staff across the airfield, which is considered a complex environment for safety standards.
In Norway, autonomous snow ploughs were tested at Fagernes airport. Tests showed the autonomous vehicles were more precise and improved safety when removing the snow and while driving in formation and in low visibility conditions.
The DINPAS project
A consortium of companies has developed DINPAS (Digital Infrastructure enabling accurate Positioning for Autonomous Systems) to evaluate what will be needed in autonomous airports for precision position, scalabilty and sustainability. The consortium members are AstaZero, Combitech, Ericsson, IBG, Katla Aero, Lantmäteriet, Telia, u-blox and Sweden’s state-funded research institute RISE. The project is funded by the Swedish innovation agency Vinnova Advanced and Innovative Digital Infrastructure programme.
DINPAS will evaluate software in autonomous systems using vehicles, machines and drones that use sensors for location. It is based on the premise that unlike today’s autonomous systems that rely on absolute position data for navigation, future applications will also use it to share sensor data with other systems and the infrastructure. Accurate absolute positioning will evaluate and test autonomous systems and collect training data to develop AI and machine-learning algorithms. To optimise the flow of passengers, staff, goods/baggage and data to monitor and manage the movement of people and goods, precise positioning and continuous connectivity will be required, argues the DINPAS project.
Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) will be used for absolute positioning, using correction information from a GNSS reference network for use by devices using an open and interoperable data format and 3GPP-standard mobile networks.
The DINPAS project will run from 1 October 2021 to 30 September 2023 and include several development steps where GNSS SSR (state spatial representation) correction data generation, distribution system and clients will be developed based on requirements for positioning in automated airport and unmanned aircraft traffic management use cases.
Other aims will also be to design and implement the GNSS SSR correction data generation, distribution system and clients. SSR is a network of reference stations covering a large geographical area. It enables errors to be modelled over a large area and transmitted to all users in the defined coverage area, for each receiver to calculate its position and model GNSS errors locally for more efficient positioning.
The project will also test, validate and demonstrate the GNSS correction data distribution system with integrated GNSS positioning and navigation systems in mobile platforms.