Geo-Spatially Enhanced Situational Awareness for Airport Management

01.03.2010 - 31.08.2012
Research funding project
Many airports have almost reached their capacity limits, but forecasts indicate that air traffic might double until 2025. Due to environmental regulations airports will not be able to meet the increased demands by expanding accordingly. Rather, airport operations will have to be more efficient. This can only be achieved by better management of the entire traffic on an airport in tight cooperation of airport operator and air traffic control. A fundamental step towards increased efficiency in airport operations is the creation of unambiguous situational awareness among all actors, based on a complete operational picture (COP) covering the local geography (buildings, objects, etc.) of the airport along with all traffic and additionally relevant movements. The information contained in the COP shall be presented to the individual actors (airport operator, air traffic control, emergency units, etc.) with individual granularity and individual visualization depending on the respective requirements of these actors. The COP will be essential in allowing nearly unrestricted operation during periods of low visibility, and in quickly establishing normal operations after any type of disruption. Existing A-SMGCS technology allows monitoring and managing air and ground vehicles but is so expensive that only large airports can afford installation and operation, and even such airports only equip key vehicles with transponders (e.g. airplanes, fire brigade, follow-me). SESAAM shall provide the basis for obtaining a complete operational picture (comprising all vehicles) on airports of almost any size. The main goal of SESAAM is to research the methods required for establishing a COP on airports. The keys - and the special challenges ¿ are (i) the suitable combination of expensive positioning technology (e.g. multilateration) for safety-critical areas/tasks and low-cost technology (RFID, tightly coupled WLAN/GPS) for others, and (ii) the development of GIS methods for processing and visualization of the COP using an open system architecture but at the same time fulfilling highest requirements regarding completeness, reliability, and low latency. The information contained in the COP (movements, positions, meteorological data, number of persons in an airplane, ¿) must be linked using spatial processing methods such that the COP also supports internal workflows (e.g. fleet management) and overall ones (e.g. coordination of emergency actions, or time table management). The results of SESAAM will directly contribute to increasing airport operation efficiency and reducing air traffic delays (e.g. due to holding pattern) without compromising safety. The results will contribute indirectly to reduce wait times at the gates, to reduced noise, and to reduce emissions (through reduced time in holding pattern and prevention of late diversions).SESAAM thus contributes significantly to the goals of the program. Furthermore, the intended provision of all required information to the various actors through a single COP may fundamentally change the approach to airport information management.

People

Project leader

Subproject managers

Project personnel

Institute

Grant funds

  • FFG - Österr. Forschungsförderungs- gesellschaft mbH (National) Group Thematic programme Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) Specific program Take-Off

Research focus

  • Beyond TUW-research focus: 20%
  • Sustainable and Low Emission Mobility: 30%
  • Computer Science Foundations: 50%

Keywords

GermanEnglish
FlughafenmanagementAirport Management
Operationelles LagebildOperational Picture
VerortungPositioning
GPSGPS
NavigationNavigation

External partner

  • Salzburger Flughafen GmbH
  • Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg - Zentrum für Geoinformatik
  • AviBit data processing GmbH
  • Österr. Akademie der Wissenschaften

Publications