On September 20th partners from four European countries met in Brussels to give the start to ASTAIR, a new-born SESAR Joint Undertaking project.
ASTAIR stands for Auto-Steer Taxi at AIRport and its aim is to introduce advanced Artificial Intelligence-driven support tools that will oversee a fully automated ground operations system at airports. The project focuses on exploring the transition to fully automated surface movements, emphasizing engine-off taxiing whenever feasible.
Nowadays, automation plays a central role in enhancing airport ground traffic capacity while reducing human workload and environmental impact. In this regard, ASTAIR envisions leveraging AI for tasks such as granting clearances and managing fleets of autonomous tugs, all while ensuring that human operators remain an essential part of the overall process.
Integrating more closely existing processes in an automated supervision system will facilitate global optimisation, said Mathieu Cousy from ENAC, the project coordinator. The objective of project ASTAIR is to make it ‘human readable’ and easy to handle by the operator.
ASTAIR builds on the achievements of the Horizon 2020 funded project AEON project – Advanced Engine Off Navigation. Led by ENAC, in collaboration with Deep Blue and TU Delft, AEON explored a new concept of operation to support engine-off taxing. It introduces the role of a fleet manager to supervise and allocate a fleet of towing vehicles to aircraft with dedicated algorithms and interfaces.
Elevating the level of automation overseeing all ground movements is expected to enhance the overall predictability of airport turnaround operations and effectively address the increased complexity introduced by engine-off taxiing techniques. This will be possible thanks to the joint forces of the project’s partners. The complementary nature of their expertise will lead to an improvement of the existing knowledge on sustainable and efficient airport ground traffic management.
Consortium:
ENAC – Ecole Nationale de l’Aviation Civile – Project coordinator
