Following AEON path

The SESAR AEON project, developed by the same consortium of ASTAIR, has investigated the management of heterogeneous conventional and engine-off taxi traffic to reduce the taxiing environmental impact. In the resulting concept of operations (CONOPS), tug fleet managers and ground controllers work as a team relying on decision support tools to schedule autonomous resources allocation and optimize vehicle surface movements.

During the AEON project evaluations the implementation of the actual airport’s traffic rules within the path planning algorithm facilitated the human understanding of the routing suggestions. By pursuing this work and embedding more rules within planning algorithms, the detrimental side effects in case of automation failure would be mitigated by the fact that the automatic routes are compatible with the human methodology. In ASTAIR, we will build the path to full automation of airport’s ground operations by automating human operational methods.

The artificial intelligence based on the multi-agent system developed in AEON could not be fully exploited to its full potential. Indeed, the speed profiles computed for conflict free routing were not easily implemented by vehicles, for current technological constraints. Nevertheless, the development of autonomous tugs and aircraft with auto taxi abilities will make it soon achievable. From these assumptions, the idea of ASTAIR concept was born: enhance ground operations with automated orders and seamless collaboration between humans and AI.

Methodology 

The predictability of the always increasing ground traffic and its complex operations, and the human workload capacity limitation motivate the need for higher levels of automation. This context poses specific challenges both for algorithms that must make appropriate decisions and for human operators that must maintain situational awareness to be able to take control when required.

ASTAIR proposes to explore how we can assign adequate parts of the ground operation tasks to the machine and the human, according to each other’s abilities.

Based on the lessons learned from the AEON project, ASTAIR will design algorithms able to collaborate with ground operators in their daily tasks, supervision of all ground surface movements and ground operations such as allocation of towing vehicles to optimize ground traffic performance even more. Unifying ground operation and control positions, operators and algorithms will share responsibilities to perform the tasks as efficiently as possible at different levels of automation.

ASTAIR’s Project Advisory Board reunites players of the aviation industry such as ANSP, airlines, airports and AI industry. The Consortium will consult the Board members in order to ensure a true good collaboration with ASTAIR’s key stakeholders. 

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