Airport Procedures Research Articles

Safety and Security-Specific Application of Multiple Drone Sensors at Movement Areas of an Aerodrome

Nowadays, the public service practice applicability of drones and remote sensing sensors is being explored in almost all industrial and military areas. In the present research, in collaboration with different universities, we investigate the applicability of drones in airport procedures, assessing the various potential applications. By exploiting the data from remote sensing sensors, we aim to develop methodologies that can assist airport operations, including managing the risk of wildlife threats to runway safety, infrastructure maintenance, and foreign object debris (FOD) detection. Drones equipped with remote sensing sensors provide valuable insight into surface diagnostics, helping to assess aprons, taxiways, and runways. In addition, drones can enhance airport security with effective surveillance and threat detection capabilities, as well as provide data to support existing air traffic control models and systems. In this paper, we aim to present our experience with the potential airport applications of UAV high-resolution RGB, thermal, and LiDAR sensors. Through interdisciplinary collaboration and innovative methodologies, our research aims to revolutionize airport operations, safety, and security protocols, outlining a path toward a safer, more efficient airport ecosystem.

Amit Kumar.

"The most important factor in the choice of my current research topic was witnessing the effects of a natural disaster (the COVID-19 pandemic) … If I could be granted a superpower, it would be flying, because I don't like to go through airport procedures …" Find out more about Amit Kumar in his Introducing … Profile.

Ab initio pilot training for traffic separation and visual airport procedures in a naturalistic flight simulation environment

The purpose was to evaluate a training method for ab initio student pilots to improve situational awareness, performance of airport procedures and of aircraft separation during Visual Flight Rules (VFR) flight in a simulated naturalistic environment. Loss of separation between aircraft is a frequent cause of accidents involving instructional flights. There are no established simulator training methods for ab initio student pilots to develop these abilities. This study describes a simulator training method, which is evaluated in a pretest-training-posttest design with 53 ab initio student pilots (23 females) assigned to a training and a control group.The results show that in posttest the training group demonstrated superior situational awareness and performance, and reported lower workload related to airspace monitoring, building a mental picture of the traffic situation, and coordination with other aircraft in the traffic circuit than the control group. Student pilots evaluated the training materials (the flight simulation environment, radio communication, the briefing and the application on the tablet PC) as useful.This study shows benefits of simulator training for traffic conflict avoidance and VFR airport procedures which can be introduced early during the ab initio syllabus. This study provides a safe simulator method that is useful for both, the teaching and the learning process.

Analysis of Air Traffic Incidents using event trees with fuzzy probabilities

This paper presents a methodology for analysing Air Traffic Incidents based on an estimate of the probability of an Air Traffic Incident developing into an Air Traffic Accident (Air Traffic Incidents are officially defined as events which are dangerous but without a catastrophic impact). A new approach is presented as previous research in this area has focused more on defining accident occurrence probabilities. Access to detailed information on Air Traffic Incidents is limited and for this reason the methodology developed was based on Fuzzy Set Theory. Analysis was carried out using Event Trees leading from a real Incident to a hypothetical Accident with the probabilities of occurrence of the various scenarios being defined by fuzzy sets. The results of this analysis enable the calculation of the fuzzy probability of the Incident being transformed into an Accident. Performing this analysis, new measuring techniques for the comparison of fuzzy sets were developed and partially verified. The Case Study presented in the paper analyses a Serious Runway Incursion Incident. This Serious Incident is analysed for influencing factors such as: pilot and flight controller skill levels, airport traffic volume, weather conditions, airport procedures and airport geometry. Applying the methods presented in this paper enables an assessment of the effectiveness of Preventive Recommendations of Accident/Incident Investigation Commissions. Additionally, probability estimations can be developed for different incident situations allowing the identification of Security System Weak Points thus enabling appropriate proactive measures to be taken for their elimination.