University of Lincoln researchers develop new database to increase airport efficiency

TIN news:          UK-based aviation engineering specialists have developed a new system that can enhance the operations of airports by enabling rapid movement of aircraft on the ground.
 
Developed by a team headed by research fellow in the University of Lincoln's School of Engineering Michal Weiszer, the new system could help airports increase their speed of calculating fuel efficient routes for grounding aircraft.
 
The new system will be built on a database of pre-computed routes and could be used in real-time for implementing sudden changes on the runway.
 
The proposed system's database would store building blocks to represent a small area in the airport that could be used to recreate any route on the airport taxi-way.
"The ultimate aim of our research is to produce a more realistic, cost effective and greener ground movement."
 
Weiszer said: "The ultimate aim of our research is to produce a more realistic, cost effective and greener ground movement. It is only very recently that studies have begun to take into account the issue of speed profile optimisation so that not only time efficiency but also fuel savings and a decrease in airport emissions can be achieved at the same time.
 
"The current approach to generating speed profiles is computationally demanding and cannot be used in real time, so in order to improve this system we are proposing a database of pre-computed solutions."
 
"Using this database in conjunction with our suggested algorithm would also avoid duplication of taxiway segments during planning, as it respects the routes and schedules of other aircraft while preventing conflicts between them."
 
According to the researchers, the new system could be effective in reducing waiting times for passengers, in addition to lowering fuel consumption and carbon emissions.
 
The research comes at a time when the European airports are experiencing bottlenecks due to an increase in passenger traffic.