Airport Gate Activity Monitoring Tool Suite for Improved Turnaround Prediction

The objective of this research is to create a suite of tools for monitoring airport gate activities with the objective of improving aircraft turnaround. Airport ramp areas are the most crowded and cluttered spaces in the entire National Airspace System (NAS). Activities related to turnaround of the aircraft from the gate represent a significant source of delay and therefore impact the predictability of NAS operations. Optimal Synthesis Inc., seeks to leverage its expertise in monitoring aircraft in the ramp areas using video surveillance data and advanced computer vision algorithms towards building an advanced gate activity monitoring that will in turn enable a gate turnaround prediction tool. The tool suite will specifically identify the various stages of turnaround such as refueling, luggage unloading/loading, catering, and deicing. It will further create a probabilistic model of the times associated with each of these events, that will be used for predicting the future sequence of events and their predicted times of completion. Phase I research will demonstrate the core ideas of gate activity recognition using state-of-the-art computer vision and machine learning algorithms. Phase II research will elevate the technology readiness level of this tool suite to work with real-time video surveillance streams.

The proposed gate activity monitoring tool suite can be used in the following NASA applications: - The gate monitoring tool suite directly caters to objectives of the Networked ATM sub-project under the SMART NAS project. It increase gate operations predictability and reduce total cost of National Airspace System operations. - Development of TBO concepts and enabling technology solutions that leverage revolutionary capabilities and that enable capacity, throughput, and efficiency gains within the various phases of gate-to-gate operations. - The proposed suite of tools can enable autonomy/autonomous technologies and concepts for trajectory management and efficient/safe traffic flows.

Low cost airport activity monitoring techniques are of considerable interest to FAA and airports in general. Moreover, computer vision based activity monitoring techniques are of significant interest in several areas such as warehouses, commercial office buildings, train stations, and bus stations.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 3) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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