Airport Surface State Event Tracker (ASSET)

Integrated Arrival Departure Surface (IADS) traffic management solutions require accurate information about aircraft on the airport surface, from the gate to the runway. Only a small fraction of airports have surface surveillance and in almost every case coverage is limited to the airport’s movement area. A solution is needed that can compensate for the shortage of surveillance and is economically feasible to deploy and maintain at any airport. The Airport Surface State Event Tracker (ASSET) provides improved awareness of surface traffic in the absence of surveillance, improving the efficiency of surface and airspace traffic management. ASSET uses sensor data (e.g., location, velocity) from existing mobile devices (e.g., Electronic Flight Bags (EFB), cell phones) to determine aircraft surface state events (e.g., push back from gate, taxiing, takeoff, etc.) and improve departure planning, surface management, and arrival sequencing.

ASSET improves surface situational awareness for airports not covered by FAA surveillance. ASSET can be extended and enhanced to support NASA research and additional IADS applications. NASA’s SMART-NAS Testbed can be used to conduct shadow mode and simulation-based testing of ASSET. ASSET enhancements could allow it to support near-term NASA demonstrations, such as the ATD-2 IADS effort at CLT and the ATD-3 Traffic Flow Management.

Air Traffic Service Providers, Airlines, and Airports – many potential airport surface operations applications. ASSET provides an economic technology solution for tracking aircraft surface movement for traffic flow management support and other critical airport operations in locations where typical surveillance systems are not cost effective solutions.

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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