ANA-Aeroportos de Portugal, SA - the company responsible for developing and managing 7 airports in Portugal - held a public demonstration of the innovative AIRNET solution at Porto Airport, a project totalling 2.5m euros.
In fact, the recent modernization of Porto Airport provided this infrastructure with the most diverse support systems to airport operation and exploration, allowing it to become a privileged technological platform to demonstrate and test technological innovations at a national and international scale.
A world first, the AIRNET project (Airport Network for Mobiles Surveillance and Alerting) was developed within the eSafety initiative of FP6 by an international consortium, whose partners were ANA and INOV in Portugal and M3S and Intuilab in France, with ANA as the end-user.
AIRNET aims to address the transportation flows in the different airport areas, to define and demonstrate innovative EGNOS/GALILEO location-based and communication-based services to enhance user safety, through the provision of accurate positioning and surveillance systems, guidance and communication capabilities in the vehicles.
This solution was designed and developed according to A-SMGCS standards (Advanced Surface Movement Guidance and Control System), thereby providing a low cost alternative to A-SMGCS, based on radar and multilateration technologies.
The proposed AIRNET services can be organized into three main categories:
- RUNWAY SAFETY: service for movements in runway and taxiway areas. - CONGESTION CONTROL: service for airport operators to help plan and manage ground movements and to cope with crisis and emergency situations, especially with low visibility. - SITUATION AWARENESS: Provide essential and reliable information to airport stakeholders to improve safety and efficiency of the operations.
AIRNET aims to implement a low-cost alternative for surface movement surveillance, control and guidance at airports, to improve the safety and efficiency of ground traffic management. To achieve this goal, a solution has been developed based on innovative technology solutions:
- Radio-navigation by satellite, using EGNOS/GALLILEO positioning systems - Wireless networks - Geo-referenced database (WGS-84, World Geodetic System) - Modular development enabling easy deployments with minimum configuration for other sites/airports - Ergonomic & user friendly interfaces - Decision support services for users and possibility to replay vehicle movements, useful for incident and accident investigation and resource management.
AIRNET can be part of an A-SMGCS solution both in:
1) Large airports, with data fusion of the AIRNET vehicles position with aircraft position from A-SMGCS based on radar and multilateration methods. 2) Small and medium-sized airports, by offering an affordable alternative to existing surveillance technologies.
The public demonstration showed how far this objective could be attained, pointing out AIRNET’s main achievements and providing participants with the opportunity to witness the actual performance of the solution installed and working in operational vehicles.
As emphasized during the closing session by Mr. Rui Veres, a member of the Board, ANA is decidedly engaged in Innovation to maintain the quality and reliability of the services provided to its clients and as a means to increment its productivity and competitiveness.
ANA privileges the R&D studies and projects that have a direct impact on its activity and which run within the Framework Research Programs of the European Union or are sponsored by other European Bodies such as Eurocontrol or ESA. This approach guarantees that these projects are inserted within European Community strategic areas and that state-of the art solutions will be developed.
Regarding this project in particular, Mr. Veres said that AIRNET is indeed a highly innovative and promising project and the consortium is of high quality so, there is clearly an opportunity for the industrialization and commercialization of the solution developed, once the improvements and developments identified during the operational validation are implemented.
