Abstract
Runway safety-related accidents represent the most significant source of aviation accidents worldwide. Runway contaminants are typically associated with extreme weather conditions but can also include other safety-issues such as foreign object debris, cracks, and pavement deformation. Although airports are required to perform periodic runway inspections, it is clear that manual inspections alone are not sufficient to mitigate this type of threat. The paper outlines the need to implement automated procedures for runway inspections, seeking to improve runway safety.
The paper presents a project with an innovative approach for automated runway inspections using laser scanning equipment. The compliance with airport regulation, standards, and business logic has driven the architectural solution, co-designed with end-users to increase understandability, and to create a product that provides the best possible user experience, addressing relevant concerns and information needs. The project solution provides a set of data analysis services addressing the Analytics-as-a-Service (AaaS) paradigm, where the concepts of information visualization and context-awareness are essential in supporting the surveillance of the runway status, in particular, for events which may lead to aquaplaning phenomena. Monitoring such water-events enables the detection of drainage problems as well as the identification of areas that might compromise runway safety.
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Notes
- 1.
ICAO - International Civil Aviation Organization (www.icao.int).
- 2.
EUROPE 2020: A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.
- 3.
Command and Query Responsibility Segregation (CQRS) pattern maximizes performance, scalability, and security. The flexibility created by CQRS allows a system to better evolve over time and prevents update commands from causing merge conflicts at the domain level.
- 4.
Data Analysis & Surveillance (DAS), this is a client interface designed to act as a command centre where a set of functionalities to keep decision-makers well informed about the runway condition, enabling them to act when an event requiring their intervention is triggered.
- 5.
BPMN - Business Process Model and Notation (https://www.omg.org/spec/BPMN).
- 6.
NVO/LVO, these two acronyms define the level of service of the airport, meaning Normal/Low Visibility Operations. LVO are usually defined as a set of procedures established at an airport when either surface visibility is sufficiently low to prejudice safe ground movement without additional procedural controls or the prevailing cloudbase is sufficiently low to preclude pilots obtaining the required visual reference for a safe landing.
- 7.
Operational Knowledge Management (OKM), includes a set of software modules at the server side (i.e., system back-end) responsible to compute the raw data reported by the TLS and analyse them based on the business logic valid at the time the data were collected, which requires knowing the environmental condition (e.g., airport operational data) and traffic loads, including weather information to assess the risk of runway excursion.
- 8.
SNOWTAM is a special series NOTAM notifying the presence, or removal, of hazardous conditions due to snow, ice, slush or standing water associated with snow, mud and ice on the movement area. A NOTAM (notice to airmen) is a notice containing information concerning the establishment, condition or change in any aeronautical facility, service, procedure or hazard, the timely knowledge of which is essential to personnel concerned with flight operations.
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Pestana, G., Reis, P., da Silva, T.R. (2021). Smart Surveillance of Runway Conditions. In: Martins, A.L., Ferreira, J.C., Kocian, A., Costa, V. (eds) Intelligent Transport Systems, From Research and Development to the Market Uptake. INTSYS 2020. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 364. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71454-3_16
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