Digital transformation in airports

About the client

U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science is the lead federal agency supporting fundamental scientific research related to energy, and the largest federal sponsor of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. Its mission is to deliver scientific discoveries and tools to advance the energy, economic, and national security of the United States. Through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, the Agency supports scientific excellence and technological innovation through the investment of federal research funds in American priorities.

As part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the Transportation Research Board (TRB) provides leadership in transportation improvements and innovation through trusted, timely, impartial, and evidence-based information exchange, research, and advice regarding all modes of transportation. The TRB manages the The Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP), an industry-driven, applied research program that develops near-term, practical solutions to airport challenges.

The challenge of digital transformation in critical infrastructure: U.S. airports

Skymantics has worked with both the DOE Office of Science SBIR Program and the TRB Airport Cooperative Research Program to support digital transformation in U.S. airport infrastructure. Airports are critical hubs in the U.S. transportation infrastructure, and manage spaces serving a myriad of stakeholders interlinked in a variety of complex ways. However, American airports are in great need for technology overhaul that enhances efficiency, security, passenger experience, and business sustainability of their assets.

Better information exchange technologies can enable improved decision-making processes and asset management in the airport space. With connected stakeholders, a common situational awareness can be built between air operators, passengers, ground handling operators, airport operation managers, security managers, advertisers, and concessions. Given all these players are connected by air schedules, passenger consumer profiles, and ground access operations, events on one stakeholder can impact operations and business value of another. An appropriate digital infrastructure and data exchange processes need to be in place to leverage the value of shared information.

Wireless communications and Artificial Intelligence

Skymantics supported airport digital transformation through two innovation projects:

In ACRP Research Report 242 “A Guidebook to Prepare Airports for Transformations in Wireless Connectivity”, Skymantics created a reference guide for airport practitioners to evolve wireless infrastructure to support new generations of technologies. Our team consulted U.S. airports of different profiles and sizes, and counted with the support of a team of experts in technology and airport business operations. The result, an ACRP report waiting to be published, is a handbook describing the technical alternatives and the possible business models of airports when adopting wireless technologies. Learn more about our work in research and conceptualization.

In DOE SBIR project, Skymantics developed PAXSense, an Artificial Intelligence model to predict the movement of passengers and crowd formation in airport terminals. Based on computer vision and sensing information, PAXSense can help airport managers to better predict future space occupancy in order to adjust business processes such as resource allocation, temperature control, and air operations prediction. Learn more about our work in Artificial Intelligence.

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