ATRiCS ATM SOLUTIONS

Even now, many people and authorities consider A-SMGCS to be merely a better surveillance system. But there are also airports where people refer to the airfield ground lighting system as their „A-SMGCS“. And some regulatory bodies also attribute planning functions to an A-SMGCS. A-SMGCS encompasses, of course, all these individual functions. At an individual airport, the starting point can be an automatic labelling function (possibly with a rudimentary runway incursion alerting system) but also a manually controlled guidance function. Depending on the operational requirements, higher level functions such as individual routing, advanced airport safety net and automatic switching of taxiway centre line lights – commonly referred to as „Follow the Greens“ – may be added.

Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) has been a key word at airports and consistently also in the industry for quite some years now. It is common knowledge meanwhile that A-CDM first and foremost is a process, an initiative giving a framework and a shared goal to the various stakeholders at an airport. The collaborative process and the exchange of time stamp information improve the planning and coordination quality for every stakeholder involved (individual benefits) as well as the overall airport performance (local benefits). Once certified A-CDM compliant according to European Specification standards, it also allows for the connection to the European CFMU network (network benefits). Obviously, this process can be implemented with the help of modern technology allowing for the immediate exchange of updated information to players involved. Therefore airports themselves as well as industry have developed tools to support A-CDM procedures. A-CDM is implemented successfully at about 15 European airports today with more airports being on their way to certification and a growing interest from airports outside Europe. A further step beyond A-CDM is Total Airport Management (TAM), a concept in which the scope of sharing information is enlarged to embrace also landside operations.

In order to validate new procedures and to test the capacity for integrating new technical systems, simulation systems must be quickly extendable, easily compatible to neighouring systems, and interface oriented. Set-up times or breaks between simulation sessions need to be kept to a minimum since controllers are a scarce and costly resource at most airports and shifts are strictly planned. So you do not want to interrupt a validation session because of technical problems. Pseudo-pilots are involved in most traditional training systems which further increases the costs of validation and training sessions.

Watch the features by Munich Airport and Zurich Airport to find out more about the recent use of ATRiCS validation products: