UK flyers could soon find the air traffic control over their plane’s safe arrival or departure is partly in the hands of artificial intelligence, as a new trial takes off at London’s Heathrow Airport.
Cameras will learn from 50,000 take-offs
The UK’s National Air Traffic Management Service (NATS) has launched a pilot scheme to make use of artificial intelligence to reclaim capacity lost as a result of low cloud or poor weather conditions. This means that inside NATS’ bespoke Digital Tower Laboratory at Heathrow testing is underway to see whether “a combination of ultra HD 4K cameras along with state-of-the-art AI and machine learning technology can be used to help improve the airport’s landing capacity in times of low visibility and improve punctuality.”
Heathrow’s control tower stands 87-metres tall, giving it impressive oversight of the surroundings but also putting it at the level of low-hanging cloud and fog, which obscures air traffic controllers’ view of proceedings. When that happens, radar is deployed and extra time has to be taken to ensure aircraft have cleared runways – causing a 20% drop in the airport’s handling capacity, which leads to delays in the UK’s busiest airport’s tight schedules.
To find a way to address this inefficiency, NATS is installing “20 ultra high-definition cameras” whose views are then fed into an AI platform called AIMEE, developed by Canada’s Searidge Technologies. AIMEE can “interpret the images, track the aircraft and then inform the controller when it has successfully cleared the runway. The controller then makes the decision to clear the next arrival,” a press release explained.
Between now and March 2025, AIMEE will learn from the behaviour of more than 50,000 arriving aircraft and the project findings will go to the Civil Aviation Authority.
Human decision makers to remain “at the heart of the operation”
“Safety is always our top priority and Artificial Intelligence is about supporting air traffic controllers. While they remain the decision makers at the heart of the operation, we can use it to provide new tools that help them make the best possible decisions and improve efficiency and safety,” said Andy Taylor, NATS Chief Solution Officer.
Changi Airport in Singapore is also a research centre for NATS and Searidge’s “smart tower” systems and Taylor has speculated that the system could be widely applicable internationally. “Right now we’re focusing on when the control tower is in low cloud, where I’m confident we can make a very positive difference, but I am convinced that this technology can totally revolutionise how air traffic is managed at airports around the world,” he said.
