Significant research effort is currently being directed towards engineless aircraft taxiing, with the best two technology routes being either the use of an electrical motor installed on the aircraft wheels or the use of automated tugs to assist during taxiing. Irrespective of the engineless taxiing method used, there is currently a gap in research for increased safety and efficiency during ground operations. SATMET addressed this gap by proposing a taxiing solution based on the use of a fleet of autonomous tow trucks.

The project focussed on the following key challenges:

Situation awareness – Given that the tow trucks are autonomous, they will need to be aware of their location and surroundings. This implies that they need to be equipped with appropriate sensors, such as cameras, to detect obstacles and ground markings. With this capability, the tow trucks will be able to navigate and tow aircraft safely in the airport environment. SATMET addressed this challenge by developing algorithms for obstacle detection and taxiway line detection.

Traffic management – One of the downsides of using tow trucks for engineless taxiing is that the level of traffic on the airport surface will inevitably increase. Therefore, it is of paramount importance that the fleet of tow trucks is managed in an efficient manner in order to minimise taxi time/delays and to detect and resolve traffic conflicts. Furthermore, it is important that Air Traffic Control (ATC) is kept in the loop at all times and that controller workload is not increased. This challenge was addressed in SATMET by developing optimisation algorithms to manage the tow trucks and by designing a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to assist controllers during engineless taxiing operations with autonomous tow trucks.

This project was carried out in collaboration with HandsOn Systems Ltd and Malta Air Traffic Services Ltd.

The project team was the recipient of the runner-up IP award for Scientific Initiative at the 2020 Malta Intellectual Property Awards.