Autonomous Ground Vehicle Systems Site Visit

Russ Gorman from the Airport Emerging Technology R&D Section attended an event, titled “A Day of Innovation” hosted by the Ford Launchpad for Innovative Technologies and Entrepreneurship (FLITE) program at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport (GRR). The visit began with a tour of the West Michigan Aviation Academy located adjacent to the GRR property. This institution is a charter high school with a STEM-based curriculum that focuses heavily on aviation and leadership, and offers the option to the students of obtaining a private pilot certificate. This tour was then followed by a series of demonstrations and informational sessions. The first event was an Autonomous Electric Tow Tractor demonstration by TractEasy. The demo showed the autonomous vehicle following a route starting at Gate B2 and then traveling inside to a luggage drop-off and pickup site. Indoor/outdoor navigation was facilitated by a combination of GPS and digital twin technologies. After the demo, there was an opportunity to talk with the CEO from TractEasy regarding visual guidance challenges as Autonomous Ground Vehicle System (AGVS) policy is being defined. This demo was followed by an informational session from Virv regarding their Electrified Ground Support Equipment with Swappable Battery solution. Their Swap and Drive Technology is being developed to address the challenge of keeping electric vehicles fully charged during daily operations and maintaining control of the charging process to reduce peak demand impacts. They also provide a software application that provides a visual representation of current energy usage and demand prediction. Next, Ultraview presented their Aircraft Inspection technology. This technology can be operated either using a drone platform or on a handheld device. Their solution is intended to address the staffing challenges of maintaining a team of certified aircraft inspectors by equipping less experienced staff with the capability to perform inspections using advanced technology. If successful, this may help to reduce the downtime of aircraft awaiting inspections impacting airline revenue. In addition to identifying the damaged area, the technology is also capable of identifying the depth of damage due to events such as hailstorms and lightning strikes to an accuracy of a thousandth of an inch. Pratt Miller performed a Foreign Object Debris (FOD) detection demo with their multi-function autonomous vehicle. Although the demo was centered on FOD detection, the vehicle is also designed to serve other types of missions, such as perimeter security. Their command-and-control interface was demonstrated in real-time during the demo where humans and other obstacles in the field of vision of the vehicle were successfully identified. Finally, Flox Intelligence spoke on their wildlife deterrence technology. Their assertion is that as animals become accustomed to conventional noise deterrence, it loses its effectiveness. Their solution leverages expertise from wildlife biologists and the identification of animal communication patterns using AI. They claim to be able to identify the species of animal and communicate to the animal in its own language to deter it.

Russ Gorman | ANG-E263