Solutions : ATRiCS

ATRiCS ATM SOLUTIONS

ATRiCS provides software products and services to Air Navigation Service Providers and Airport Operators to help them increase the safety, capacity, efficiency and cost-effectiveness of airside surface management operations. We are active in a number of fields: A-SMGCS, Tower Automation, A-CDM, Validation of Procedures and Training. All these are closely interlinked when it comes to strengthening operational performance at airports.

A-SMGCS

A-CDM

Validation and Training

Consulting

A-SMGCS

The term A-SMGCS has been hijacked by the industry and is used arbitrarily by most end-users.

A-SMGCS

The term A-SMGCS has been hijacked by the industry and is used arbitrarily by most end-users.

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.

A-CDM

Strenghthening planning and coordination quality for all stakeholders by striving for a common local goal.

A-CDM

Strenghthening planning and coordination quality for all stakeholders by striving for a common local goal.

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.

VALIDATION AND TRAINING

With increasing pressure to continuously improve operations at many airports, there is a growing demand for flexible simulation systems for validation and training.

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:

» SESAR Validation Exercise “Follow-the-Greens” (by Zurich Airport)
» SESAR Validation Exercise “Follow-the-Greens” (by Munich Airport)

CONSULTING

Air traffic management is by its nature a complex domain. Solutions are rarely simple or quick and, since airports are “multi agent environments”, must take multiple stakeholder interests into account. Not only varying interests come into play but also different definitions or rather interpretations of terms. If there is no agreed common understanding of what we are talking about, much time can be spent discussing in vain and a viable solution becomes extremely difficult. ATRiCS tries to clarify the nature of various ATM challenges. Astonishingly, we have often noticed that simply clarifying the understanding of different terms among people around the table is half the way to a solution acceptable for everyone involved.