This paper discusses SESAR’s Auto-Steer Taxi at Airport (ASTAIR) project, which seeks to advance airport ground operations including engine-off taxiing to move towards sustainable airports. The ASTAIR concept integrates human–AI teaming to optimize aircraft movement from gates to runways, with the primary objectives of improving predictability, efficiency, and environmental sustainability at large airports. Building on previous initiatives such as SESAR’s AEON, ASTAIR brings high-level automation to tasks like autonomous taxiing and vehicle routing. The system assists operators by calculating conflict-free routes for vehicles and dynamically adjusting operations based on real-time data. Based on workshops with several stakeholders, we describe the operational challenges involved in implementing ASTAIR, including managing parking stand availability and adapting to unforeseen events. A significant challenge highlighted is the human–automation partnership, where AI plays a supportive role but humans retain control over critical decisions, particularly in cases of system failure. The need for clear and consistent collaboration between AI and human operators is emphasized to ensure safety, efficiency, and improved compliance with take-off schedules, which in turn facilitates in-flight optimization.

Although Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs) offer valuable services, they also introduce certain risks—particularly to individuals on the ground—referred to as third-party risk (TPR). In general, ground-level TPR tends to rise alongside the density of people who might use these services, leading current regulations to heavily restrict UAS operations in populated regions. These operational constraints hinder the ability to gather safety insights through the conventional method of learning from real-world incidents. To address this, a promising alternative is to use dynamic simulations that model UAS collisions with humans, providing critical data to inform safer UAS design. In the automotive industry, the modelling and simulation of car crashes has been well developed. For small UAS, this dynamical modelling and simulation approach has focused on the effect of the varying weight and kinetic energy of the UAS, as well as the geometry and location of the impact on a human body. The objective of this research is to quantify the effects of UAS material and shape on-ground TPR through dynamical modelling and simulation. To accomplish this objective, five camera–drone types are selected that have similar weights, although they differ in terms of airframe structure and materials. For each of these camera–drones, a dynamical model is developed to simulate impact, with a biomechanical human body model validated for impact. The injury levels and probability of fatality (PoF) results, obtained through conducting simulations with these integrated dynamical models, are significantly different for the camera–drone types. For the uncontrolled vertical impact of a 1.2 kg UAS at 18 m/s on a model of a human head, differences in UAS designs even yield an order in magnitude difference in PoF values. Moreover, the highest PoF value is a factor of 2 lower than the parametric PoF models used in standing regulation. In the same scenario for UAS types with a weight of 0.4 kg, differences in UAS designs even considered yield an order when regarding the magnitude difference in PoF values. These findings confirm that the material and shape design of a UAS plays an important role in reducing ground TPR, and that these effects can be addressed by using dynamical modelling and simulation during UAS design.

We aim to contribute to the automation of ground handling tasks using autonomous ground support equipment (GSE) at airports. Automation of airside operations has recently become critical for the airports to achieve higher levels of safety and efficiency under growing traffic demand and requires solving a complex scheduling and path planning problem. To address this problem, we present a multi-agent task allocation and path planning model for handling airside operations on the apron. In the problem, the ground handling tasks are to be allocated to the equipment, the trips of vehicles should be scheduled within specific time windows considering the flight schedules, and the collisions of vehicles on the apron and service roads should be avoided. We present a centralized multi-agent task allocation and routing model which aims to optimize the allocation and routing of various types of ground handling tasks over a heterogeneous set of GSE vehicles. We convert the allocation and routing problem into vehicle routing problem with time windows, pick-ups, deliveries and solve the problem using a warm start mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model. We also introduce a nonlinear objective function which converts the MILP model into a mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model, to minimize the time service locations at the stands are occupied. Then, we solve the corresponding path finding problem to find collision free paths for the GSE, by the multi-agent path finding model. The proposed model outperforms the decentralized approach in previous research regarding the allocation rate of assigning tasks to vehicles and the performance indicators of finding conflict free paths, and in CPU time. The mean deviations from shortest paths were considerably small in path planning which means that the solution quality was high. Furthermore, the CPU time of allocating tasks has been reduced by 48% compared to the CPU time of decentralized allocation.

Both EASA and SESAR JU define a vision and roadmap towards an autonomous air traffic management system. Furthermore, past and ongoing SESAR JU projects investigate how to increase the efficiency and predictability of current operations by means of automation. In this paper, we explore the operational implications that result from fully-automated airport surface movement operations modelled with high realism. A hierarchical multi-agent system model was developed to coordinate and control all movements on the airport surface. It comprises the Airport Operations Agent to handle the flight schedule and runway configuration, the Routing Agent to compute conflict-free trajectories, and the Guidance Agents to instruct and monitor the Aircraft Agents while these execute the planned routes. The model incorporates the decisive processes and elements of airport surface movement operations such as pushback, engine-start, inbound and outbound holding, compliance to CTOT-slots, and wake turbulence separation for takeoffs. To compute conflict-free trajectories for all taxiing agents, we tailored and extended state-of-the-art multi-agent motion planning algorithms: the two-level routing algorithm combines Priority-Based Search (PBS) with Safe Interval Path Planning (SIPP). We defined different sizes of aircraft, accounted for a minimal safety distance between them, and calibrated their speed limits in curves with historic ADS-B data. Using the real-world flight schedules of two of the busiest days at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, including different runway configurations, we examine the performance of the autonomous taxiing system with respect to the historic operations. For the considered simulation conditions, we show that the MAS yields 30% lower taxi times that vary less and are more predictable and increases runway capacity.

The increasing adoption of synthetic data in aviation research offers a promising solution to data scarcity and confidentiality challenges. This study investigates the potential of generative models to produce realistic synthetic flight data and evaluates their quality through a comprehensive four-stage assessment framework. The need for synthetic flight data arises from their potential to serve as an alternative to confidential real-world records and to augment rare events in historical datasets. These enhanced datasets can then be used to train machine learning models that predict critical events, such as flight delays, cancellations, diversions, and turnaround times. Two generative models, Tabular Variational Autoencoder (TVAE) and Gaussian Copula (GC), are adapted to generate synthetic flight information and compared based on their ability to preserve statistical similarity, fidelity, diversity, and predictive utility. Results indicate that while GC achieves higher statistical similarity and fidelity, its computational cost hinders its applicability to large datasets. In contrast, TVAE efficiently handles large datasets and enables scalable synthetic data generation. The findings demonstrate that synthetic data can support flight delay prediction models with accuracy comparable to those trained on real data. These results pave the way for leveraging synthetic flight data to enhance predictive modeling in air transportation.

The development of liquid hydrogen storage systems is a key aspect to enable future clean air transportation. However, safety analysis research for such systems is still limited and is hindered by the limited experience with liquid hydrogen storage in aviation. This paper presents the outcomes of a preliminary safety assessment applied to this new type of storage system, accounting for the hazards of hydrogen. The methodology developed is based on hazard identification and frequency evaluation across all system features to identify the most critical safety concerns. Based on the safety assessment, a set of safety recommendations concerning different subsystems of the liquid hydrogen storage system is proposed, identifying hazard scopes and necessary mitigation actions across various system domains. The presented approach has been proven to be suitable for identifying essential liquid hydrogen hazards despite the novelty of the technology and for providing systematic design recommendations at a relatively early design stage.

The increasing demand and complexity of air traffic management (ATM) systems necessitate significant advancements in automation to ensure safety and efficiency. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are emerging as promising solutions to manage this growing complexity, offering enhanced decision-making and predictive capabilities. However, the effectiveness of ML models in ATM heavily relies on the availability of extensive, high-quality data. In many cases, such data is scarce or incomplete, which presents a major barrier for training robust models. Synthetic data generation (SDG) is a viable solution to address this, enabling the creation of realistic datasets that unlock the ML value proposition. The Terminal Maneuvering Area (TMA) is a crucial segment of airspace characterized by high traffic density and diverse trajectory types, necessitating granular data to model these scenarios accurately. The main research objective of this work was to investigate the applicability of TimeGAN in generating synthetic 4-dimensional aircraft landing trajectories capable of capturing traffic patterns in this airspace, helping to analyze airspace constraints and delay propagation. The resulting synthetic trajectories were evaluated in terms of data diversity, fidelity and usefulness. The main challenge identified during the research was the imbalance in data classes, which affected the models’ ability to accurately capture data patterns, particularly in less frequent scenarios. Generating synthetic data based on separate groupings showed promise in addressing these imbalances, although this approach was sensitive to the designation of groups. This work proves the capability of TimeGAN in generating diverse, realistic trajectories that are difficult to differentiate from real historical data.

Both EASA and SESAR JU have outlined roadmaps towards an autonomous air traffic management system. Their long-term vision aligns with our previous work in which we studied the operational consequences of fully automated airport surface movement operations (ASM Ops) using a multi-agent system model that conducts multi-agent motion planning. However, such an automated system needs to be placed in a sociotechnical context, in which human operators and system users would be able to interact with automation in a seamless way. In the context of the SESAR JU project”ASTAIR - Auto-Steer Taxi at Airport”, workshops and interviews were conducted with human operators to identify operational requirements and preferred interactions with automated systems. In this paper, we explore how the requirements can be modelled and implemented in the multi-agent system for automated planning of ASM Ops to enable interactions with human operators. To this end, we present a conceptual agent-based framework for human-automation teaming in ASM Ops, introduce interactive tools for ATCOs to engage with the system, and showcase these interactions through a series of use cases derived from the workshops as well as historic data. Illustrated through the interactions of a fictitious Air Traffic Controller at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, we demonstrate their practical implementation and broader aspects of such interactions in next-generation ASM Ops.

Background: Increased maritime trade has led to a surge in drayage operations, causing congestion and environmental issues in port areas. Truck Appointment Systems (TASs) are commonly used to manage truck arrival rates, yet transparency and equity in slot allocation remain problematic, fostering distrust between Licensed Motor Carriers (LMCs) and Marine Terminal Operators (MTOs). Methods: This study proposes a polycentric approach to improve truck scheduling and ensure that those impacted by decisions are involved in the decision-making process. A single-round auction mechanism focused on optimizing the truck hauling process through a pricing policy that promotes sincere bidding is introduced. The proposed approach employs an optimization strategy to achieve equitable coordination in truck synchronization through means of adaptable capacity management. Results: Numerical experiments assessing scenarios of noncollaborative behavior against partial collaboration between MTOs and LMCs demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in enhancing user satisfaction and terminal conditions for a case study focused on a medium-sized terminal. Collaboration between trucking companies is shown to increase utility per monetary unit spent on slot acquisition. Conclusions: The polycentric strategy offers a solution to TAS limitations by ensuring stakeholder participation with respect to flexibility and transparency by ensuring that those impacted by decisions are involved in the decision-making process.

The airport terminals are complex sociotechnical systems, which are difficult to understand and their behavior is hard to predict. Hence, an agent-based model, the Agent-based Airport Terminal Operation Model (AATOM), has been designed to represent and analyze diverse airport terminal processes, actors, their behavior and interactions. The main issue with such models is the large computational requirements for simulating detailed processes, making it computationally inefficient. Furthermore, the dynamics of such models are difficult to understand. Therefore, the goal of this research is to approximate the dynamics of AATOM by a surrogate model, while preserving the important system properties. A methodology is suggested for training and validating a surrogate model, based on the Random Forest algorithm. The trained surrogate model is capable of approximating the AATOM simulation and identifying relative importance of the model variables with respect to the model outputs. Firstly, the results obtained contain an evaluation of the surrogate model accuracy performance, indicating that the surrogate model can achieve an average accuracy of 93% in comparison to the original agent-based simulation model. Nonetheless, one indicator, the number of missed flights, has shown to be more difficult to predict, with an average accuracy of 83%. Secondly, the results show that the airport resource allocation has an important impact on the efficiency of the airport terminal, with the two most important variables being the number of desks at the check-in and the number of lanes at the checkpoint. Last, the developed surrogate model was compared with a second Artificial Neural Network-based surrogate model built for the same agent-based model.

Airport terminals are complex sociotechnical systems, in which humans interact with diverse technical systems. A natural way to represent them is through agent-based modeling. However, this method has two drawbacks: it entails a heavy computational burden and the emergent properties are often difficult to analyze. The purpose of our research is therefore to accurately abstract and explain the dynamics of airport terminal operations by means of computationally efficient and interpretable surrogate models, based on an existing detailed agent-based simulation model. We propose a methodology consisting of two stages. Stage I involves the development of faithful surrogates. A sample is collected according to an active learning strategy, upon which Gaussian process regression, higher-order polynomials, gradient boosting, and random forests are fitted. Stage II then applies state-of-the-art techniques from the emerging field of explainable artificial intelligence to interpret and understand these models. Both model-agnostic and model-specific methods are considered, and their results are synthesized in order to explain the emergent properties. We prove the efficacy of this approach by conducting two case studies on AATOM, an existing Agent-based Airport Terminal Operations Model. The first case study examines the total expenditure on discretionary activities, such as shopping and dining. A combination of poor staffing strategies and high occupancy rates on certain flights was found to disrupt the terminal journey of passengers on subsequent flights. As a result of these knock-on phenomena, less free time is left for discretionary activities, which has a negative effect on the total expenditure. The second case study examines the throughput of security checkpoints. While throughput increases with passenger numbers, a clear point was observed where the checkpoint reaches its maximum capacity. This leads to longer queues and therefore higher waiting times. It even goes so far as to put passengers at risk of missing their flight, especially with poor staffing strategies. Altogether, we clearly observed the preservation of emergent phenomena in surrogate models, and conclude that their combination with interpretable machine learning is an effective way to explain the dynamics of complex sociotechnical systems.

Accessibility is one of the key performance indicators in the evaluation of a multimodal transport system and, as a result, transport planning has become increasingly more oriented towards it. Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) services have been proposed as a measure for increasing accessibility of a Public Transit (PT) network by servicing users in inaccessible areas. Through multimodal planning and coordination, a DRT service can be integrated within the extended PT network and supply the network optimally. In the context of PT users headed toward airports, an integrated DRT service is proposed for those with extended first-mile connections. This service makes use of taxis to transport users to transit points of a dedicated train line supplying a major European airport. Ride-sharing is considered, while optimal order of service and transit points for modal change are determined. To capture the decentralized nature of matching taxis to users, a multi-agent-based algorithm based on Distributed Constraint optimization Problems (DCOPs) is developed. Real-time information about routes and fixed schedules of the PT network are extracted via a dedicated routing Application Programming Interface (API). Experiments validate the applicability of the proposed solution by reporting a decrease in users’ first-mile travel time that is approximately analogous to the modal share the service captures.

Inspired by the vision of fully autonomous airside operations at Schiphol airport, this study aims to contribute to the short-term goal of automated aircraft ground handling. In this research, we design and evaluate a multi-agent system for planning of automated ground handling. There are two main components in the system: task allocation optimization and multi-agent path planning. To allocate tasks to ground support equipment (GSE) vehicles, an auction mechanism inspired by temporal sequential single item (TeSSI) auction is proposed. Ground handling tasks scheduling for GSE vehicles is modeled as several single-vehicle pickup and delivery optimization problems (SPDP), and the values of the objective functions are used to generate bids for GSE vehicle agents in the auction. Prioritized safe interval path planning for large agents (LA-SIPP) is used to plan collision-free paths for GSE vehicle agents in the model to execute tasks. The aim is to increase the success rates of allocating tasks and finding collision free paths without causing flight delays, given the limited resources such as a small number of available GSE vehicles, time windows constraints and conflicting interests of different agents. Due to the results, even for the instances with frequent flights and the most limited resources, the success rates of allocation and path planning were higher than 81% and 98%, respectively. Furthermore, periodic task allocation and path planning of the ground handling tasks for flights in three aircraft stands during a planning time window of the day, as well as replanning in case of disruptions were performed in a short CPU time. There is a lack of research dealing with the complete process of ground handling, since existing studies concerning the automation of ground handling operations involve fleet assignment or task scheduling models without an integration of detailed path planning. Our main contribution is to present a framework that combines task allocation and path planning for automation of ground handling operations and provides solutions using a multi-agent perspective.

The aviation industry has set an ambitious goal of reducing its climate impacts. Accordingly, airlines must balance their plans according to this goal with financial considerations. We developed a multi-objective framework to facilitate climate-aware network design by incorporating the objective to minimise the flight average temperature response (ATR) when optimising the airline network. We also assessed the operational improvements (OIs) which are introduced to improve sustainability in airline operations. In particular, we considered intermediate stop-overs (ISOs) and lower flight altitudes as OIs in our case studies. We analysed the impact of considering the climate impact in the planning of operations of three different airline types: one main-hub-and-spoke (KLM), one smaller multi-hub airline (TAP), and one low-cost carrier (EasyJet). The results show that airlines could also lower their environmental impact by 10–36% when considering the ATR as an objective. However, this would require an 8–20% reduction in profits. Adopting lower-altitude flying with ISO could mitigate their climate impact by 27–49% while reducing profits by approximately 6%. Our study highlights the importance of considering the airline network as a whole and demonstrates the potential benefits of operational improvements from a network perspective.

Both EASA and SESAR JU define a vision and roadmap towards an autonomous air traffic management system. Furthermore, past and ongoing SESAR JU projects investigate how to increase the efficiency and predictability of current operations by means of automation. In this paper, we explore the operational implications that may result from fully-automated airport surface movement operations. In our model, a hierarchical multi-agent system coordinates and controls all movements on the airport surface. It comprises the Airport Operations Agent to handle the flight schedule and runway configuration, the Routing Agent to compute conflict-free trajectories, and the Guidance Agents to instruct and monitor the Aircraft Agents while these execute the planned routes. To compute conflict-free trajectories for all agents, we tailored state-of-the-art multi-agent motion planning algorithms to the requirements of taxiing operations: the two-level routing algorithm combines Priority-Based Search (PBS) with Safe Interval Path Planning (SIPP). It accounts for the different taxiing processes such as pushback, engine-start, or wake turbulence separation for takeoffs by defining an activity sequence for each agent. Furthermore, we include the kinematics and different sizes of the aircraft as well as a minimal safety distance between them. Using the real-world flight schedules of two of the busiest days at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, including different runway configurations, we examine the performance of the autonomous taxiing system with respect to the historic operations. For the considered simulation conditions, we show that the MAS yields 15% lower taxi times for both arriving and departing flights, discuss how reliable these results are, and point out directions for future work.

Designing agent-based models is a difficult task. Some guidelines exist to aid modelers in designing their models, but they generally do not include specific details on how the behavior of agents can be defined. This paper therefore proposes the AbCDe methodology, which uses causal discovery algorithms to specify agent behavior. The methodology combines important expert insights with causal graphs generated by causal discovery algorithms based on real-world data. This causal graph represents the causal structure among agent-related variables, which is then translated to behavioral properties in the agent-based model. To demonstrate the AbCDe methodology, it is applied to a case study in the airport security domain. In this case study, we explore a new concept of operations, using a service lane, to improve the efficiency of the security checkpoint. Results show that the models generated with the AbCDe methodology have a closer resemblance with the validation data than a model defined by experts alone.

Resilience is commonly understood as the capacity for a system to maintain a desirable state while undergoing adversity or to return to a desirable state as quickly as possible after being impacted. In this paper, we focus on resilience for complex sociotechnical systems (STS), specifically those where safety is an important aspect. Two main desiderata for safety-critical STS to be resilient are adaptive capacity and adaptation. Formal studies integrating human cognition and social aspects are needed to quantify the capacity to adapt and the effects of adaptation. We propose a conceptual framework to elaborate on the concept of resilience of safety-critical STS, based on adaptive capacity and adaptation and how this can be formalized. A set of mechanisms is identified that is necessary for STS to have the capacity to adapt. Mechanisms belonging to adaptive capacity include situation awareness, sensemaking, monitoring, decision-making, coordination, and learning. It is posited that the two mechanisms required to perform adaptation are anticipation and responding. This framework attempts to coherently integrate the key components of the multifaceted concept of STS Equationsadaptive resilience. This can then be used to pursue the formal representation of Equationsadaptive resilience, its modeling, and its operationalization in real-world safety-critical STS.

This paper proposes and evaluates a new airline disruption management strategy using multi-agent system modelling, simulation, and verification. This new strategy is based on a multi-agent negotiation protocol and is compared with three airline strategies based on established industry practices. The application concerns Airline Operations Control whose core functionality is disruption management. To evaluate the new strategy, a rule-based multi-agent system model of the AOC and crew processes has been developed. This model is used to assess the effects of multi-agent negotiation on airline performance in the context of a challenging disruption scenario. For the specific scenario considered, the multi-agent negotiation strategy outperforms the established strategies when the agents involved in the negotiation are experts. Another important contribution is that the paper presents a logic-based ontology used for formal modelling and analysis of AOC workflows.

This paper presents a demonstration of our PAAMS 2021 paper using data-driven analysis of airport terminal operations and An Agent-based Airport Terminal Operations Model Simulator (AATOM). The goal of this paper is to demonstrate and analyze the impact of the current COVID-19 and future pandemic-related measures on airport terminal operations and to identify plans that airport management agents can take into account to control the flow of passengers in a safe, efficient, secure and resilient way. To analyze the impact of the identified COVID-19 measures on the airport operations, the existing agent-based AATOM model was need to be modified in order to implement these measures. In this paper, we illustrate a demo of a developed simulator tool by investigating the effects of different degrees of physical distancing rules among agents on the performances of the airport. In the demo session the attendees will have the possibility to (i) work with the simulator tool on different relevant parameters regarding different sections and agents in the airport; (ii) view and analyze different performance indicator analyzers of the simulator.

Discretionary activities such as retail, food, and beverages generate a significant amount of non-aeronautical revenue within the aviation industry. However, they are rarely taken into account in computational airport terminal models. Since discretionary activities affect passenger flow and global airport terminal performance, discretionary activities need to be studied in detail. Additionally, discretionary activities are influenced by other airport terminal processes, such as check-in and security. Thus, discretionary activities need to be studied in relation to other airport terminal processes. The aim of this study is to analyze discretionary activities in a systemic way, taking into account interdependencies with other airport terminal processes and operational strategies used to manage these processes. An agent-based simulation model for airport terminal operations was developed, which covers the main handling processes and passenger decision-making with discretionary activities. The obtained simulation results show that operational strategies that reduce passenger queue time or increase passenger free time can significantly improve global airport terminal performance through efficiency, revenue, and cost.