Applying digital twins for the management of information in turnaround event operations in commercial airports

TL;DR

This paper develops a digital twin architecture for airport operations, utilizing FIWARE and Linked Data standards, validated at Aberdeen Airport to enhance turnaround efficiency and reduce delays.

Contribution

It introduces a novel Airport Digital Twin framework tailored for turnaround management, integrating heterogeneous data and virtual reality tools.

Findings

Reduced flight delays at Aberdeen Airport

Enhanced situational awareness through VR representations

Improved scheduling efficiency for ground operators

Abstract

The aerospace sector is one of the many sectors in which large amounts of data are generated. Thanks to the evolution of technology, these data can be exploited in several ways to improve the operation and management of industrial processes. However, to achieve this goal, it is necessary to define architectures and data models that allow to manage and homogenise the heterogeneous data collected. In this paper, we present an Airport Digital Twin Reference Conceptualisation's and data model based on FIWARE Generic Enablers and the Next Generation Service Interfaces-Linked Data standard. Concretely, we particularise the Airport Digital Twin to improve the efficiency of flight turnaround events. The architecture proposed is validated in the Aberdeen International Airport with the aim of reducing delays in commercial flights. The implementation includes an application that shows the real state of the airport, combining two-dimensional and three-dimensional virtual reality representations of the stands, and a mobile application that helps ground operators to schedule departure and arrival flights.