New airport environmental analysis system announced

A new automated approach to airport operations that takes environmental analysis into consideration has been announced.

Led by staff from the University of Nottingham - a research-intensive seat of learning and member of the Russell Group - and funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research, the initiative aims to computerise a number of important elements of airport operation.

These include baggage handling, gate assignment and the scheduling of flights landing and taking off.

At present, these functions are usually carried out by staff who make decisions based on factors such as reports and their own experience.

Due to the fact that each activity tends to be coordinated in isolation, difficulties can affect one another and issues can snowball, the organisation explains.

"We'll be developing a computer system that will work its way through the many billions of permutations created daily in each of these operations to provide a much higher level of computer-aided decision support than is currently available," said Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Nottingham, Professor Edmund Burke, the lead investigator of the project.

Posted by Lauren Steadman