Designing a low-cost Remote Tower Solution

Abstract

In recent years, Remote Tower Optical Systems became a well-established means of providing cost-effective remote surveillance capabilities to aerodromes operated by air traffic control (ATC) officers. However, smaller, non-ATC operated (uncontrolled) aerodromes, often affected by very low revenues, may also benefit from a Remote Tower solution, but still cannot afford the implementation and maintenance costs just like that. The aim of the work presented herein is to design a low-cost Remote Tower solution specifically tailored towards the requirements and budget constraints of uncontrolled aerodromes. The approach taken consists of a site survey at an uncontrolled aerodrome identifying two constraints faced and three potential operational use-cases, followed by the definition of a suitable camera set-up analogous to standard Remote Tower systems consisting of two panoramic cameras each capturing a 180-degree panorama and a pan-tilt-zoom-camera. Two novel visualization concepts based on a head-mounted device (HMD) are developed. The results of a validation study are presented indicating the camera set-up to be sufficient for remote control of uncontrolled aerodromes and pointing towards the potential of an HMD-based visualization. Finally, the proposed low-cost solution is compared to standard Remote Tower Optical Systems regarding the costs and design of the controller working position.