Remote Airport Traffic Control Center with Augmented Vision Video Panorama

Abstract

Research is described for realizing a Remote Airport Traffic Control Center (RAiCe) for remote surveillance and control of several small airports from a central location. Work and task analyses which were performed in a previous project [1][2] as well as results reported in the literature [3] indicate the importance of the visual information for present days controller's work procedures. This resulted in the concept of a high resolution video panorama system with zoom and augmented vision functions as controllers main HMI in the Remote Tower Center (RTC). Video-see-through augmentation of the reconstructed outside view by means of flight and weather information and data from electronic non-visual sources superimposed on the far view of the cameras improves the controllers situational awareness. The augmented vision function allows for a compact RTO-work environment due to reduction of numbers of displays. A corresponding 180 degree-video panorama system was set up as experimental testbed at Braunschweig research airport which served for initial field testing. It consists of four digital high resolution CCD cameras located near Braunschweig tower, and a remotely controlled pan-tilt zoom (PTZ) camera (including automatic tracking option) with PC clusters for compression, image processing / movement detection, decompression and panorama reconstruction, and a 450 m fiberoptic Gbit Ethernet link between sensor and display clusters. Cameras were calibrated for geographically correct superimposition of relevant data. Field testing of the reconstructed far view with participation of local controllers shows an effective visual resolution of 2 arcmin in agreement with the theoretical predictions. The PTZ camera provides a "foveal" vision component including object tracking options, with a high resolution exceeding the human eye (1 arcmin) within an observation angle < 15 degree. The replay function allows for detailed reconstruction of specific events within full day video data (typically 500 GB) stored in the 4.5 Tbyte memory. Simulation systems are under development for support of the design of the RTCenter work environment, based on a two-airport 200 degree-tower-simulator with RTO-console extension and a Petri-net based computer simulation "FairControl" [4] using a simplified airport microworld. In addition to the small regional Braunschweig research airport as basic test environment, within the ongoing project a second more distant international airport, controlled by DFS (the German ANSP) will be included into the experimental system, in order to provide the framework for shadow mode testing.