AIRPORT DATA BASIS FOR TAGSY GUIDANCE SYSTEMS
W. Möhlenbrink, R. Bettermann
Institut für Anwendungen der Geodäsie im Bauwesen
University of Stuttgart
Germany
wolfgang.moehlenbrink@iagb.uni-stuttgart.de
KEY WORDS: Geographie database, Navigation, Data Model, Airport database
ABSTRACT
The air traffic on airports is increasing. Main bottleneck is the start and landing capacity of the airports. The movement of planes from
the runways to the parking positions causes high traffic densities on the taxiway network and congestion have to be avoided. This
problem is getting even more relevant for safety if the traffic in the air will be influenced directly by the traffic situation on the airport. In
order to enhance the runway capacity a taxiguidance system called TAGXY was developed. It will provide optimal routing and turn-by
turn guidance from touchdown to the final parking position. An airport database for this taxi guidance system which meets the technical
and commercial requirements was created on the base of a known data model for car navigation systems.
KURZFASSUNG
Der steigende Flugverkehr führt zu Problemen bei der Navigation von Flugzeugen in der Luft und auf den Flughäfen. Dieses kapazitäts-
und sicherheitsrelevante Problem soll durch ein Flughafen-Zielführungssystem gemildert werden, das auf einer digitalen
Flughafendatenbank basiert. Auf der Basis des aus der Kfz-Navigation bekannten Datenmodells wurde eine Spezifikation für
Flughafenkarten erarbeitet. Die Adaption des Navigations-Datenmodells von routenfähigen Spezifikationen aus dem Straßenverkehr auf
den Luftverkehr erwies sich als außerordentlich effizient. Um diese Datenspezifikation auf ihre Marktfähigkeit zu testen, wurden
unterschiedlichen Datenerfassungsmethoden evaluiert Es ist zu erwarten, daß mit der hier vorgestellten Erfassungsspezifikation
zielführungsfähige Flughafenkarten effizient erstellt werden können.
1 APPLICATIONS FOR A TAXIWAY DATABASE
The air traffic has been growing in the last year continuously. As
a consequence not only the traffic in the air is getting crowded
and invokes new requirements to the safety demands in the air.
The traffic on the airport is increasing as well. But changes in the
infrastructure of the airports are almost impossible. A TAGSY-
Guidance System will enable optimised organisation in the flight
field area and will lead toto possibilities for increasing the traffic
flow on airports.
One important part of this is the safety of the route planning
process itself and the other is the realisation of the planning. Both
components can be supported by information systems based on a
digital airport database.
To illustrate problems in the field of the taxi guidance the
following description sketch of the information flow in a landing
procedure is given. The pilot receives the landing permission. He
is guided to the touch down point on the runway by the integrated
landing system (ILS). He is told to take a defined way to his
parking position. An additional requirement is to take a rapid exit
from the runway, so that the tower can confirm the landing
permission for the next aircraft.
Leaving the runway the pilot up today has to navigate on his own
on the given taxiways. The information about finding this way
can be drawn from a paper map and the signs placed on the
apron. In practice this leads to curious situation, this means
aircrafts stop suddenly on the taxiway in order to ask for the right
turn information.
With a technique used in car navigation today the pilot will find
the way with more reliability. Car navigation systems are based
on digital road maps. One of the main problems to introduce such
a system to the avionic market is the lack of digital airport
databases or digital airport maps being prepared for optimal
routing.
1.1 Ground base situation
The logistic planning process is divided into specific parts. The
geometry in the database is useful in the strategic and tactical
phase. In the long term planning procedures the optimal
utilization of the parking positions is the main aim. But it is
equally important to avoid dead lock situations in which an
aircraft is forced to drive backwards.
In the operational phase the knowledge of the aircraft position is
needed. In the modern concepts the position of the aircraft is
supplied by the aircraft whether in coordinates or logically
1-4-1
