Feb 2022
TAV Technologies has been investing in Research & Development (R&D) initiatives and Innovation programs for long years to enhance digitalization within the airport environment. Innovation Center located in the headquarter building offers a passenger journey for airport actvities. Digital transformation R&D strategy program “TAV Future Airports” was developed at this Innovation Center to support efforts on contemporary topics like Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, AR/VR, and IoT.
Airport Management with Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI technology plays an important role both in operational and passenger-facing applications. After combining data from various resources, TAV Technologies runs machine learning algorithms to get better insights in the decision-making process. Besides, similar algorithms assist airports to offer on-time value-added services and campaigns to their passengers.
The award-winning solution, Total Airport Management Suite (TAMS) is a next-generation airport management platform, with best-in-class flight management, resource management, ground handling, and revenue management solutions. Machine learning (AI) techniques are widely used with TAMS modules. The advanced technology of machine learning helps to analyze the flight delay patterns together with other parameters such as weather, herewith warns the airport employees regarding the behavior of airlines and flights. This approach leads the airport operators to make better decisions in daily operations.
A new product that will be released named “PAX Analyzer”, exploits the potential of Big Data and collects events from different locations within the airport to evaluate passenger flow. This tool is capable of providing detailed predictions regarding passenger arrival patterns and presentation curves through machine learning algorithms to lead airports on planning and allocating fixed and human resources. Moreover, it helps track critical airport KPIs with advanced real-time dashboards.
On the B2C side, TAV Technologies equipped its “Food &Beverage Pre-Order system” with a module for the cashier/point-of-sale system which also uses machine learning to analyze the correlation between store location, flights at the gates around the store, and the items that were bought by the passengers. The system automatically makes product suggestions that have the highest probability to be purchased by the passenger, depending on the gates which are near to the stores and shops.
Additionally, the system also supports cross-selling while recommending another product after an item is bought by the passenger. All the components of the AI module are integrated with the cashier system. The system is currently on trial in İzmir Adnan Menderes Airport.
Computer Vision From Take-Off To Landing
One of the programs that TAV Technologies focuses on is developing Computer Vision capabilities and functions for both terminal and airside. By using and analyzing real-time video streams, TAV Technologies works on identifying workflows starting from aircraft landing to take-off which contains activities such as bag load/unload, pushback, bus start/stop actions.
Officially supported by TUBITAK (Scientific Council of Turkey), a POC is currently being tried in Gazipasa Alanya Airport with high-resolution panoramic cameras to cover the entire apron operations to detect events that can cause security violations. The program also illustrates a partnership with a startup company to foster innovation in the airport ecosystem. The system can help airports to improve their turnaround timings by up to 14%. Depending on the size of the airport, airports can potentially generate more than $10 million per year.
TAV Technologies also brought a commercial off-the-shelf product for “Passenger Flow Management Platform” during the pandemic period; to measure significant passenger flow KPI’s like waiting times, queue length, and social distancing by using camera-based sensors and computer vision models. The system provides an operational dashboard and mobile application for the users to get a holistic view of the airport on a real-time basis. Employees are notified when certain threshold values or security norms are exceeded. The project was implemented in İzmir ADB Airport and is currently being tried in ADP Paris Airport.
Another project called “Airport Health & Security” targetS developing video analytics capabilities for traditional CCTV cameras. Algorithms have been implemented to support scenarios such as human/luggage/weapon detection, people count, social distancing calculation, virtual fence, direction violations, left luggage, and abnormal behaviors.
Global R&D and Innovation Program Coverage
As part of the R&D Strategy program, TAV Technologies has grown its network with universities and significant R&D centers to participate in national and international R&D clusters and funding programs such as EU Horizon, Eureka!, ITEA, CELTIC, etc. In this respect, TAV Technologies works with reputable institutions in various R&D projects, including Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Optimization subjects.