Experimental System for Remote Airport Traffic Control Center Research

The ultimate goal of the research below is development of airport traffic control without the need of a real tower building, Specifically, we address the intermediate step of a Remote Airport Tower Center (RTC) for remote surveillance and control of small airports. An experimental high-resolution digital video panorama system was implemented to replace the airport tower out-the-window view. Field tests of this reconstructed view show that the effective visual resolution of a 180°-video panorama agrees with theoretical predictions. Such a video panorama provides the framework for video-see-through augmented vision by integration of weather and transponder data, and it allows for video replay. An integrated zoom function provides a “foveal” component by means of a remotely controlled pan-tilt-zoom camera which can also track moving objects. Besides the RTC experimental system for field testing, a simulation environment is described to simultaneous simulate two airports. It can be used to support statistically reliable testing of professional tower controllers for the evaluation of new concepts of operations.