Airport Digital Twin for Operations & Safety Planning

The airport digital twin platform is a cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution that creates a real-time virtual replica of an airport’s physical and operational environment. Using AI, ML, and advanced simulations, it enhances situational awareness, efficiency, and safety by integrating a wide array of information from airfield operations, air traffic flows, taxiway status, gates/aprons, weather data, and other relevant sources. The platform provides real-time decision support, optimizing aircraft movements, delay mitigation, and operational planning through predictive analytics and AI-driven risk detection. It enables what-if scenario modeling for severe weather, infrastructure changes, and demand fluctuations, allowing for contingency planning and operational resilience. Through real-time data integration from ATC, weather, and surveillance systems, the platform improves safety management, offering automated alerts and risk mitigation tools. By combining proactive monitoring, predictive insights, and AI-driven analytics, the airport digital twin transforms airport operations, ensuring smarter, safer, and more efficient airfield management. The funding for Phase II of the proposed platform will be allocated to core development efforts of the platform, including various components such as data processing and management, AI/ML data analytics and prediction algorithms, a simulation engine, 3D visualization, as well as a robust API for external access. Phase II also includes plans for pilot programs with airports where the digital twin will be field tested and capabilities and functions validated in real-world scenarios. In addition to NASA, the target markets for this platform are airport stakeholders in the airside domain. This includes airport management, airlines, ramp control, ATC, as well as ground surface operations.