Artificial Intelligence Enhanced Runway Monitoring for Foreign Object Debris Detection to Improve Airfield Uptime

Ellsworth Air Force Base (AFB) operates as a functional support and launch facility for the Department of the Air Force (DAF) aircraft. In the operation of runways, clearing of Foreign Object Debris (FOD) is vital to maintaining runway uptime and safety during aircraft takeoff and landing. The presence of FOD presents a critical hazard to aircraft. Clearing runways of FOD is labor intensive and tedious, requiring the full attention of Airmen performing runway inspections. Additionally, once the FOD is identified and removed, there is no current FOD data collection platform in place. Analytical AI (AAI) is a small business that specializes in Artificial Intelligence (AI). AAI will develop Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms and a FOD data gathering platform to provide on-duty Airmen with notifications of FOD in near real-time. The cameras required for the system will be integrated with vehicles and with pre-existing fixed locations (e.g. light posts, etc.) and used during runway inspection for FOD. Technology development under this effort contributes to mission need fulfillment in the area of sensors and AI.  AAI’s FOD detection systems specifically improve overall understanding of conditions generating FOD, will contribute to more rapidly detection of FOD, and will improve safety and decrease the downtime from expensive equipment failures due to undetected FOD. The specific mission impact of this project on the DAF and Department of Defense (DoD) will include safer aircraft and reduced runway downtime. AAI will use Ellsworth AFB as a use case for technology.  The technology will additionally be useful at other military installations and DAF bases, at temporary runway infrastructure, and for commercial airports where FOD is also a recognized, expensive problem impacting airway safety and efficiency. AAI is comprised of a multi-disciplinary team with extensive experience in high-performance computing and software integration. AAI develops novel AI solutions designed specifically to integrate with customer preferred software and run rapidly on hardware appropriate to the application.