Ground Vehicle Runway Incursion Prevention Alerting System Literature Review

The Federal Aviation Administration Airport Technology Research and Development Branch conducted a literature review of technology and technological solutions that could be used to prevent runway incursions and surface accidents involving vehicles with authorized access to the aircraft movement area. The objective was to identify a technology that would be optimal for this purpose and would warrant further evaluation.

The optimal technology was defined as a complete system that provides an alert to ground vehicle operators when approaching a sensitive or restricted area, while having minimal equipment installation requirements that could impact the airport infrastructure.

The components needed for an alerting system are (1) reliable ground vehicle position information as to where it is on an airport, (2) a device is needed to provide the visible and audible alerts to the vehicle operator, and (3) the most critical, the logic necessary to take and send the alert directly to the device in the ground vehicle. A literature search was conducted to identify technologies and systems that have the potential to provide a visible and audible alert to ground vehicle operators when approaching a restricted area, such as runways, runway safety areas, etc.

A number of technologies have components that could be used in an alerting system; however, only three were identified that constituted a complete system. They were (1) the Incursion Collision Avoidance System (ICAS), (2) The Runway Incursion Monitoring Detection Alerting System (RIMDAS), and (3) The Asset Tracking and Incursion Management System (ATIMS).

The analysis of the literature search showed that the RIMDAS did not provide an alert when approaching a sensitive or restricted area. The lack of this feature is a disadvantage compared to the ICAS and ATIMS systems, which provide this capability. Both the ICAS and RIMDAS systems required equipment to be installed on the airport in addition to the equipment needed in the ground vehicle. For these reasons, the ICAS and RIMDAS were not recommended for further evaluation.

The analysis of the literature search showed that the ATIMS met the optimal criteria, and a version of the ATIMS is already being used on airports. The only equipment needed is in the ground vehicle. Because of these advantages, the ATIMS is recommended for further evaluation.

DOT/FAA/TC-TN12/46
Authors: William Doig, William Allen, and Donald W. Gallagher