Ibeo project: In a robotaxi across the airfield

After around three years of research and development, the Hamburg-based lidar specialist Ibeo Automotive Systems GmbH, together with the Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel (CAU) and Airbus Operations, has successfully completed the AirPortMover project at GATE InnoAirport Rostock-Laage. The focus of the project, funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, was on the driverless transport of people, such as airplane crews, on the taxiway or apron under special safety conditions. As a specialist for lidar sensors and the associated software, the company sees its solutions as relevant for individual road traffic, as well as for logistics, rail, or closed environments like airports.

“Since the project started in 2018, the technology has developed at a high speed. That was a real challenge. From the beginning, we relied on a combination of Ibeo's solid-state lidar sensors and cameras,” outlines Max Stehn, who was the project manager for Autonomous Driving at Ibeo.

Solid-state sensors are significantly more compact and require less maintenance than conventional lidar sensors and come without moving parts. At the same time, they offer greater vertical coverage of the environment and reliably detect objects positioned higher, such as airplane tail fins. With their sensors, they have realized a 360-degree coverage to detect both static and dynamic obstacles around the vehicle. This is particularly important when approaching an airplane, Stehn further explains.

Milestone in the automation of airport processes

However, there are still challenges regarding the large amount of data that must be processed in real time and then passed on to the respective vehicle functions, according to the provider. “With the rapid development of computing power and potential shifts of computing capacities to the cloud, these technical hurdles are foreseeable and can be overcome,” Stehn believes.

How well the system works was demonstrated through a live presentation, during which an equipped Mercedes V-Class maneuvered various test subjects fully autonomously across the taxiway to different airplane models.

“In the case of the AirPortMover, automation decouples mobility in a safety-relevant area from human weaknesses, such as short-term inattention,” outlines Kevin Fischer, Innovation Manager of the GATE association of airport equipment suppliers.