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FEATURE AvIATION TEChNOLOgy

RTS being set-up at Linköping Airport in along with images of the airport being and flight plan displays, electronic flight
Sweden. The airport will be the third in the monitored to a remote ATC. The data strips, OTW view, airport systems control
county to install this system. Saab remote from the sensors located at the airport and PTZ control.
tower (r-TWR) solutions are already is transmitted to the RTC, delivering a An important aspect of the r-TWR
operational at airports in Sundsvall and 360-degree real-time view of the airport. is the enhanced situational awareness
Örnsköldsvik, both airports received This information is transmitted in real it provides to the ATCO in low visibility
their approval for operations, late last time and displayed on TV monitors at the conditions with features such as; on-
year. Work on an r-TWR proof of concept, remote centre. The images are captured screen object tracking and alerting, IR
began a decade ago in 2006. From 2008, by a number of environmentally protected vision and image enhancement, all being
Saab commenced operations from a remote sensors located across the airport part of the picture presented to the ATCO.
remotely operated tower test set-up. This to be monitored. Each housing contains Despite the all-digital work environment,
resulted in the Ängelholm Airport, being 14 high definition cameras which include the controller work stations are equipped
controlled from 100 km away by the r-TWR pan/tilt/zoom (PTZ) cameras, optical, with the same controls as a normal tower,
at Malmö-Sturup Airport. The award electro-optical (EO) and infrared (IR) substantially reducing training times
for a pilot implementation project at the cameras and a signal light gun and an and time taken to get an r-TWR system
airports in Sundsvall and Örnsköldsvik acoustic sensor. An important aspect, is operational. Future developments will
was awarded in January 2011. The RTC the glare of sunlight in the pictures and provide a single CWP the ability to switch
was located at Sundsvall and the entire this is prevented by special filters fitted between different r-TWR which could
system was delivered in December, 2013 on the cameras. Information collected be well suited for military maintenance
and operational use began in Q2 of 2014. by all the sensors is captured and sent bases, oil rigs and heliports with very low
Saab is also working with Airservices to the r-TWR. The capture, compression, traffic density. The OTW view can also be
Australia to deploy an r-TWR solution for transmission and decompression of data configured to display information from
non-operational evaluation. This will see from source to recipient, all takes place three different airports.
ATC tasks for the airport at Alice Springs with an end-to-end delay of less than
being performed by an r-TWR solution a second. The information is crunched
deployed at Adelaide, 1500 km away. This using high-end software and complicated
particular installation of the remote tower algorithms, before being presented in an
ATC also incorporates visual tracking. easy to read on-screen representation
Validation trials are presently underway. as an Out the Window (OTW) view on ABOvE LEFT & RIghT:
Images are captured by a
Remote Tower Services are made up multiple screens. This information is for number of environmentally
of a number of components. There are the use of the Air Traffic Control Officer protected remote sensors
a number of specialised cameras and (ATCO) working at the Controller Working located across the airport.
sensors installed at the airport to transmit Position (CWP). The CWP systems include, Each housing contains 14
images and air traffic information voice communication, radar, weather high definition cameras
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