IEEE Future Directions
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Today tow vehicles push the airplane away from the finger position onto the apron. The pilot power on the engines and the plane will start taxiing to the runway that in some airports can be a long one, like in Schiphol where it may take more than 20 minutes to get there. In addition several busy airports have long queues that keep airplanes on the tarmac for a significant amount of time, all along consuming fuel and polluting the environment.
Now Schiphol starts to experiment with two “taxibots”, semiautonomous tow vehicles that dock autonomously with the airplane at the finger and communicate with the pilots. When the pilots is ready (and authorised by the tower) the taxibot pushes the airplane out of its parking position onto the apron and then pulls it along the taxiways up to the entrance of the assigned runway. The pilot remains in command and supervises the towing.
Once the runway entrance is reached the taxibot detaches from the airplane, the pilot powers on the engines and the airplane is on its own. The taxibot will go back, autonomously, to serve another airplane.
The taxibot can reduce fuel consumption up to 85% and reduce noise pollution by 60%. given the rising cost of fuel that is not peanuts.
If the experiment is successful Schiphol will expand the use of taxibots to make airport taxiing more sustainable in terms of fuel consumption and CO2 emission.
