Acubed, Airbus’ Applied Research and Innovation Center, Announces Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Dallas Fort Worth International Airport
Parties will explore advanced solutions to increase the safety, efficiency and sustainability of ground operations
Acubed, Airbus’ applied research and innovation center in Silicon Valley, today announced that it has signed an MoU with Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) to explore and develop potential solutions to increase operational safety, efficiency and sustainability for airport ground operations. This collaboration will explore how to leverage Acubed’s machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) expertise to support some of the critical challenges facing DFW, one of the world’s busiest and most connected airports. Through this MoU, Acubed and DFW take a concrete step towards connecting the broader aviation ecosystem through valuable, customer-driven innovations that target improving passenger travel experience and the overall transportation system.
As part of the MoU, Acubed and DFW Airport’s Innovation Division will explore and test how ML / AI may be applied to the following use cases:
Detection of foreign objects (commonly known as "FOD") on runways, taxiways and safety areas for the protection of airport workers, airline crew members and passengers with the aim of minimizing operational disruptions and increasing throughput efficiency.
Enhance DFW's "Smart Ramp Program," exploring autonomous ground vehicles to reduce turnaround time for ground service operations. This would couple DFW Airport's vast understanding of these functions and timetables with Acubed's background in autonomous software development with the goal of increasing efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Utilization of AI to improve passenger flows and passenger experience issues which impact how quickly and efficiently passengers can board an aircraft.
Creation of AI-enabled solutions to audit and lessen the impact of general waste, processing of waste, use of electric auxiliary power units (APUs), passenger boarding bridges (PBBs) and operational ground vehicles as part of the aviation industry's greater commitment to sustainability.
Acubed and DFW announce this agreement on the heels of the 2023 Future Travel Experience Global Conference in Long Beach, California, which brings together key players in the aviation ecosystem to ideate on how to transform their organizations' passenger experience, business performance, innovation, and sustainability strategies.