Car Management on Aprons (carma) – Developing Integrated Solutions for Vehicle Management at Mid-size Airports

The paper investigates the development of systems for vehicle management on airport aprons, using current A-SMGCS experiences, with a focus on fleet management and turn around processes of mid-size airports. An architecture is proposed that is derived from A-SMGCS, reducing cost by only supporting cooperative targets and off-the-shelf hardware. Available candidate technologies for implementing the architecture’s components are discussed, pointing out criteria for selection. Systems for vehicle management on aprons are important, because the continuous reductions of aircraft turn-around times increase the pressure on airports and ground handling companies to optimize infrastructure and resources.