Guidebook for Digital Twin Programs at Airports

The objective of this research is to provide a guidebook for airports to understand the concept of digital twins and the potential stakeholder benefits, and develop a roadmap for implementation of a digital twin program. The guidebook and roadmap should be scalable to airports of all sizes and accompanied by an executive summary for airport leadership. The guidebook should address and/or include, at a minimum: (1) A glossary of terms; (2) An introduction and definition of digital twins; (3) The range of requirements (security, legal, data systems, functionality, personnel, budget, training, etc.) for implementation of digital twins; (4) An overview of current data visualization techniques, platforms, and technologies; (5) Explore partnerships for both funding and data sourcing; (6) General use cases for digital twins focusing on different airports functions (i.e., landside, terminal, airside, and cargo operations); (7) At least four (4) specific airport case studies incorporating airports of various sizes, technological maturity, etc.; and (8) At least one (1) case study from outside the aviation industry. The roadmap should make sure to address the following elements at a minimum: (1) Identifying and developing a digital twin use case template; (2) Identifying and collecting necessary data, both real-time and historical; (3) Incorporating predicative analytics tools; (4) Reporting and using the outcomes to make decisions; (5) Program governance including data and platform ownership; and (6) Program maintenance and upgrades.  

• Record URL:
  • http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=5205

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $350000
• Contract Numbers:

  Project 03-66

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Airport Cooperative Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC    20001

  Federal Aviation Administration

  800 Independence Avenue, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20591
• Project Managers:

  Griffin, Matthew

• Performing Organizations:

  InterVistas

  Washington, DC  United States 
• Principal Investigators:

  Jones, William

• Start Date: 20220810
• Expected Completion Date: 20240209
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Airport operations; Airport planning; Airports; Decision support systems; Digital simulation; Handbooks; Machine learning; Plan implementation; Virtual reality
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Data and Information Technology; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Terminals and Facilities;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01779210
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project 03-66
• Files: TRB, RIP
• Created Date: Aug 18 2021 9:28AM