- [Narrator] The tower at
London's Heathrow Airport is hiding a secret. While air traffic controllers
at the top of the tower direct planes to take off and land using site radar and voice- - [Traffic Controller] 658,
27 right, cleared for takeoff, wind 300 at 9. - [Narrator] Hidden 200 feet down in the base of Heathrow's tower lies the next generation
of air traffic control, the digital AI tower. Here, companies are testing
whether high-definition cameras and AI algorithms could
bring air traffi
c control into the 21st century. That's because while air
traffic has increased fivefold over the past four decades, the method for managing air traffic hasn't really changed much at all. So while towers have become
an iconic part of any airport, this technology could be their demise. Here's how digital towers
are reshaping airports. (graphics clicking) What you are seeing here isn't a window, it's a live feed from an array
of high-definition cameras mounted here, just below Heathrow's tower, wh
ich are stitched together to create a panoramic view of the runways. - So the views behind me are the views that the controllers
see out of the window, and in fact, to the millisecond, are seeing out of the
window as we speak now. - [Narrator] The system
is being run by NATS, a company that provides air
traffic management services to the UK. Andy said that as well as
showing the view from the tower, an algorithm is overlaying
radar information on each aircraft, making it far easier for a control
ler to identify which plane is which. And the cameras don't just have to go in a tower configuration. They can be distributed
anywhere around the airfield, providing views at ground
level during low clouds, or even allowing the
air traffic controller to effectively see through buildings. - Controllers can jump electronically, two or three kilometers along
the surface of the airport, instantly see objects that are
hidden by a terminal building as if they were right beneath
the air traffic control
tower. - [Narrator] Once you
have cameras everywhere, the video can also be sent to
machine learning algorithms, like this one being developed by Canadian Airport
Technology firm, Searidge. Here, an AI model is
using visual processing to identify the support
vehicles around the aircraft, like stairs and baggage trolleys, and can instantly determine whether they're in place quickly enough for the plane to make its next departure, something that's currently
estimated by ground staff. While turnar
ound speed may not be a huge deal for passengers, for airlines, it's big business. After all, planes that aren't
flying don't make money. A Boeing study found that
if you take 25 minutes to turn around a 500 mile
flight, instead of 35 minutes, you could squeeze in almost
200 extra flights in a year. The software is also capable of identifying when an airplane
has safely left the runway, even in low visibility, allowing aircraft to
continue to take off and land with high frequency in low cloud, a
nd potentially reducing near misses. - An AI will happily monitor a wide range of things simultaneously, whereas a human has to focus on particular areas one at a time. So going from a human
scan around an airport to AI being kind of omnipresent
in terms of its monitoring, I think is a real bonus, because you then provide the
controller with more headspace to do the decision making. - [Narrator] Now, while this technology may seem somewhat futuristic, aspects of it are already in use today. If y
ou've ever landed at
London City Airport in the UK, you may have assumed that this traditional control
tower-looking building was where the air traffic controllers sit. But there're actually in a
digital tower over 70 miles away in this building near South Hampton, viewing cameras from atop this tower adjacent to the airport's runway. And in Norway, this digital tower hub, run by airport group, Avinor, is being used to provide
remote air traffic services to nine airports across the country and i
s set to expand to 21
by the end of the decade, with controllers able to handle traffic at up to three airports
from the same workstation. Digital towers could also solve one major headache for airports, having to move their towers. See, as air traffic continues
to grow and airports expand, existing towers often end
up in the wrong place, and moving them isn't exactly cheap. When Heathrow began plans to
build a new terminal over here, the old air traffic control tower, which was previously right
in the middle of the airport, was now over a mile away
from the new terminal. - The view direct from that
air traffic control tower was not sufficient to be
able to see terminal five, let alone the operations around it. - [Narrator] A decision was
made to build a brand new tower in the new middle of the airport at a cost of 50 million pounds, which back in the year 2000,
was around $80 million. But a digital tower could
have removed the need for Heathrow to move its tower at all. - A lot of air
traffic control towers are end of life for
airports who are expanding, and therefore, they need new
air traffic control facilities. A digital tower, you could do for
significantly less than that. - [Narrator] And that's an
issue some American airports are facing right now. In a recent report, the FAA identified 31 towers across the US that are functioning beyond
their intended design life. So, could digital towers be the answer? Well, the US was at one point
testing two remote towers in Colorad
o and Virginia, but they've both recently
ceased operations, and the FAA has instead
launched a pilot program to test virtual tower technology that could be rolled out across America. But for now, while digital towers are
going online around the globe, they remain uncertified in America, and it's set to be over three years before any remote tower
system gets the green light, which may help explain why the FAA's plan for those 31 sites is to
set $500 million aside to aid the construction of
new b
rick and mortar towers. So for now, at least, it seems like the iconic
air traffic control tower will continue to be a staple
for many American airports. But if this technology
becomes certified in the US, could it spell the end
of the airport tower, or even the end of the
air traffic controller? Well, in Norway, the company running the
Digital Tower Center said that while its remote towers aren't a downsizing process, they acknowledge that not
everybody will be able to relocate from far-flung a
irfields to their Remote Tower Center. And while AI may be to provide more and more information to the controller, Searidge say their technology is not a replacement for human control. - We'll have to see as
AI capability increases, but there is a real opportunity
to support operations now. There is a global shortage
of air traffic controllers, so actually being able
to be more efficient with our use of that finite
resource is quite important. (bright music)
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