Wednesday, January 31, 2024
Changi Airport Group (CAG) and Aurrigo International plc (Aurrigo) have joined forces to evaluate the latest iteration of their electric-powered autonomous vehicle, the Auto-DollyTug®, at Changi Airport.
This advanced version of Auto-DollyTug® boasts enhanced ground handling capabilities, increased maneuverability, and will undergo various scenarios to gauge its efficiency and speed in aircraft turnaround times.
The latest Auto-DollyTug® seamlessly combines the functionalities of a baggage tractor and an airport dolly with unit load device (ULD) carrying capacity. Notably, it can rotate within its own length and utilize a groundbreaking sideways drive system, enabling lateral movement and adept maneuvering into tight spaces. This innovative feature ensures the swift delivery of a single ULD, even in the presence of other ground support equipment (GSE) around the aircraft.
In a groundbreaking move for the industry, the new Auto-DollyTug® incorporates Aurrigo’s auto-loading and release management system. This system integrates bi-directional robotic arms into the vehicle, allowing it to autonomously load and unload the ULD from itself.
Professor David Keene, Chief Executive Officer at Aurrigo, explained, “Auto-DollyTug® is the result of clean sheet of paper thinking, as we didn’t just want a modified conventional tractor that could tow some dollies to an area near the aircraft without a driver. Our technology can not only carry a ULD on its body, which maximises carrying capacity without increasing the length of the train, it can also autonomously transfer that ULD directly on to a JCPL or High Loader.”
He continued, “This level of capability has been made possible by designing a vehicle to be electric and autonomous from day one. We have never built a diesel-powered airport vehicle so we don’t have to work around the compromises of a legacy GSE vehicle product. This 3rd generation of the Auto-DollyTug® has been designed to incorporate the experience we have gained from the extensive airside testing already carried out with our 2nd generation vehicle at Changi Airport.
Previous iterations of Auto-DollyTug® have undergone trials at Singapore Changi Airport since February 2022, allowing Aurrigo to deploy its vehicles in a live airside environment. This testing phase facilitated pushing the technological limits in the challenging hot and humid climate of Changi Airport, marked by frequent extreme rain events during airside operations (details in Annex).
Ms Poh Li San, Senior Vice President, Terminal 5 Specialised Systems at Changi Airport Group, added her support, “Changi Airport is exploring the use of different vehicles across the airport, especially to automate airside operations.”
“The latest Auto-DollyTug® has made its airside debut at our airport and we look forward to studying how it handles the challenges of a dynamic airport environment.”
Sunday, April 28, 2024
Sunday, April 28, 2024
Sunday, April 28, 2024
