According to AIR Wise, NATS ( the UK air traffic management company) is putting AI (Artificial Intelligence) to a test at Heathrow Airport on London. It is to help recoverability loss due to poor visibility. They are utilizing both AI technology and high description photographic equipment at NAT’S Digital Tower Laboratory at Heathrow to do an experiment, whether they can make the airport’s landing ability better when the visibility is very low.
Heathrow control tower is over 280 feet tall and one can see the airport in plain sight, however, it also makes it difficult for them to see outside when the clouds are very low. Air traffic controllers check if the airplane has landed and the runway is clear for the next airplane to land, by using ground radar when the visibility is low. Using a ground radar takes more time, and this will lead to delays of many flights.
NATS assumes that introducing AI technology will solve this problem because an AI platform can clarify the images and send information about each airplane to the air traffic controllers, including when an airplane has cleared the runway (AIR Wise, 2019).
I think relying everything on AI in the aviation industry would not be a good idea, because there are some things which cannot be done by AI, such as making decisions when there is an emergency. When there is an irregular problem during the flight, AI would not be able to make the best decision because AI’s knowledge is based on data. However, I think using AI as a tool will allow air traffic controllers to communicate with pilots more effectively. They will probably have extra time to reconfirm the instructions they will be given to pilots, and the instructions would be more accurate. It will then give pilots a sense of safety. Most of all, it will gradually decrease the number of accidents.
Reference
AIR Wise (2019). Nats using ai at heathrow to combat visibility issues. Retrieved January 24, 2019, from https://news.airwise.com/story/nats-using-ai-at-heathrow-to-combat-visibility-issues