Insights/News
Cignus awarded NASA SBIR Phase I Project for Airport Safety Digital Twin
August 15, 2024
NASA selected Cignus to develop a prototype Airport Safety Digital Twin under the SBIR Phase I program - the foundation of an AWS-based platform for real-time risk monitoring at U.S. airports.
Cignus Consulting has been awarded a NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I contract to develop a prototype Airport Safety Digital Twin. This project represents a significant milestone in the application of digital twin technology to aviation safety, combining cloud-native architecture, artificial intelligence, and immersive 3D visualization to create a real-time decision-support platform for airport operators.
The Airport Safety Digital Twin integrates diverse airport data sources - including ATC surveillance, weather, NOTAMs, and surface movement data - into a unified AWS-based platform that uses AI and machine learning algorithms for safety risk analysis, alerting, and prediction. The system provides airport safety officers and air traffic managers with comprehensive situational awareness through custom dashboards and a Cesium-based 3D visualization engine.
Key innovation areas include advanced aircraft conformance monitoring using Natural Language Processing (NLP) to analyze ATC/pilot voice communications, predictive safety analytics that identify emerging risk patterns before they develop into incidents, and an interactive digital twin environment that allows stakeholders to visualize and explore airport operations in real time.
"We are excited to work with NASA on advancing the state of the art in airport safety technology," said Dr. Florian Hafner, CEO of Cignus. "Digital twin platforms have the potential to fundamentally transform how airports monitor, predict, and manage operational safety risks."