Glasgow Airport Living Lab Digital Twin Competition

Glasgow Airport’s Living Lab Digital Twin Competition is a strategic initiative funded to facilitate the development of digital twin technology solutions specifically tailored for the aviation sector. The programme is intended to catalyse innovation and foster the integration of digital twins into the aviation industry, with an emphasis on enhancing operations at Glasgow Airport.

Connected Places Catapult is spearheading this programme with the goal of overcoming the challenges that businesses face in creating and integrating digital twin technologies in aviation. This effort is aligned with promoting innovative solutions and providing support to help these businesses bring their digital twin solutions to market.

The opportunity The aim of the Glasgow Airport Living Lab Digital Twin Competition is to showcase how existing digital twin solutions can address specific aviation-related challenges.

In Phase One, up to five successful organisations will have the chance to present their digital twin concepts at Glasgow Airport where they can showcase how their technology can be applied to the challenges above, accessing up to £3,000 in funding.

Following an assessment of the showcase, one organisation will be chosen to advance to Phase Two to further develop and implement their digital twin technologies in a live aviation environment at Glasgow Airport, accessing up to £70,000 in funding.

Programme challenges outlined

1: Asset replacement To enhance decision making for Airports, we need a deeper understanding of the asset lifecycle.

Airports have complex and dynamic surface usage patterns that involve multiple types of aircraft, varying traffic volumes and different operational activities.

Sophisticated data analytics techniques are needed to analyse and interpret patterns to set priorities for replacing pavement assets. The main goal of this challenge is to develop a methodology for identifying optimal pavement replacement priorities at airports, ensuring a balance of safety, operational efficiency, and cost-effectiveness.

This challenge also aims to uncover how we can support Glasgow airport to monitor other assets such as vehicles and lighting, understanding how your proposed solution can increase asset resilience, climate resilience and improved HSE, within the envelope of a sustainable business model. 2: Passenger movement Passenger capacity is set to increase at Glasgow Airport, bringing with it the same pressures many airports face, such as limited terminal and gate infrastructure space.

Expanding infrastructure to accommodate increasing passenger numbers may be costly and subject to space limitations, especially in urban areas.

This challenge focuses on how we can maximise the capacity of the existing terminal at Glasgow, improving their journey experience, and how the digital solution would integrate with the current infrastructure and systems at the airport, achieving dynamic planning.

The aim of this challenge is to better observe, forecast and influence passenger footfall to inform better decision making of end-to-end journeys in airports

The proposed solution must also factor in the potential for future airport expansions. Passenger capacity is set to increase at Glasgow Airport, bringing with it the same pressures many airports face, such as limited terminal and gate infrastructure space. 3: Energy management Energy management in airports presents several challenges due to the complex and multifaceted nature of airport operations, and with the addition of new forms of transport such as eVTOL aircraft, this issue will only grow with time.

Due to the potential for new EV based transport, this will present new and unique challenges energy management due to their novel propulsion systems and operational characteristics.

This challenge aims to understand the impact on energy supply and operational capacity of eVTOL operation within an airport operation by observing the current energy management models.

Learnings from this challenge should include how we might reduce energy consumption and operational costs through an accurate representation and modelling of the system, to accommodate for future operations.

Alongside this, how can we observe the introduction and rolling out of EV charging on landside (and/or airside), to understand the impact on energy supply and demand (specifically carbon monitoring, cost models).

Eligibility To be eligible, applicants must:

• Be a UK-registered business.
• Present an innovation solution at or above TRL (Technology Readiness Level) 5.
• Address one of the specified challenge areas.
• Be prepared to travel to Glasgow as required.

Selection timeline 8 February Applications open 20 February Application support webinar 7 March Competition closes March Shortlist for interview April Successful applicants notified early June Phase 1 showcase event at Glasgow Airport One organisation will be selected for the full-scale development and implementation of a digital twin solution for Phase Two, details to follow.

How to apply  Please apply here  Applications close 7 March 2024.

Application support webinar Connected Places Catapult is holding a support webinar on Tuesday 20 February to provide all the information you need to apply for this innovative programme. Register for the Application support webinar If you have any questions about the programme and application, please contact: Anna Kerr, Innovation Funding Officer, Connected Places Catapult, anna.kerr@cp.catapult.org.uk