Certiflight continues to take steps in its validation plan to demonstrate the viability of its technology in different use cases. The goal is to prove to stakeholders the importance of the project to ensure safety, transparency, and traceability in the use of aircrafts for security purposes. Certiflight works to facilitate the integration of drones in environments such as airports, industrial or commercial.
On this occasion, the project has carried out tests for the validation plan airport inspection scenario, exploiting the payload data sync and smart contract features. The tests were carried out in Grottaglie, Italy, at the end of 2024. This is the fifth validation scenario to be tested, following the tests on volume calculation scenario, powerline inspection, agricultural applications, and monitoring activities.
Inspections of airport facilities and maintenance operations cover various physical and infrastructure elements such as pavement, runway striping, runway safety zones, visual aids for pilots, wind direction indicators and potential obstacles. Each component must be meticulously examined to ensure that the airport operates safely and efficiently. The primary goal of airport maintenance operations is to uphold the integrity of the infrastructure and ensure the safety of flight operations.
In this complex scenario, Certiflight was used during the test to support the ADI (Airfield Duty Inspector) Service. The operation was conducted in strict coordination with control tower ensuring the respect airport operations and safety. The inspection was carried out in two phases:
- Inspection of the runway to visually check for the presence of FOD (Foreign Object Debris).
- Inspection of equipment such as PAPI lights and the instrument landing system (ILS).
Conclusions
In the words of the Certiflight Project Coordinator:
The airport test case is one of the most challenging and exciting validation scenarios in the project. Ensuring the reliability of positioning is crucial to harness the potential of drones within the airport environment, aiming to fully autonomous facility inspections.
Francesco Russo
About the Certiflight validation campaign
For more information about the Certiflight validation camapaign, please visit the Validation page.