AI (artificial intelligence) is one of those terms that everyone seems to have in their heads these days.
AI is often defined as the machine intelligence capabilities. Some might say that AI is just a set of rules for machines that behave in one way or another based on another set of possible inputs. If this were the case, AI would have been around for a long time. As we manage to group more rules and cover more and more inputs, AI becomes more and more adept. However, the application of concepts such as deep learning allows machines to learn or adapt on their own to new situations. This has been made possible (and is being driven) by the growing power of silicon electronics and the ability to collect vast amounts of data for computers to process, analyse and categorise.
As much as it may hurt our human pride, machines are better than us.
The applications of this concept are limitless. Driverless cars, personal assistants, automated investment banking and assisted medical diagnostics - these are just some of the many applications that these new developments currently enable, or will soon enable. So the question is: how (or rather, when) will this be applied to aviation?
Aviation is one of the most strictly regulated sectors in the world. This is mainly for safety reasons. The history of aviation has been built on a foundation of countless accidents, which have led to the creation of rigid sets of rules that have contributed across the industry to providing the safest form of transport per kilometre travelled. Aviation accidents are few and far between and, year after year, they become more infrequent, even if they always make the headlines.
Some degrees of automation have undoubtedly allowed aviation to be where it is today. However, human intervention and control have always underpinned all this, from pilots to air traffic controllers. Yet this is bound to change.
Driverless cars seem to be just around the corner. If a car can drive itself around other vehicles, pedestrians and other stationary and moving objects, what will stop aircraft from flying without a pilot? Air freight seems to be the obvious entry point for such aircraft, just as driverless trucks are about to revolutionise the ground transport sector.
The A-SMGCS (Advanced Surface Motion Guidance and Control System) A-SMGCS is a relatively unfamiliar concept, now being introduced at some major airports around the world. A-SMGCS works by feeding all kinds of information from many different sources into a system that can make sense of all that data and help controllers guide aircraft overhead. Wherever this system has been implemented, it has already there is a basis for the AI to control surface movements.
The catalyst for change The paradigm shift in aviation from human to machine control should be what has made flying reliable throughout history: SAFETY. As much as it may hurt our human pride, machines are better than us and will become even better at many mundane and not so mundane tasks. It's only a matter of time until we can build autonomous systems that can fly us from A to B. By the time we do, flying will be safer, faster and more efficient, and we will all be able to enjoy it.
