Over the last several weeks “Dusty” has been cutting the grass at Atlantic City International Airport while nearby, one of Dusty’s coworkers scoops up anything that could be hazardous that appears on the runway. All this while another coworker scans for any security threats.
Tasks often performed by humans are now being done by a set of autonomous vehicles that are part of a $2.24 million federally-funded pilot project.
The Federal Aviation Administration hopes these self-guided robots can take over some of an airport’s most routine jobs. The program is being done through a partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration, Atlantic City International Airport and the National Aerospace Research and Technology Park, an aviation-centered facility that opened in Atlantic County in 2019.
The vehicles could one day help limit ground stops and make runways safer, said Chris Seher, director of Aviation Security and Safety with Applied Research Associates, which has an office at the tech park in Egg Harbor Township.
“That’s the goal here, to get these robots to demonstrate they’re safe enough that airports can use tax dollars to invest in buying robots,” Seher said.
COAST Autonomous, the company leading the pilot program, said once it is finished, a report will be presented to the FAA. The vehicles have already trialed at airports in Texas and Michigan.
“Warfighters shouldn’t be out there spending their time doing these mundane tasks that can be better done by robots,” said David Hickey, the company’s chairman and CEO. “You have a base, and, just like an airfield, you have to take care of the grass, you have to take care of perimeter security and you have to take care of (debris).”
Testing autonomous equipment is being done mostly in more remote areas of airports, according to a May memo from the FAA.
“These areas are viewed as safer environments for exploring this technology because they offer a more controlled, less-congested, and low-speed environment for testing, which will reduce the risk of accidents or incidents involving these vehicles,” according to the memo.
“The goal is to modernize the ground operations of an airport environment,” said Rocco Mancuso, National Aerospace Research and Technology Park’s operations director. “You see the air traffic control system being updated. This is a component that needs to be updated at the airport for safety and efficiency.”
After the tests are completed at Atlantic City’s airport, the robots won’t travel far, relocating to the FAA’s National Airport Pavement & Materials Research Center in Egg Harbor Township. There, they will be placed in a more open environment to study their interactions with people and other equipment.
The move, Seher said, helps show federal officials the robots’ flexibility when deployed to different areas of an airport.
“It was demonstrating we could quickly, and within one day, move them to a site that they had never been before, never mapped it before and get it up and running,” Seher said.
Stories by Eric Conklin
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Eric Conklin may be reached at econklin@njadvancemedia.com.