Supervising Automated Operations with an intelligent data platform

Daan Boot - Strategy and Innovation Manager

Daan works at Chapter Lead Intelligence in the Autonomous Operations team within Schiphol’s central innovation department. Together with the team Daan works on realizing Schiphol’s ambitious of an autonomous airside by 2050 to solve some of the biggest challenges the airport industry is facing. He is passionate about using data and technology to make the airport more sustainable and better place to work.

1. Introduction and Background

• Could you provide some background on Schiphol Airport's interest in using autonomous systems like shuttles to optimize operations?

The use of autonomous systems is driven by two main challenges we face at the airport; the tight labor market, and our ambition to improve the working environment of everyone working at the airport. For bus drivers in particular we have seen a shortage for a while, therefore it made a lot of sense to start looking into the possibility of implementing autonomous shuttles.

• What were the initial goals of the project with Heex Technologies in terms of operational and safety improvements?

Because it is essential to ensure safe operations of autonomous vehicles, but also a smooth and efficient way of scaling up autonomous operations once they have proven to be safe, it is important to collect relevant data related to autonomous operations. One of the main goals was to automatically tag (potentially) inappropriate behaviors of the autonomous shuttle. Heex makes the specific data available for assessment of the behaviour of the autonomous vehicle and allows us to make technical or operational adjustments if needed.

2. Heex Technologies’ Contribution

• Can you explain how Heex Technologies' Smart-Data Management Platform helps supervise autonomous operations at Schiphol?

The Heex platform helps by providing an easy to use interface that we can set-up to monitor autonomous operations. Apart from the user friendliness a big benefit we identified was also the more sustainable approach the platform takes - by focussing on events rather than having to go through the full set of data.

• How does Heex’s event-based approach add value compared to traditional data collection systems?

With easy to set up triggers we are able to only select the data relevant to us. Based on a set of triggers we get an output of certain events and for each of these events we can see the data as specified, making sure that we only retrieve relevant data instead of an enormous set of data.

3. Pilot Project Experience

• What were the key outcomes of the pilot phase in terms of technology and data management?

During our pilot we validated that the system can easily be used to set up triggers and data flows easily into the system once properly set up. An important learning is that the value of the platform is obviously also linked to the value that goes into the platform, it is therefore important to create clear agreements with autonomous system providers to share the right data.

• What challenges did you face with data sharing from the autonomous system provider, and how did it impact the project’s goals?

We had clear agreements with Heex on how data would be handled, what data should flow in the system, and how we can do this in a safe and secure way. But since we already started our collaboration with our autonomous system provider, we unfortunately did not have any prior agreements in place on what data we need to receive from them. We realized it is important to also make agreements with these parties beforehand. Because we did not have this in place, a lot of collaboration was needed on this topic in a period where the main focus was on keeping the operational tests running.

Autonomous shuttle operating at Schiphol Airport

4. Challenges with AV Provider Cooperation

• Could you briefly explain the key data-sharing limitations posed by the AV provider, and how they affected monitoring and safety validation?

Access to crucial data sources is essential for effective monitoring of operational performance and ensuring system safety. During the project, we encountered some data-sharing challenges in accessing too few data sources that affected real-time performance tracking and system safety assessments. To address this, we focused on enhancing collaboration among technology partners and prioritized the establishment of clear data-sharing agreements early on. This approach helped to align expectations, streamline the implementation process, and ensure all stakeholders were well-prepared for Schiphol requirements for automated operations projects. 

5. Lessons learned: The Data Sharing Agreement

• What are the main elements of the Data Sharing Agreement that ensure Schiphol can access the necessary data while respecting the provider’s IP?

Heex has helped us draft a Data Sharing Agreement that can be shared with future providers of autonomous systems. This agreement makes sure we know the provider can and is willing to share the relevant data.

• How does this agreement improve Schiphol’s ability to monitor operational and safety KPIs?

The agreement makes sure that all relevant data is safely shared, in a secure manner,  that is needed to effectively monitor operational performance and safety of autonomous systems.

6. Benefits and Future Outlook

• How does having an effective data-sharing framework benefit Schiphol’s operations and safety monitoring moving forward?

Having an effective data-sharing framework allows us to pick the right providers, and when technologies are implemented, we know that the data being shared will allow us to monitor operations to ensure safe and efficient operations.

• What lessons from this project can be applied to future autonomous systems at Schiphol and beyond?

At Schiphol we believe that autonomous technologies require an “autonomous foundation”, a set of technologies, systems, governance, and more that facilitate the efficient and effective implementation and operation of autonomous technologies. It is important that new autonomous systems fit within this foundation - or are open to adjust so that they will.